lens question

[morgan]

Sorry, this might seem incredibly newbie, but is a leica thread mount the same as a screw mount? And secondly can I use a screw mount on a Fed (which I know is LTM)? I saw some shots from a Heliar 12 and I have to have one. Can I stick that on a Fed 5 (which I'm getting CLA'd soon I think) or possibly a Fed 3?

 

[back alley]

ltm=leica thread mount=screw mount=m39

 

[pvdhaar]

ltm=leica thread mount=screw mount=m39

Generally correct, though some caveats apply, especially for Soviet cameras. Pre-war FEDs do have a m39 thread, but the lenses and mounts were individually adjusted to achieve correct focus. That means that while mounting is possible, lenses and bodies from that era can not be mixed at random..

 

[ampguy]

there's also a larger screw mount, which I think started on Pentax SLR's dubbed the M42 screw mount and now has adapters for a bunch of slrs. Watch out for these, as they're not interchangeable with ltm/m39.

 

[morgan]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm gonna keep my eyes out for one of those Heliars used. A $600 lens on a $30 camera... 🙂

 

[varjag]

M42 started as East German Contax SLR mount. It was also adopted by Pentax; in fact, "Pentax" was East German trademark as well bought out by the Japanese company.

 

[Macpod]

M42 started as East German Contax SLR mount. It was also adopted by Pentax; in fact, "Pentax" was East German trademark as well bought out by the Japanese company.

take this anecdotally. pentax = pentaprism+contax. pentac been the camera division of asahi heavy industries. and was apparenty considered by nikon before they decided to go with, well.....nikon.

and apparerntly the inventer of the zoom lens was called zoomar, thus the name.

 

[Kim Coxon]

Hmm,
I had heard PENTaprism AsahifleX.

Kim

take this anecdotally. pentax = pentaprism+contax. pentac been the camera division of asahi heavy industries. and was apparenty considered by nikon before they decided to go with, well.....nikon.

and apparerntly the inventer of the zoom lens was called zoomar, thus the name.

 

[ZorkiKat]

The lens mounts of the pre-war FED and many of the early post war ones are not compatible with standard LTM (as defined by Leitz). Issues are: the pitch is different (can damage the threads on either lens or camera or both); non-standard register (many of these FED varied in focal registers/ lens working distances- bottomline, correct focus is not possible); and sometimes the lens camming isn't according to Leica standard. The last issue means that the camera is adjusted to focus with the lens it was issued with. Leitz or even other Soviet LTM won't work with it. It could be adjusted to work with the other lenses, but doing so would make its original lens incompatible.

Jay

 

[varjag]

From CameraQuest website:

Trivia: the 42mm screw SLR lens mount was first introduced on the East German Zeiss Contax SLR of 1949, the first production 35mm SLR with a built in eye level pentaprism. Some believe its production came about a decade later than originally planned, interrupted by WWII. The lens mount was popularized by the Asahi Pentax, which started production in 1957. "Pentax" was originally a camera model in the Asahi lineup before it became the name of the company. Even the "Pentax" name was originally a Zeiss Ikon VEB trademark until bought by Asahi. It was originally derived from "PENTaprism" and "contAX."

 

[rolleistef]

It seems to be the same thing for the east-German maker of the Praktica :
they used Pentaprism Contax as well, but it made the odd sounding PentaCon
(which means "Quintuple Stupid Person" in a quite rude language in French)

 

[vicmortelmans]

I believe some SLR-camera's have existed with M39-mount as well. Of course having their own M39 lenses that won't work on a LTM camera, because of the difference in distance between lens-mount and film.

Wasn't this the early ASAHIflex?

Groeten,

Vic

 

[varjag]

There were M39 Zeint SLRs: Zenit, Zenit S, Kristall, Zenit 3 and 3M, early Zenit E. I think M39 was mostly chosen for production reasons, i.e. KMZ already had the tooling for camera and lens mounts, plus M42 would be harder fit to Zorki body (which were the chassis for Zenits until model E).

 

[comp_wiz101]

I think the early Asahiflex used a 37mm lens mount.

 

[xayraa33]

the tongue shaped focus cam on some m39 tele lenses will not work on most FSU ltm cameras, as these cameras have the pie slice shaped rf cam that will cause the lens to be made unremovable from the camera body.

 

[morgan]

Thanks for the great info. I think I'll seek out a used bessa-r body as well for use with the heliar. I'm in love with the shots I've seen from that lens. I just asked this in the bessa forum, but on the flip side, can I use my industar-61 on a bessa?