Lets find out who you are, and watcha got.

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

A foundational truth was reinforced for me today: You are never too old to learn. In this case, it was actually something that I had incorrectly merged together in my memory from 40 years ago. So how does this apply to the M-42 lens mount system? Well, this concerns using an adapter to work with M-42 lenses on more modern SLR cameras.

Minolta made two threaded adapters for use on the Minolta SLR manual focusing cameras. One for the M-42 or Pentax threaded mount lenses, and the other for the M-39 Leica Thread Mount lenses. I had remembered that there was a warning that the lenses could be used only for close-up work. It turns out that only the M-39 LTM lenses have that limitation. The M-42 or Pentax thread mount lenses do not have that restriction; they can focus to infinity and will work normally with this adapter on a Minolta camera, including the Minolta Maxxum/Dynax AF mount, but that does take a different adapter than the one for the earlier Minolta SR mount.

I have been thinking for years now that I could not use any of the M-42 lenses here with my Minolta cameras, except for close-up work. That error has been corrected. Now I have even more lenses here that I can use with my Minolta camera bodies. While it was embarrassing to have made that mistake, it is really nice to learn that I can use all of my M-42 lenses with my Minolta cameras. It was worth it to have my mistake corrected.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

Sometimes you get a surprise. Today in the mail box there appeared a cardboard box from someone I do know, but also I am very well aware that their interest in photography centers around the DSLR cameras, and not film. In part that may be a bit of the explanation for what happened.

When I opened the box, I discovered inside a Vivitar 250/SL M42 mount camera with a 1.8/50mm and a 2.8/135mm lenses along with a Vivitar 2x-1 teleconverter. The note in the box said that they wanted the camera to go to someone who still uses and appreciates film and cameras. What a surprise. Then there is also the point that I might consider taking the 250/SL to the camera guy for a CLA. From some comments, I am sure that this camera has been sitting on a shelf or in a box or in a drawer for several years now.

You never know when some nice M42 glass and equipment may appear, and from where it might come.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

Things are still going here. While we did get some snow here this morning, the weather guy really is promising that we will get Spring here some time soon, and the weather and the calendar may be in synchrony again. He said that the temperatures should rise to our normal range soon instead of being 10 degrees below normal most of the time. At least there are a lot of flowers coming out of the ground to be photographed for this year.

And, the M-42 things continue to grow here also. There is another camera body in addition to the recent Vivitar 250/SL that arrived unexpectedly. This new one is a KMZ Zenit-TTL (or Zenit-12) SLR camera made in the FSU or Former Soviet Union. And there are some other lenses also, from 28mm to a Tamron 200mm to 500mm f:6.9 Zoom Lens with an early Adapt-A-Matic M-42 Mount. There is still a lot of M-42 stuff out there to be found. Just keep the eyes open.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[DrTang]

I was never a M42 owner..going first to Olympus..then to Nikon when my all Olympus stuff was stolen

then.. years later...I started thinking that a screwmount camera that was auto exposure would have been kinda cool it one ever existed... and

a little research got me to a Chinon CE-3 memotron


and then after months of looking..I found one with winder, flash and about 5 lenses

so.. now I have that to play with.. all I need now would be a 24mm to make things REAL interesting

 

[dances_w_clouds]

I recently purchased the 44-2 58 Helios M-42 lens and I am quite happy with the results I am getting not to mention the bokeh of that lens is quite remarkable. The swirl effect adds to many of my photographs. Once I got the "feel" to operate (f stop adjustments) this lens everything turns out great. The next M-42 lens I hope to get is the Jupiter 9 (85mm f/2) but anyone who has ones has a hard time parting with it. Cheap enough on eBay but the quality of some of them can be quite questionable. But the search is always an exciting challenge at times. I have a Takumar and Super Takumar that are in my choice of lenses to use daily but I need something larger for portraits. Anyone ???

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

There have been some additional things added to the growing crowd of camera equipment here.

This last weekend, there arrived here an Asahi Pentax SPOTMATIC SP with a Super-Takumar 55mm/f:2.0 lens on it, so there is another M42 body and lens here. With all of the other M42 lenses here, this is starting to grow into a useable group.

