Was my lens custom fitted?

[jcline]

I've got an industar-50 from the bay recently and it appears as if it screws a little to far into the body of my Bessa R. So far that it maybe the infinity lock that stops me from screwing it in any farther. Anyone know if perhaps I've got a lens that been custom fitted to another camera? I'll take a couple of pictures and post later see if anyone can make any sense of it.

--J

 

[FrankS]

It's not a custom job. It is known that some collapsible lense's infinity lock tab thingies interfere with proper mounting on some cameras, jsut like you are experiencing.

 

[Kim Coxon]

The easy solution is to remove the lock. Take the screw out from the back and be careful not to lose the spring. Put all 3 parts in a safe place and you can always put it back on if you need to use it on a different camera.

 

[jcline]

Have a peak

Have a peak

Does this seem correct? I would understand if I was using a flat adapter. I could have sworn I've seen one of these on a bessa before without the problem. Of particular interest is where the infinity lock sits. Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[Nickfed]

I see the lens is not locked on innfinity but you make no comment about that. Are you concerned about:

the position of the inifinty lock?

or

are you not able to engage the ininity lock?

If the former, there is no indication of the lens screwing in too far. The only thing that is indicated is that the start of the thread is not where Voigtlander thinks it should be. This means nothing - indeed I suspect it is 110% normal and, if you go out and take some pictures, you will probably find there is nothing to worry about.

If the latter, you have either the wrong camera or the wrong lens. If the lens flange is too flush with the body, I doubt any Elmar-type collapsible, from anybody, will lock on infinity. If the flange is proud of the body, it may still not be proud enough but you may find that that a FED f3.5 will be OK. There was some discussion on this a few weeks ago here.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13674


There was also somewhere a note about a collapsible on a Bessa of some sort. An O-ring was used to stop it fouling the exposure sensor. I'm afraid I don't know what the lens was.

 

[Kim Coxon]

As is usual with the FSU lenses, they are many incarnations of the I22 and I50. The one you have is likely to be one of the earlier ones. I believe later ones had a modified mount which got round this problem. It may well have ben one of those that you saw on a Bessa.

Kim

Does this seem correct? I would understand if I was using a flat adapter. I could have sworn I've seen one of these on a bessa before without the problem. Of particular interest is where the infinity lock sits. Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[jcline]

I think we're looking at the first problem... sounds like its time to pull the knob off the lock and shoot a roll and see how things turn out. A little bummed this didn't work out smoothly. I've definitely considered other FSU lenses but perhaps I just need a FSU camera to go with them 😛

I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

--J

 

[Kim Coxon]

This is about the only one with a lock so there shouldn't be a problem elsewhere. Many of the lenses work very well with the Bessa but you do have to be carefull with collimation problems on the J3 and J9. when I sold my Bessa R it went with a J3 and the buyer has been delighted with the combination.

 

[FrankS]

My collapsible FSU 50mm lens is from a FED, and known as an I-10. It does fit perfectly on the Bessa R I had, and now on my Leica M bodies and a IIIa.

 

[Kragmeister]

You might want to have a look at this thread:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12892

In short, to use a collapsible on my Bessa-R I had to buy a FED 50mm f3.5 lens which uses a different sort of infinity lock.

Later,
Greg