Nikon S compatibilities with Contax/Kief RF

Just purchased a Nikon S2 (with the 35 and 28 f/3.5). In my area, Nikon rangefinders are kinda rare sight. Easier to find Contax or Kiev RFs.
Now it makes me wonder:
- Are the accessories compatible? Say the body cap or rear lens cap.
- What about the lenses? A friend said it's possible to use Contax lenses with some adjustments.

anta40 said:

Just purchased a Nikon S2 (with the 35 and 28 f/3.5). In my area, Nikon rangefinders are kinda rare sight. Easier to find Contax or Kiev RFs.
Now it makes me wonder:
- Are the accessories compatible? Say the body cap or rear lens cap.
- What about the lenses? A friend said it's possible to use Contax lenses with some adjustments.

Click to expand...

The Nikon rangefinder bayonet copies the Contax original rangefinder bayonet so you can use body caps across the Contax II/IIa/III/IIIa and Kiev rangefinders. The rear lens caps depends on how long the rear element of your lens protrudes.

There is a useful chart (published by Cameraquest perhaps?) showing the cross-compatibility. In practice, 35mm focal lengths are as good as it gets for cross use of Nikkor SC lenses onto Contax/Kievs, or Zeiss Jena/Jupiter lenses onto Nikon rangefinders.

The 35mm, 28mm, 25mm, 21mm Voigtlander SC Skopars are designed for your Nikon rangefinder: I use these on the Contax II rangefinder and the focus alignment difference does not matter due to the wide-angle micro differences in focussing rangefinder base length of the helical. In contrast, a 5cm f1.4 Nikkor SC rangefinder lens cannot be accurately focussed on a Contax II-IIIa rangefinder - even at infinity focus. So all of the Zeiss Optons/Jena 5cm f1.5s/2.0 lens and longer like the Sonnar 85/2 are of no use to your Nikon lens whereas the 35/2.8 Biogon down to the 21mm and wide-angles are all compatible.

The adjustments should be true: the rangefinder bases are different and it's probably quite easy to average a scale and transfer the difference (however inaccurate).

I see. For 50mm and longer: get the Nikkors.

The Contax/Kiev vs the Nikon lens mounts should be physically compatible. The focusing systems are not quite compatible. Reliable sources discuss this incompatibility but differ on exactly what the cause is - whether it's that the cameras were made with a different fiducial lens to film plane distance, or the rf cams were designed to a different fiducial focal length, something like that. You can see a little discussion in this article and its references: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Nikon_rangefinder_lenses

A similar-but-different issue arises for Russian rf lenses in Leica screwmount, vs Leica and Japanese Leica copies (yes it is totally confusing that the dependence on country is not the same between the two systems).

It's not necessarily solely the rangefinder base length, as any camera's RF cam movement has to be designed for its own base length. There is likely something different in the amount that the lens RF cam moves with a given focusing distance. This offset is much more significant for longer focal lengths. Nikon did make its longer focal length lenses (eg 85, 105, 135mm) in Contax mount versions as well as Nikon. These are labeled with a little "C" on the side (not the "C" in "Nikkor-P-C" on the front, which means coated).

In the longer focal lengths, Nikon rf lenses aren't terribly expensive, I think, so it is better to get the Nikon lenses rather than trying to adapt Contax or Kiev lenses.

Helios-103 on my Nikon S3. There are two versions of the Helios-103, early up to 1982 have a secondary Shim for the Rear Groups. I reduced the shim by ~0.25mm, use it on the Nikon. The newer ones- undo the set screws that hold the lens in the mount and turn 180degrees, retighten. Sufficient for accurate focus close-up/wide-open. Stop down a little for infinity. The same is true of the J-8 and J-3. Increase the shim by ~0.2mm.

Telephoto lenses- forget the J-9, too far off. The J-11- can also shim. Close focus is 6ft, and F4 aperture. You are better off getting a Nikon telephoto.

The Menopta is the same as the Helios-103, but was made in the1990s. It is rare.

With the J-12, J-9, and J-11: the collar on the mount may scrape the faceplate of the Nikon. I had to file several down before using on my Nikons. It's not hard, varies from lens to lens.
Performance of the J-12 is greatly improved on the Nikon by adjusting the shim.