M42 lenses on Leica M body

[narsuitus]

Do you you use a viewfinder?

The M1 doesn't have a viewfinder.

My M1 had a viewfinder.

When I mounted my Nikkor 20mm on my M1 and my Nikkor 18mm or 14mm on my M6, I used the entire viewfinder coverage to frame my subject. I framed as tight as possible and knew that everything I saw in the frame would be in the photo plus there would be more along the borders that I could not see in the viewfinder.

 

[Alan Johnson]

Rangefinder or viewfinder could be put in an accessory shoe and a separate lightmeter used.As well as the Voigtlander products there are lots of older ones to choose from. M42 lenses with manual stop down will work.Auto only M42 lenses stick at wide open as there is no pusher to stop them down.
https://www.cameraquest.com/voigtacc.htm

 

[BMbikerider]

Not quite, the Pentacon 30mm F3 is a re-named Lydith and they have been made by Meyer for 28 years, thus a major lens. It is of 5-elements design.
There was never a 3-element wide angle lens in GDR production.

I may be confusing it with one called the 'Meritar' The were 3 element and dreadful with it.

 

[blockend]

I may be confusing it with one called the 'Meritar' The were 3 element and dreadful with it.

Or perhaps the Domiplan? Pretty sure that's a 3-element lens. Not a great lens optically but quite sought after creatively.

SLR lenses on a rangefinder should zone focus as long as the film plane to flange distance is corrected by the adapter. Homemade bent wire sportsfinders can be rigged up for finder-less bodies. I shoot 35mm lenses through a 50mm viewfinder sometimes. Older cameras weren't exact to the millimetre, especially close up. You quickly get a sense of where the limits of view are. Basic rollfilm and box camera finders were more of a general aid to composition than a precise field of view.

 

[AgX]

Yes, both Meritar and Domiplan are 3-elements lenses. But standard lenses.

 

[AgX]

The only 35mm cameras that got no viewfinder are registration cameras at meters, scopes, microscopes etc.

There are also cameras witch exchangable lenses but without finder designed from the start to be used with kits out of lens and resp. finder (eg. Bessa L)