Pentax to Leica M

[bonjac]

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Does anyone know if there is an adapter to mount a Pentax M42 mount lens to Leica M8.2? I have two of these Pentax lenses and would like to use them on my Leica. Thanks for you help. What a great site. Jack

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[WestMichigan]

Does anyone know if there is an adapter to mount a Pentax M42 mount lens to Leica M8.2? I have two of these Pentax lenses and would like to use them on my Leica. Thanks for you help. What a great site. Jack

 

Shouldn't be much of a problem to round something up which will get the lens affixed to an M8 in a sturdy, light tight manner.

 

Their will be a number of functional obstacles, but two of the main substantive issues are:

1) would be m42 slr lenses and the leica M8 they have different lens flange to film/sensor specifications

2) would be there will be no Rangefinder Coupling soooo all focusing will be the scale focus/guess-o-matic method

 

I wonder if someone somewhere on the internets has written a how-to guide for this?

 

Richard in Michigan

[lct]

Does anyone know if there is an adapter to mount a Pentax M42 mount lens to Leica M8.2?

Novoflex seems to make one. See Novoflex.com, order code: "LEM/CO".

[WestMichigan]

Novoflex seems to make one. See Novoflex.com, order code: "LEM/CO".

 

It would appear that the Novoflex Adapter linked by lct would be exactly what you're in need of. Further! The adapter, by doing so, appears to negate my concerns for the lens flange distance differences causing scale focusing issues and infinity focus issues.

 

RW

[scsambrook]

Hi bonjac!

 

There is another route which may be less costly than the Novoflex gadget - although not quite so convenient . . .

 

Canon once made an adapter to allow using their FL and FD lenses on a Leica screw thread body. I bought one on eBay not very long ago. All you neeed then is their adapter to let you put an M42 lens onto it and a screw-to-bayonet adapter for the M body. I put my three pieces together and haven't taken them apart since. The Canon parts are properly dimensioned and will give you correct infinity focus. I thought I saw a Chinese version of the Fd-Leica adapter recently but based on my experiences with other Chinese adapters for a Lumix, I doubt that it would actually give correct infinity focus.

 

Having said all that, the combo really only works well with wide angle lenses which have plenty of depth of field. Guess-focusing a 135mm lens isn't my best trick !

[doubice]

Pentax used to make an adapter called 'Pentax Lens Adapter B' - it had the correct flange distances to mount a Pentax thread M42 lens to a Leica Thread Mount body. All you have to do is add a Leica Thread to Leica M mount adapter and you're in business. I occasionally use this combination on my M8 with an f:4/17mm SMC Takumar fish eye lens.

 

I would add the same caveat as above - this is only practical with lenses wider than 28mm because accurate focusing will be a problem - there will be no rangefinder coupling. Unless you shoot everything at infinity.......

 

Cheers,

 

Jan

[bonjac]

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Hi, Thanks to all of you for the great advice. I will research all the suggestions. My primary interest is using a Takumar 50/1.8. Not exactly wide angle, but, perhaps with zone focusing, it will work out. Thanks again, folks. What a great site -- especially for a newcomer to RF photography. Jack

[lct]

Your 50 will become a short telephoto on the M8.2 so zone focussing will not be easy with it. FWIW.

[earleygallery]

Your 50 will become a short telephoto on the M8.2 so zone focussing will not be easy with it. FWIW.

 

And a 9cm f4 Elmar will probably cost less than the Pentax adaptor! Or you could buy a separate rangefinder (one of the old Leica ones) to use with the Takumar.

[Ruhayat]

I've been using a Fotodiox one, first on my M6TTL and then the M4-P which replaced it. I wouldn't recommend the Fotodiox - it mounts lenses upside down! - but I would recommend using your m42s on the M (depending on what lenses they are, of course).

 

Pentax Takumar glass on M bodies work very well, but you have to keep it below 35mm focal length (50mm is doable, after some practice) - focusing is by guessing only, but that's where the fun is!

 

Here's the Takumars on the M4-P. You can find a couple other m42 lenses on my Flickr, in the "Gear" folder.

 

A trio of Takumars by Ramayana X., on Flickr

[Ruhayat]

Here's a side view. Takumars on an M look almost exactly like my Nokton 35mm f1.2 and are about as big. But the Takumars are slower, of course - f3.5.

 

You might wonder why bother then, but fast glass is not the be all and end all of photography - there's also something to be said about lens characters. Takumars have a distinctive character that I quite like. Same goes for Russian m42 glass, especially the Carl Zeiss Jena ones.

 

Pentax Super Takumar + M4-P by Ramayana X., on Flickr

[Ruhayat]

And a 9cm f4 Elmar will probably cost less than the Pentax adaptor! Or you could buy a separate rangefinder (one of the old Leica ones) to use with the Takumar.

 

Not really. The Fotodiox PK to LM adapter I bought cost US$20.