Then I also discovered that an adapter ring here is for using M42 lenses on cameras with a Pentax K mount. There is even more versatility for the M42 lenses.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[dances_w_clouds]

Well my collection of M-42 lenses has expanded. I bought the Jupiter 9 and it was a great lens until the iris twisted up but I "repaired" it but now I have to shoot wide open all the time.. Oh well. The other M-42 lens I have is the Mamiya /Sekor 135 mm f/ 2.8. The image quality is surprisingly sharp. The lens is very securely built, one of the reasons I like the M-42. (I am clumsy and I drop lenses occasionally)

 

[pentaxpete]

Merry Christmas All ! Yes- I to have that M42/ k mount adapter bought cheaply in the 1980's -- now it is very expensive !! I use it with my M42 lenses on my K10D and my k mount pentaxes

 

[titrisol]

I do have my dad's Spotmatic, and I bought 2 more on my own. Just got a H3 at flea market.
Have plenty of lenses....
Spottie Spottie, spotless Spottie!

 

[Davep]

Bought my first Pentax, a SP500 with 55 F2 in 1972.

Now have the SP500, plus a couple of Spotmatics and Spotmatic ll. Numerous Takumar lenses ranging from 35 F35, a couple of 7 & 8 element 50 F1.4's, the 55 F2 (which came with the SP500), another couple of 50/55 1.7 or 1.8's (I forget), both 135 F2.5 and a F3.5, a 200 F4, plus Sigma and Sun zoom lenses (70-210's, I forget) plus a long Bushnell 400 F5.6 (I think)

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

It has been a while. There have been a few surprises in my life in the last three months, starting early in the afternoon of Sunday, 2012 October 21.

There have also been a few more things happening with the M42 lenses. Somewhere coming across the USA right now is a TAKUMAR 500mm f/4.5 telephoto lens for use on the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, KMZ Zenit-12, Vivitar 450 SLD, and others. And you can adapt the M42 lenses to so many other camera lens mounts. My main reason for getting this TAKUMAR lens is to have something here for comparison with all of the 500mm f/8.0 mirror lenses that are around here. This particular lens has long been highly respected, and it seemed to me to be a good lens against which to make those comparisons. This will be an interesting spring and summer. I have been wanting to do this for a long time.

I wonder if the guys at Zeiss Ikon Dresden had any idea what they were starting back just before World War II when they designed the Contax-S single lens reflex camera using the pentaprism viewfinder and the slightly larger threaded M42 lens mount similar to the Ernst Leitz M39 lens mount, but just a little bit bigger to work better with the Single Lens Reflex camera geometry. Not only did they come up with the design that became the basis for the SLR camera and even the DSLR cameras of today, they also designed the most popular lens mounting system in photography for the entire 20th Century. Of course, World War II did happen, and they did not get to produce the Contax-S and make it available for sale until 1949, but still it was a pioneering camera design in the way that a collection of ideas were put together to produce the modern SLR camera as we know it today.

By the way, the threads on the M42 lens mount are not the same as on the M39 lens mount. The M42 uses a 1.0mm thread pitch 60 degree angle "V" for the threads. The M39 uses a 26 threads per inch 55 degree angle "V" for its threads. Yes, they are close, but they are not the same. The 26 threads per inch pitch 55 degree Whitworth thread is actually an old microscope ocular thread system, and Ernst Leitz for years made fine microscopes. They already had the equipment for cutting those threads, so they used that equipment for making their camera lens mountings also. Then we have the Russian "equivalent" of the M39 lens mount. The Russians really did use the 1.0 mm threads on their "M39" lens mounts that "are close," but they may not really fit properly onto a genuine Leica camera. If the Russian machining tolerances went in the right direction, then they might go onto the Leica. If they did not, it was either hard to get the Russian lenses to screw in or they would not go in at all.

There are lots of unusual and interesting things in the equipment we have in photography.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

The TAKUMAR is here. It was handed to me yesterday. This is a large and impressive lens. The official nomenclature as shown on the front ring is "ASAHI OPT. CO. JAPAN Super-Multi-Coated TAKUMAR 1:4.5/500." Yes, it is long and it is heavy. This is my first regular refractive element constructed 500mm telephoto lens, and it is going to be used as a "normal" type telephoto lens against which I will compare all of the 500mm/f:8 mirror telephoto lenses that are around here.

