Leitz Screwmount lenses on Nikon D40 / D70 DSLR Body ???

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Jan 18, 2022

My sister gifted to me Leica iii 1938 body and Elmar 5cm 1938 and I have 1956 Leitz Hektor 13.5.
I am overdosed with poor color film development and poor scanning.
I want to learn , can I use 30 dollars worth of canon , nikon dslr with screwmount leica lens ?
Does the dslr function without its original lens , does it take image with screwmount lens on adapter ?
Which brand is easier to find an adapter ?

Thank you,

Umut
Istanbul

ColdEye · Jan 18, 2022

It will take pictures with an old DSLR, but with a DSLR you will never achieve infinity focus. Adapters will be hard or impossible to find too because the market for LTM to Nikon/Canon/SLRs in general are low. Better to find a cheaper mirror less digital camera. There are a glut of sony, olympus and panasonic. Adapters for them are easier to find for mirrorless.

bdial · Jan 18, 2022

Adapters for just about any lens and mirrorless digi combination are readily available on ebay. They commonly run around 10-20 USD, they are mostly made in China, and many of the sellers are in China.
The flange distance on a DSLR is probably too long for mounting a LTM lens.

The camera will function fine, at least, that’s been my experience using a Nikon Z.

gone · Jan 18, 2022

You have a wonderful sister.

Because of the mirror on an SLR camera, the lens has to be much further away from the film than w/ your Leica rangefinder lenses. So it could only work for very close up work, but finding an adapter for even that would be difficult to find, and expensive.

choiliefan · Jan 20, 2022

A cheap Lumix mirrorless M4/3 digital body will whet your appetite for a larger sensor.
I use a couple Leitz lenses via an adaptor on mine. Problem with collapsible lenses is the possibility of accidently pushing the rear of the lens into the sensor.
For the F-mount Nikkors I have a lens-turbo adaptor which effectively gives the opposite effect of a teleconverter, widening the view.
If one of these turbo's was available in M39 my 50mm Summar would be killer with the Lumix.

Paul Howell · Jan 24, 2022

I bought a entry level Sony A3000 mirrorless just to use a number of older MF lens, so far have gotten Miranda, Konica, M42, and Minolta MD, adaptors, working slow works just fine. The downside is these older lens have more fringing that modern MC lens. Still I think investing in a entry level mirrorless will be worth the money.

grat · Jan 25, 2022

There are adapters that will compensate for the flange distance, but be aware they use a lens to correct the focal length. That means the quality of the image is now based on the quality of the lens in the adapter, and of course, adding glass will impact your image quality (and probably brightness).

https://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Adapter-Compatible-F-Mount-Cameras/dp/B002JXZUC4

__Brian · Feb 5, 2022

The Leica lenses can only be used as extreme close-up lenses on a Nikon F.

Adapters as shown above work with the Leica lenses made for use on a Bellows or a VisoFlex attachment that turned the Leica into an SLR. Your lenses will not work with it.

Leitz Screwmount lenses on Nikon D40 / D70 DSLR Body ???

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