LTM to M Adapter

[jbl]

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That sounds bad to me. You don't want to lose a lens with one of these third party adapters. I'd go for a Leica, Leitz or Voigtlander adapter to protect your lens investment and peace of mind.

 

I concluded the same, so I got one of the Rayqual adaptors from Stephen Gandy. I (think) these are replacements for the Voigtlanders. They have a small gold section where the six bit code is. I’m trying to figure out if I need to paint the thing white where I don’t need black bits or if the gold is enough to reflect the light back to make the code reader think there’s a code there.

 

Does anyone have any experience with the gold six-bit area?

 

-jbl

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[Erik Gunst Lund]

Over the last weeks I have received LTM Leica M 6-bit adapters from three different ebay sellers, all of them have been cheep metal fakes, not chromium plated brass. Also the end rotation position of the LTM threads have been so much off that they are basically useless.

 

I have now ordered from Metabones, hope they live up to their reputation

[menos I M6]

Over the last weeks I have received LTM Leica M 6-bit adapters from three different ebay sellers, all of them have been cheep metal fakes, not chromium plated brass. Also the end rotation position of the LTM threads have been so much off that they are basically useless.

 

I have now ordered from Metabones, hope they live up to their reputation

 

Erik, try to look for second hand Voigtlander LTM adapters.

Since recently they are unfortunately not sold new anymore and second hand prices have skyrocketed over old NIB prices (but still far off the new Leica adapter prices).

 

They are offered from time to time in the RFF classifieds, while some nice chaps do sell them sensibly priced there, while in other places people try to make a killing.

 

I have personally no experience with the Rayqual adapters Stephen Gandy sells since the Voigtlander ones are not available any longer.

 

My second choice though would be to buy a Leica adapter (they still offer certain types of new stock LTM-M adapters).

The Leica offerings though are triple the price (and same good quality) as the Voigtlander LTM adapters used to be when available new.

 

 

I would never ever buy any of the low price offerings off eBay (saying as a technical inclined person who is based in the source market and could get these crappy adapters at the shop around the corner).

 

Once when I had too much time on my hands, I made the test, took a few fine calibrated, fast LTM lenses (on Leitz and Voigtlander adapters) to the local shops and tried all kinds of these cheap adapters (you can buy at much higher asking prices off eBay).

 

… well - after about the 25th adapter I gave up and concluded that this would be guaranteed too much of a hassle to buy such adapters over the internet, not being able to test them first.

 

None of the adapters had adequate fit and finish to be used with critical lenses (they might work "sort of" with a 35mm Summaron or a 21/4 SA).

Many of them called the wrong frame lines (most of these could be wiggled in the mount to be between the frame lines).

 

Even at the low prices I would get them locally, they are utter rubbish.

A brand that showed especially abysmal results of these was KIPON. Adapters labelled KIPON had really nice finish (also available in matte black chrome finish) but would be off in terms of fit and specs by a mile.

 

Short: other than Leica (or good condition old Leitz) and Voigtlander I consider a gamble.

I would be inclined to trust the Rayqual adaptors Stephen Gandy sells solely based on the assumption that he would know how to pick a supplier.

[Erik Gunst Lund]

Thanks, I have priviusly had very good quality adapters from ebay from one supplier, brass chromium plated perfect fit... well sadly now I will have to agree with your findings... It's not worth it.

 

BTW I was looking especially for 6-bit adapters since machining the 6-bit holes are tiresome... thats why I ended up with Metabones.

[menos I M6]

Erik the 6-bit coding was also exactly my first drive to find adapters ready for simply painting the recesses.

 

After my findings with the low cost adapters (which curiously seem to be the very only ones coming ready to paint) I simply understood (after a while) that chasing to code all lenses is futile.

 

I have a large collection of LTM lenses from diverse manufacturers and simply don't care anymore about coding them.

 

My workflow is now streamlined that I keyword lenses directly with a set of photos.

 

- import all photos from a set into Lightroom

- select metadata

- select all shots with unknown lens

- keyword those shots with: focal length | max aperture | name | serial number

 

After a while doing this, Lightroom has saved all different lenses in a keyword list and simply typing say "50" will bring up all 50mm lenses I ever hacked into Lightroom and I can simply click the correct lens in that list.

This way I have all my uncoded lenses keyword'ed an can even do a quick search of all shots made with an exotic lens without ever having coded it.

 

Really important lenses to code for optical corrections in camera are far in between and I can just about manage to remember selecting a code in camera for these few.

 

Now I found peace of mind that I would never want a 8.5cm f1.5 Sonnar to show up in my catalogue as a 75mm Summilux or a Carl Zeiss Hologon as a 16mm WATE - it just wouldn't be right.

[Erik Gunst Lund]

Thanks for you input! I understand your reasons.

 

I just want the lens to register correctly first time around especially for wide angles, I lke the camera to do the in-camera processing for the best possible file output.

 

I change lenses far too often to remember

 

I have also chipped all of my Nikon manual focus lenses with CPU's from Bjørn Rørslett same reason and far better metering/exposure as well.

[menos I M6]

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Absolutely valid point Erik. I thought I comment just in case your main concern was EXIF data or an archiving need.

 

Now with those Bjørn Rørslett chips you got a bug into my head there, as my Nikon Ai-S curiosity has taken the better of me as per recently. Too bad the lenses I am most interested in are either not modifiable or really hard cases I wouldn't want to dig into for better metering + the Nikon way of doing the lens selection menu beats the Leica digital M way by miles ;-)

Good luck with the Metabones adapters and please share your findings (I hope positive).

[Erik Gunst Lund]

Thanks for your comments!

 

RE CPU in old Nikkors;

I don't think there is a single Nikkor F, Ai or Ais that we have not chipped with a CPU Most difficult was Noct-Nikkor 58mm 1.2 and a 50mm 1.2 Ais... We continue to find 'gems' but of course with an interest/requests for IR and UV photography you need to

If interested feel free to contact me.

 

(BTW not referring to the flimsy Dandelion CPU's)

[james.liam]

Thanks for your comments!

 

RE CPU in old Nikkors;

I don't think there is a single Nikkor F, Ai or Ais that we have not chipped with a CPU Most difficult was Noct-Nikkor 58mm 1.2 and a 50mm 1.2 Ais... We continue to find 'gems' but of course with an interest/requests for IR and UV photography you need to

If interested feel free to contact me.

 

(BTW not referring to the flimsy Dandelion CPU's)

 

I somehow recall you having to grind down the rear element of the NOCT to mount that chip (and still cringe at the thought of that act). Way back before I dropped out of Nikongear because of the irascible Rørslett's habit of letting politics get the better of him, he stopped making the more robust chips. Has he resumed that again?