Confession: I like my Soviet Leica clones ;)

[wlaidlaw]

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It is myth among theoretical forum users.

Again, I wrote many times and Brian S and his followers like me did it many times.

FSU lenses are perfectly fine and most are easelly adaptable for M and LTM Leicas.

 

The faster and longer lenses 35mm upwards cannot be truly satisfactory, unless expensive alterations are made to the RF cam slope. They just cannot be wholly compatible given that their focusing helicoids are different thread pitches. It is simple mechanics. They can be in perfect focus at certain distances but not at all distances and at smaller apertures, the extended DOF will alleviate the problem, so that on a slower wide angle lens, you might never notice the discrepancy. Here is an article which goes into the issue in more depth with examples. http://www.pdexposures.com/soviet-rangefinder-lenses/

 

The reason that the story about the removal of the Zeiss machinery in 1945 has only partial validity, is that Zeiss helped the Soviets before the war with setting up their lens works in Kharkov in the 1920's and 30's, which made the early FED cameras and their lenses, so it was natural that they would adopt Zeiss standard helicoid threads. 

 

Wilson

[pico]

It is myth among theoretical forum users.

 

That statement is unfathomable. First, what is a theoretical user?

[Ko.Fe.]

The faster and longer lenses 35mm upwards cannot be truly satisfactory, unless expensive alterations are made to the RF cam slope. They just cannot be wholly compatible given that their focusing helicoids are different thread pitches. It is simple mechanics. They can be in perfect focus at certain distances but not at all distances and at smaller apertures, the extended DOF will alleviate the problem, so that on a slower wide angle lens, you might never notice the discrepancy. Here is an article which goes into the issue in more depth with examples. http://www.pdexposures.com/soviet-rangefinder-lenses/

 

The reason that the story about the removal of the Zeiss machinery in 1945 has only partial validity, is that Zeiss helped the Soviets before the war with setting up their lens works in Kharkov in the 1920's and 30's, which made the early FED cameras and their lenses, so it was natural that they would adopt Zeiss standard helicoid threads. 

 

Wilson

 

I never done, owned longer than 50mm FSU lenses. They are huge. But even those lenses are in use on Canon LTM cameras, if my memory is correct.

The rest is theoretical exercise and not true in real world photography. Just like any non-Leica service it never costed mutch and it is totally and well documented DIY procedure to get FSU LTM adapted on Leica RF.

 

Here is Jupiter-3 lens, wide open on M-E:

 

And exactly same Jupiter-3 on M3 also wide open:

 

Industar-22 @f5.6 or so on M3:

 

They are all focused where I wanted them to be in focus. But I don't expect them to be ASPH sharp, those are 15-150 USD lenses.

 

 

 

Take it easy, take some pictures...

Edited June 28, 2018 by Ko.Fe.