M42 Lens on LTM RF?

[comp_wiz101]

Does anyone know of an inexpensive adapter to make up for the lens register distance between l39 and m42, so I can use the cheap and plentiful m42 lenses on my Zorki?

 

[Nickfed]

They are available on eBay. I got one from Oxana in Crimea for about $10. There is also a guy in Macau with them. The latter are better finished but my plain-vanilla tube is fine. Avoid the shark in London. He charges about $150.

 

[comp_wiz101]

Hmm... any Ebay-IDs I can keep an eye out for?

 

[Nickfed]

Just do a trawl. But note that most of them are just rings and are pretty useless. The tube you need is about 17mm flange to flange and is obvious when you see the picture.

 

[comp_wiz101]

Hmmm... I'm going to see how much the local machinist would charge to build an adapter that can make up the 16.66mm flange difference.

 

[lmd91343]

Try kengchu88. He sells jade and lens adapters. He generaly has expensive and inexpensive ones listed for m42. I've never done business with him. I want to get one also.

 

[Nickfed]

Hmmm... I'm going to see how much the local machinist would charge to build an adapter that can make up the 16.66mm flange difference.

Think again, unless you know a retired amateur looking for something to do, or you make regular trips to some handy back-street workshop in Yaounde. Even an outfit deperate for work will charge about $100 for set-up cost. It was quickly apparent that I was wasting my time even though I had rings with the threads already on them, plus a 75mm M39 extension tube I was prepared to sacrifice.

 

[comp_wiz101]

Good point. I'll still see what they think, because the local machinists have done small jobs for me in the past for cheap. They can give me an estimate on the spot.

 

[wotalegend]

I bought one in January for US$15.99 from ebay seller vincent_vango (in Macau). It's nicely made from one piece of metal, painted black with knurled ring on outside edge. I just checked and he still has them listed.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Hrm...a 50mm f/1.4 SMC Takumar on my Canon P...I could definitely dig that. I'm guessing they aren't rangefinder coupled, though.

 

[wotalegend]

Just a straight ring with two threads the required 16.66mm apart. A coupled RF one, if it exists, would be more expensive and would be pretty difficult to make with a ring which moves with focus against the RF cam in the body.

 

[brians]

For the people who own one of these couplers, got any example shots?

An edit:

I guess a problem I have with this is some of the m42 lenses that I enjoy using has a pin in the back for "automatic" metering with no manual setting at all. I think this would be a barrier. Are there any adapters that would address this issue?

 

[Paul Connet]

For the people who own one of these couplers, got any example shots?

An edit:

I guess a problem I have with this is some of the m42 lenses that I enjoy using has a pin in the back for "automatic" metering with no manual setting at all. I think this would be a barrier. Are there any adapters that would address this issue?

Brian, I posted a shot of my FED NKVD with a SMC Takumar 35mm mounted using one of these adapters in the "camera and coffee" thread. This lens has the pin I think you are refering to, and the adapter has clearance for it. My adapter came from the fellow in Macau. It is a bit undersized, (shorter) than it should be, but some home-made paper shims made it quite usable. I will post the picture again here. Photographs using this arrangement are quite acceptable considering you must scale-focus so are better if you use wide angle lenses. 🙄

Regards, Paul C.

 

[Seele]

I guess a problem I have with this is some of the m42 lenses that I enjoy using has a pin in the back for "automatic" metering with no manual setting at all. I think this would be a barrier. Are there any adapters that would address this issue?

I have a couple of these adapters made by Novoflex, one for allowing L39 cameras for taking M42 lenses, and the other Minolta lenses; identical ones are featured in a couple of articles at Cameraquest.

Most of these adapters expect the user to remember to switch the lens iris to fully manual operation, or at least, expect the user to understand why it is necessary. An exception is the one made by Pentacon for allowing M42 lenses to be used on its B-series Prakticas: it has an inner flange which forces the pin at the back to be fully depressed as you screw the lens in, thus making sure that, whether you remember it or not, the diaphragm will indeed work at fully manual mode.