Voigtlander Prominent to Leica-M adapter?

[Melb Skopar]

Hi All,

I absolutely love my 1950's Color Skopar lens on a Vitomatic. (I promise to post some pics in the gallery soon!!)

But I'm looking at how to get those great 50's Voigtlander lenses onto a more modern camera body. (I don't want to use the unwieldy Prominent). You can get these great lenses for much less than $100 each... mmmmm

The bodies I'm most keen on are: Hexar RF and Cosina Voigtlander Bessa. (I guess that for future lens options, I'd prefer a Leica M-mount lens body rather than ContaxRF mount.)

Thanks to this forum, it seems like there is a Voigtlander Prominent lens (1950's) to Leica-M adapter.

See the links below - it is attached to an Epson DR-1, which indeed has a Leica M fitting.

http://www.shingai.com/r-d1/file/html/P1010344.html

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/for...zy+Leica-M+Voigtlander+Prominent+adapter+page

Now, from my reading on Prominent adapters, I have only come up with two options (from Cameraquest and others): a Prominent to ContaxRF mount and a Prominent to NikonRF mount adapter, which VC has been making since 2003.
Also, this info says that the adapters only work on 50mm lenses (ie Nokton 50/1.5 and Ultron 50/2)

Does anyone have info on the adapter in the photo (ie to Leica M)??

And why won't such an adapter work on, say, the 35mm/3.5 Skoparon wide-angle. Since the Prominent camera had interchangeable lenses, surely the mount would be the same...

The last point is: since the old Prominent focuses via the much-maligned focus knob on the left side of THE CAMERA BODY, not the lens, how on earth do you focus the Nokton when it's fitted to an adapter like that????

Is there great knowledge from you peoples out there?????

Cheers,
Dan

 

[sychan]

The adapters have been sold by Arsenal in Germany, for $250 euros. I've been resisting the urge to pick one up for my original prominent Nokton. If you like these lenses, it is certainly a lot cheaper than getting the conversions that Kevin Camera charges $1000 for.

 

[furcafe]

I have both the CV Prominent-to-Contax RF adapter & the Prominent-to-LTM adapter sold by Arsenall. The 1 sold by Arsenall is not very well made; it works as far as I can tell, but is way overpriced given the quality of the materials & workmanship (I bought mine in a fit of G.A.S. madness). Although the pix are small, the (Japanese?) adapter pictured on the shingai.com R-D1 page appears to be much better constructed. The CV adapter for the Contax RF could also be considered overpriced, as it doesn't even need to have a focus helical, but @ least it's well-constructed.

 

[sychan]

I picked up one of the "clones" of the Prominent -> Contax adapters off EBay from foto-hobby and it seems to work well enough. It is just machined aluminum, so it probably less durable than what CameraQuest is selling, but they seem to be going for about $35 nowdays on EBay.

 

[raid]

This is very cheap. In 2019, the cost exceeds $200.

 

[Beemermark]

I have an adapter that allows the original Voigtander Prominent Nokton lens to Leica M. No longer have the lens or Prominent body. Allows rangefinder focusing. I tried to sell it here once but most buyers thought it was only worth $30 so I withdrew it. I paid around $200. Worked great.

 

[someonenameddavid]

Hi All,

I absolutely love my 1950's Color Skopar lens on a Vitomatic. (I promise to post some pics in the gallery soon!!)

But I'm looking at how to get those great 50's Voigtlander lenses onto a more modern camera body. (I don't want to use the unwieldy Prominent). You can get these great lenses for much less than $100 each... mmmmm

The bodies I'm most keen on are: Hexar RF and Cosina Voigtlander Bessa. (I guess that for future lens options, I'd prefer a Leica M-mount lens body rather than ContaxRF mount.)

Thanks to this forum, it seems like there is a Voigtlander Prominent lens (1950's) to Leica-M adapter.

See the links below - it is attached to an Epson DR-1, which indeed has a Leica M fitting.

http://www.shingai.com/r-d1/file/html/P1010344.html

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/for...zy+Leica-M+Voigtlander+Prominent+adapter+page

Now, from my reading on Prominent adapters, I have only come up with two options (from Cameraquest and others): a Prominent to ContaxRF mount and a Prominent to NikonRF mount adapter, which VC has been making since 2003.
Also, this info says that the adapters only work on 50mm lenses (ie Nokton 50/1.5 and Ultron 50/2)

Does anyone have info on the adapter in the photo (ie to Leica M)??

And why won't such an adapter work on, say, the 35mm/3.5 Skoparon wide-angle. Since the Prominent camera had interchangeable lenses, surely the mount would be the same...

The last point is: since the old Prominent focuses via the much-maligned focus knob on the left side of THE CAMERA BODY, not the lens, how on earth do you focus the Nokton when it's fitted to an adapter like that????

Is there great knowledge from you peoples out there?????

Cheers,
Dan

Dan, you are using modern logic about 1950s Voigtlander...

The other lenses fit on an exterior quasi bayonet which has four slotted pegs. They are sprung loaded to stay in firm contact with the inner moving cylinder which moves in conjunction with the compur shutter. In order to keep in synchronization with the coupled rangefinder, each of the non 50mm lenses has a collar around the rear opening which has an internal cam (or track that compensates for the differing focal lengths. This limits the maximum aperture of long focal lengths. It also means that the wide has to be retrofocus. They would have done better to design a camera from scratch rather than cut corners. It's a red hot mess. If they had gone to a focal plane , pentaprism slr instead of a leaf shutter mess, well.....