Herbert Keppler of MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY magazine and later POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY magazine, was a proponent of the mirror or catadioptric lens construction type, and now there really is something here that can be used for a direct comparison for answering my questions about how well the two types of lenses really perform.

Then there is the well known point that the M42 mount lenses are extremely adaptable to other camera body lens mounts, and there are some of those adapters here already, including a couple for going from M42 to the Canon EOS lens mount, so this lens, and the other M42 lenses, can go onto not only the Canon Elan 35mm cameras here, but also onto the Canon EOS DSLR cameras too. The Zeiss-Ikon Dresden designed M42 lens mount from the late 1930s really is a versatile lens mounting system that still has application today.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington

 

[pentaxpete]

Hi Ralph -- reading your stories just now I would mention that I tried to fit my Russian 500mm f8 'MTO' mirror lens onto my PENTAX K10D but it will not fit as the 'overhang' from the pentaprism-mounted built-in flash fouls it -- it would work if I fitted the PENTAX Extension tube but then lens would be only useful for close-ups.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Pete;

Yes, there are some physical "interference fit" issues with many of the DSLR cameras out there. I have some also. Still, there is one that does not have a built-in electronic flash, so it will not be a problem with that one. However, the only way that I can get a camera lens testing system with an ultimate resolution limit exceeding 100 line pairs per millimeter is to stay with a film based system. So the difficulty with physically mounting the mirror lenses will not be a real issue for this test.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington, USA

 

[dances_w_clouds]

Good day all. I have not been here in a while and I see I haven't posted my latest M-42 buy. I received the Mamiya/Sekor 135mm f/2.8 and over the last few months have been using quite regularly. Very nice looking lens as well as a very nice "swirl" bokeh that really stands out when I print the negative. I have M-42 adapters for all my cameras (4x A body Canons as well as my EOS 3). Seems like I always use the manual focus lenses 95% of the time.

 

[dances_w_clouds]

Just picked up another last night. It is the Auto Tamron 28mm f/2.8. From what I have read they are a fantastic lens around f/5.6. It is the only Tamron prime I have. I have been quite happy with their BBAR zoom lenses. It is now on my EOS 3 ready for the test.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

It may be my turn. Dances With Clouds up on Vancouver Island has a new lens. I have some new "stuff" also.

This last weekend was the time for a gathering of people with an interest in things other than photography. In fact, photography is only remotely related to this activity. However, in among all of the things there, one couple had brought two camera bags and the bags were there along with all of the other things they wanted to sell. Having an interest in both of the subjects is not a good thing. I bought both of the bags, and they gave me a full 1/3 discount.

In among the things in the bags were a Japanese made Chinon AM-3 (not made in China) along with 3 lenses with M42 mount. An Auto CHINON 55/1.7 (with an aperture problem), an AUTO CHINON 35/2.8, and a Vivitar Series One 70-210mm f:3.5 zoom lens with the M42 mount. So the M42 Stuff is still growing.

And that Vivitar Series One 70-210mm f:3.5 zoom lens with the M42 mount means that now I have that same lens made by Kino Precision in all four of the camera mounts that I normally use; Canon FL-FD, Minolta SR, Nikon F nAI, and M42.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[pentaxpete]

Hi all -- I posted the story about my latest FREE PENTAX GiFT in 'Spotmatics Anonymous' Group but the LENSES which came with it were : 28mm f3.5 SMC Takumar. 50mm f1.4 SMC Takumar ( YES !! the RADIO-ACTIVE one !) , 150m f4 SMC Takumar -- I have done some tests also using my own 1970's 50mm f4 SMC Macro-Takumar and posted on here.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Pete;

I just lost my entire response written for your message. Let me see if I can remember this again.

The TAKUMAR 50/1.4 SMC lens is indeed a nice lens. Yes, it does have a glass element containing Thorium or Lanthanum, usually in one of the rear lens groups. The level of any ionizing radiation is rather low, and it takes a really good Geiger counter to detect it. A scintillation counter will be better. Please keep in mind that if this were really a problem, then we would also have fogged areas or frames on our rolls of film that are exposed to this radiation much longer than we are while holding the camera. That Thorium or Lanthanum was used in that glass element to get the index of refraction needed to make the lens design work in the way that they wanted to get the performance desired. My early Minolta ROKKOR 58/1.4 lenses are built in the same way.

