Rollei XF35 - Rangefinder coupled M Mount Conversion

[Techball]

Hi folks,

I’m proud to have made this rangefinder coupled m mount lens. 10 blade iris from eBay is the most expensive part ($12). The design is 3D printed on an Anycubic i3 Mega. I think it’s one of the cleanest conversions outside of MS-Optical, which is my inspiration and goal for the future with custom machining. This is a hobby but I hope I can sell converted lenses in the future as well. Next lens conversion will be a Nikon Action Touch.

Pictures and video:
https://imgur.com/gallery/oNJbUWi

Cheers!

 

[splitimageview]

very cool! Is that just an off the shelf LTM adapter on the back of the lens?

 

[Huss]

Very nicely done! I have a spare Nikkor 35 2.5 from my Nikonos. When I took it out of the waterproof housing I was surprised to see how tiny the lens was.
Perhaps that could be the basis for a future conversion?

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Very nicely done! I have a spare Nikkor 35 2.5 from my Nikonos. When I took it out of the waterproof housing I was surprised to see how tiny the lens was.
Perhaps that could be the basis for a future conversion?

You could get the 3.5cm f/2.5 Nikkor in LTM for not much. You'd have a great lens, and not have to butcher another optic. That particular Nikkor is the one that pulled me away from Leica in 2012.
Phil Forrest

 

[splitimageview]

True, but that Nikkor is a collector lens, the Nikonos lens can be obtained quite cheaply. I paid $10 for mine on ebay, it's perfect. Just waiting to use it on something. 🙂

 

[p.giannakis]

I had one of these:

The lens is really good. Here is one picture taken in low light.

 

[Huss]

True, but that Nikkor is a collector lens, the Nikonos lens can be obtained quite cheaply. I paid $10 for mine on ebay, it's perfect. Just waiting to use it on something. 🙂

Yeah I paid about that for mine. It was a spare, as I wanted to experiment with it and remove the massive front glass filter to see how it would work w/o it w/ regards to lens flare.
To pull out that glass all you have to do is remove the front O-ring. Of course I took apart the whole thing from the back before I figured that out!
Eeesh.
Either way, it works great with that glass removed. And if I am taking pics in bad weather etc, I just use the one that is still sealed up.

 

[Techball]

very cool! Is that just an off the shelf LTM adapter on the back of the lens?

You bet, I 3D printed the rangefinder cam and the holder for a 10 blade iris off eBay. The original lens only had program mode and used a combined aperture and shutter (diamond shaped). The whole thing is then mounted into a ltm to m mount adaptor (makes sense to use something already well manufactured).

 

[Techball]

Very nicely done! I have a spare Nikkor 35 2.5 from my Nikonos. When I took it out of the waterproof housing I was surprised to see how tiny the lens was.
Perhaps that could be the basis for a future conversion?

That sounds like a great lens. I will need to source a cheap copy to play with. 🙂

 

[Techball]

I had one of these:

The lens is really good. Here is one picture taken in low light.

I hear the XF is pretty under valued because of comparison with the older Rollei 35S Sonnar and also the downgrade in construction of the body. Now the lens can have a life of its own. I paid 5 euros for the camera which was already gutted for parts from a old camera store.

 

[fferreres]

Hi folks,

I’m proud to have made this rangefinder coupled m mount lens. 10 blade iris from eBay is the most expensive part ($12). The design is 3D printed on an Anycubic i3 Mega. I think it’s one of the cleanest conversions outside of MS-Optical, which is my inspiration and goal for the future with custom machining. This is a hobby but I hope I can sell converted lenses in the future as well. Next lens conversion will be a Nikon Action Touch.

Pictures and video:
https://imgur.com/gallery/oNJbUWi

Cheers!

What an excellent conversion! Would you mind sharing the 3D file to print and the dimensions or any picture of the iris off ebay? Chances are there may be one exactly the same with the 3D part working. Did you had to solder, cut or weld or is it a largely dissemble and assemble conversion?


I am interested because I have a For Parts XF an I love the Sonnar design, but any 40mm LTM Sonnar will cost an eye, as there was no commercial Sonnar wider than 50mm ever built on scale.

 

[das]

So very cool. Lens conversions to Leica M mount are some of the most exciting things going on right now. A great way to repurpose decent lenses from broken or obsolete cameras. How did you go about getting the film-to-flange distance correct?

 

[raid]

I either still have my XF35 or I sold it for Pennies.
I always liked its lens.

I can see that my Minox GT or similar models could be used as donor cameras for such lens conversions. There was once a thread here at RFF about the Minox lens and converting it ti M. Brian Sweeney once converted a Schneider lens for a Retina camera to M for me. He has done several of such conversions. Thank you Brian!

 

[Retro-Grouch]

Very nicely done! I wouldn't mind having one of these for my CLE. Which begs the question: Which framelines does your conversion bring up?