Noctilux .95 - loose on M to L adapter

[dfsbrn]

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My .95 Noctilux is slightly loose on the lens - adapter side when mounted on (now) four different adapters.  It is side-to-side play but only like a 1mm.  Should I just accept this or keep trying to rebuy different adapters?

 

Thank you

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[jaapv]

What adapter? For which mount? In general, either the original Leica adapters (For the R and L mount) or the Novoflex ones are the best build quality.

[dfsbrn]

Thank you for asking for more clarification.

Leica M - L adapter.  1mm looseness (on all m lenses).  The play is by far the most noticable in the huge .95 noctilux

[jaapv]

I never noticed it. I'll have a look at my Summilux 24 tomorrow;  another hefty  M lens.

[dfsbrn]

Thank you jaapv.  My initial thoughts are that only a big lens that creates a lot of torque makes this noticeable.  My smaller lenses don't budge. 

 

[farnz]

Are you certain that it's the adaptor and not the lens's flange mount itself? 

To hear that your other (lighter) lenses are okay suggests to me that the adapter is probably okay too and that the cantilever load on the flange might have caused it to loosen or deform under load.  I've experienced this with a 90/2 APO-Summicron-M asph on a M240 where the weight of the lens temporarily deformed the mount and let light leak in through the mount.  I managed to use a workaround with a black velvet hair scrunchy to 'shroud' the gap caused by the deformation.  I no longer have that camera or lens.

Just a thought.

Pete.

[dfsbrn]

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Thank you so much! My lighter lenses still will twist that amount, it just requires much more torque. 
 

I am just so puzzled since I’ve tried four different adapters now. The one I have now is tight enough that the twisting doesn’t occur unless I really rack focus to min focus or infinity and it may then twist along with the focuser by about that 1mm. 
 

the 90/2 sits right in between: I would never have noticed it but it does have play. It is just so much lighter and slimmer than the .95 that I wonder if some play isn’t just built into the system and nobody really notices until they put in something stupidly bulky like the .95. 

[farnz]

Something else you might like to consider is that both the adaptor and the lens flange are made of metal, which expands and contracts with temperature.  If your adaptor and flange are different metals (or alloys) then they might expand and contract at a different rate, or by a different amount, and either might make the play seem worse particularly if the ambient temperature changes rapidly.

If it were me and it wasn't causing a problem then I'd probably not worry about it.  The distortion of my 90 Summicron's flange that I mentioned above caused an X-shaped flare pattern if sun was in the right (wrong!) position so I used the scrunchie. 

I use my 50/1 Noctilux on a Leica M-L adaptor with my SL2-S and I haven't noticed play and before I returned it to the wild I used my 50/0.95 Noctilux on my M9-P and M240 without noticing a problem.  I also use my 75/1.25 on my Leica M-L adaptor and SL2-S without a problem and, owing to its weight, I would expect the 75 Noctilux to exert more force on the adaptor than a 50 Noctilux.

Pete.

[farnz]

It might be designed this way to allow some tolerance for thermal expansion and contraction to avoid physical damage.  (Just a guess.)

Pete.