Lens Adapters; Some Better?

waynec

Established
Local time
2:05 PM
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
104
I'm looking to adapt a Minolta lens to my Leica M, and while I've bought other adapters in the past for other bodies, mostly SLR'S, I'm wondering about how much difference there is between the cheaper and more expensive ones spec wise.
 
Let's say: sometimes cheap ones are surprisingly good, but on the other hand, the expensive ones are usually the ones that aren't disappointing.

I guess we're talking about Minolta SR lenses?

In this case you could use Leica's adapter Code no. 22233, originally made for a Leicina model. (The RF-cam will be brought to infinity position, that's the drawback I have encountered so far.)
 
What he said above it seems to be a grab-bag.

For example, Fotodiox is usually my go-to brand when it comes to lens adapters, be it Pentax-K or Tamron Adaptall. I also have a LTM to Micro-4/3rd adapter from them but I found that it was pushing my lens just too much past infinity most notably with my Canon 35mm f/2.8 where I couldn't focus closer than 9 feet. They told me this was by design so that all kinds of lens could achieve infinity.

There was two possible fixes to this, one being to shim it, the other is to try a different adapter. The latter solution worked nearly perfectly for me by getting a Fotasy branded L39/LTM to Micro-4/3rd adapter.

So different brands can have different results, and in my case a cheaper one did what I wanted over a more expensive one. But I would look at Fotodiox for something that's M mount (well anything that's not screw mount) since they tend to be pretty accurate and if they're not, they'll make it work if you don't want to spend much more than 20-30.
 
I bought a used no name M42 to Leica M adapter from KEH. I assume somebody dumped in on them because it was off. KEH is very good with taking care of problems, but I had this for quite a long time before I got around to trying it. At first I thought the distance was just off, but had noticed the lens seemed poorer than I remembered. When I went to shim it, I found that the adapter was not true. I used aluminum foil to shim it, and needed something like 7 or 8 layers in the thinnest spot and only 3 in the thickest.

I'd like to get one from Pentax K also, since the 28/2.8 is such a nice size (my Minolta is the big version), but am not up for another testing/shimming adventure at the moment.
 
Back
Top Bottom