[earleygallery]

Another option, buy an old Pentax Spotmatic! They are no bigger/heavier than an M body and you won't have any problem focussing.

 

I don't see the point in making life difficult just for the sake of it.

[wizard]

Pentax used to make an adapter called 'Pentax Lens Adapter B' - it had the correct flange distances to mount a Pentax thread M42 lens to a Leica Thread Mount body. All you have to do is add a Leica Thread to Leica M mount adapter and you're in business. ...

 

Just curious, how does that work? The Pentax thread is M42, and so is larger than the Leica thread, which is M39. So you are adapting a larger mount lens to a smaller diameter. Any vignetting problems?

 

Andy

[iedei]

sell your pentax lenses and get something different!

[doubice]

Just curious, how does that work? The Pentax thread is M42, and so is larger than the Leica thread, which is M39. So you are adapting a larger mount lens to a smaller diameter. Any vignetting problems?

 

Andy

 

Andy,

 

It is actually quite simple.... Leica Thread flange to film plane distance is 28.8mm, Pentax M-42 mount is 45.5. So - imagine a tube that is 16.7mm long and has a male Leica thread on one side and a female M-42 thread on the other side.

 

There are no vignetting problems - don't forget that a part of any SLR lens barrel is taken up by the auto aperture system, so the actual lens optics diameter is about the same as a Leica lens of similar specifications.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with those suggesting to the OP to get a Spotmatic...... Unless there is a Pentax LTM lens that simply does not have an equivalent in the Leica world (i.e. my SMCT 17mm Fish Eye), it is a lot of hassle to guessfocus etc. Been there, done that.....

 

Cheers,

 

Jan

[WestMichigan]

You might wonder why bother then, but fast glass is not the be all and end all of photography - there's also something to be said about lens characters. Takumars have a distinctive character that I quite like. Same goes for Russian m42 glass, especially the Carl Zeiss Jena ones.

 

Uhm....

Maybe your closing sentence is poorly constructed, but as written seems to be a major whoops. I will defer if an expert can speak up, but my understanding is that, in the complicated history of Zeiss, the 'Jena' name plate was for the Post War parts of the company which reconstituted independently in what became East Germany. The Soviet Union did haul off factories and personell, too which seeded the extensive usage of Zeiss designs in the latter half of the ussr.

 

Soooo there is pre-war/wartime Zeiss, Zeiss and Zeiss Jena in West & East Germany, and the 'Zeiss' patent infringements cranked out in the USSR.

 

And yes, I own Zeiss lenses and/or cameras from 3 of the above sources!

 

RLW

[doubice]

There was a pre-WWII Carl Zeiss Jena - an optical manufacturer located in the town of Jena. After the war, the Russians, as part of war reparations, carted off just about the entire factory, including designs and even some designers.

 

All ‘modern’ Russian optics are based on original Carl Zeiss Jena designs - Biotar / Helios, a plethora of Jupiter lenses based on Tessar, Sonnar, Biogon etc.

 

After WWII, Carl Zeiss Jena continued operation as ‘Carl Zeiss Jena’ but, due to litigation eventually had to stop using the name in the western markets. Their lenses simply became known as ‘aus Jena’ - ‘from Jena’. Even the trademarked lenses like Tessar, Biotar etc. became known only by their first letters - so a Tessar from the East German manufacturer thus became a ‘T aus Jena’.

 

Carl Zeiss Oberkochen (Oberkochen being the town where the new Carl Zeiss factory was located) was the West German firm which won the rights to the Tessar, Sonnar, Biogon etc. names and was able to continue using those.

 

Simplified explanation…….

 

Cheers,

 

Jan

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[scsambrook]

I've been using a Fotodiox one, first on my M6TTL and then the M4-P which replaced it. I wouldn't recommend the Fotodiox - it mounts lenses upside down!

 

Hi there Ruhayat!

 

A nuisance about the lenses being upside down ! But do you get correct infinity focus? I've now bought four assorted inexpensive adapters to let me use my screw and M bayonet lenses on a Lumix G1 and none of them are properly dimensioned to give correct focus when lenses are set to infinity. All of them are too "thin" - and by differing amounts!. No problem when focusing with the Lumix viewfinder, but it certainly would be if using the distance scale.

 

As for the upside down problem, I had the same on my Lumix ones for screw lenses. They aren't Fotodiox brand either. Happily, the flanges are retained by a number of small screws which can be loosened off to allow rotating it to get the proper alignment. Maybe yours has the same facility. If so, you will need a very small screwdriver:)

[peterbengtson]

Another option, buy an old Pentax Spotmatic! They are no bigger/heavier than an M body and you won't have any problem focussing.

 

I don't see the point in making life difficult just for the sake of it.

 

or if you want digital buy a Pentax digital with a M42 adapter. Pentax and NIkon both have mounts compatible with their film cameras that allow you to use all you old lenses.