One nice thing about them is that if you let them sit long enough, they will develop a nice yellow coloration that will begin to act like a built-in K2 yellow filter for black and white film.

If you do not want it to do that, you can reverse it just by putting the lens in a south facing window with the lens tilted up to catch the sunlight and let it pass through the lens for a few days, and the UV light in that sunlight will restore that glass element to its crystal clear transparency. What is often considered to be a fault is easily corrected and fully restored to original performance.

By the way, a radiation dosimeter is a device a person wears that contains a small strip of film, and when that film is taken out and developed, then it is examined for its density, and a darker density is an indication of a higher accumulation of that radiation.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington

 

[pentaxpete]

Good Evening Ralph : Yes, I had read about leaving the yellowed lens in the sun and did that on our very last really 'sunny' day here and it had almost cleared but now is the Autumn upon us and the sun has lost it's strength.

 

[narsuitus]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/11336821@N00/6095358701/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/11336821@N00/5227139886/

 

[Ralph Javins]

Hey, there are other people still out here doing things with M42 lens mount cameras. Nice.

I have not done much with mine recently. The Kiev 120 roll film cameras have had some exercise, but there have been many other things happening out here in Latte Land. Life can have some surprises.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington

 

[GRHazelton]

My first 35mm SLR was a Praktica LTL which I bought in about 1972, with a good f1.8 50mm. I added a 28mm, a second rate 135mm and a good Tamron 200 f3.5 Adaptamatic, or whatever name Tamron was using for their interchangeable mount lenses, and a set of extension tubes. The LTL gave excellent service, even after having bounced off a sidewalk! It has the best implementation of stop-down metering I've ever seen. Despite never having been serviced the shutter sounds accurate and, since the meter is a bridge device, it should function with any cell. I should get the 50mm serviced; the diaphragm is sticky, and get this old Cold War warrior back in service. Any recommendations?

I also have my Father's AsahiFlex IIa, and a 35mm, the Takumar 50mm f3.5, 83mm f1.8, tubes, bellows, etc. My father was a wildflower photographer of no little skill. The 'flex show signs of wear, and needs an overhaul. Perhaps Eric Hendrickson can restore it to life. It would be fun to use it again.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

GR Hazelton; you have your father's camera. Nice. There really is something to having equipment like that where there is a family connection. Yes, I agree that the investment of a knowledgeable camera technician's time is something worthwhile to do.

And, for Pete, I did receive a couple more Asahi-Pentax lenses recently. There is a 55mm f:1.8 SMC Takumar and a 28mm f:3.5 Super-Takumar wide angle lens. The 28mm is a nice addition. The widest one here before is a 35mm. I am really happy to have the 28mm. Perhaps at some point I will also find a 24mm.

Then there is the big one in this group of three in the latest arrivals; an Asahi-Pentax 85-210mm f:4/5 SMC TAKUMAR-ZOOM close focusing zoom lens down to 1.8:1 with the Attachment Close Focusing Lens and the lens shade along with the case. This is my first early Asahi-Pentax zoom lens. It will be interesting to see what it does. It is funny that the front lens cap actually fits the outside of the lens shade, which slips backwards over the front barrel of the lens. This is an interesting way to combine the storage of the lens shade with the front lens cap.

And, to meet the requirements of the thread title, I am Ralph, of Latte Land, Washington.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington

 

[Aleksej6]

Hi boys. I am new on Apug and this is my first group!
I like M42 thread for the simplicity to go along with one lens only, often, and the 'old-school' manner of changing the lens, if necessary.
I began with a Praktica FX-2, solid mechanical construction, and extremely useful waiste-level viewfinder (rare on a 35mm reflex, typical on Prakticas and Holgas...). I find the waiste-level very useful for street photography. The lens is Domiplan 50mm, then I added a Pentacon 135mm. More recently I bought a Cosina 4000S with a 50mm Cosinon S 1.7, I like it aesthetically.