Due to the different working lengths that are used for optics with M42 and M39 mounting threads (SLR) and for optics with Nikon F mount, there is a difficulty in using M42 / M39 optics when mounted on Nikon cameras. The difficulty is that with such lenses it is impossible to achieve infinity focus on Nikon cameras.
War for infinity
If you use the usual M42-Nikon adapter (also called KP-42 \ N) mounted on the M42 lens, you won’t be able to focus on distant objects using Nikon cameras. For example, using an M42-Nikon adapter without a lens with a lens Helios-40-2 1.5/85, you can focus a maximum of 1.5 meters from the camera. To overcome this incompatibility and make working with old optics more convenient on Nikon cameras, there is a special corrective lens adapter. The diopter power of the lens allows you to focus on infinity.
Differences between the two adapters. Left - without lens, right - with lens
Every lens in the optical design, even the ND filter on the front lens, can adversely affect the very image quality that the lens creates. The question 'how much does a lens affect image quality' is an important one.
An adapter with a lens was provided to me by Andrey Kuryanov. My adapter not only has a corrective lens, but also Dandelion Lushnikova.
The adapter I used for this article
I used this adapter for testing on 3 lenses:
This is how the adapter with a lens on the Helios-44-2 2/58 lens looks like:
Adapter with lens and chip on Helios-44-2
I conducted a test for the deterioration in image quality that lenses give when using an adapter with a lens. During the test, I used a tripod, a camera Nikon D700trigger cable Nikon MC-30. The photographs were taken in manual camera control mode at the same shutter speeds, aperture values and the same ISO sensitivity. Focusing was carried out using Live View in the central area with maximum magnification. Three photographs were taken and the best result was selected. Shot in JPEG L, Fine mode, SD.
Crop, 1 to 1 (720 * 480), adapter with lens:
Helios-44-2 with a lens
Without a lens:
Helios-44-2 without a lens
It can be seen that the picture with the lens is less sharp than the picture without the lens.
Industar-50-2 with lens adapter
The same with the Industar-50-2 lens:
Industar-50-2 with a lens
Without a lens:
Industar-50-2 without lens
In the case of Industar-5-2, the difference is less noticeable. From this we can draw some conclusions:
- The larger the lens aperture - the more the lens will affect the image quality.
- On closed apertures, or when using low-aperture lenses, it is difficult to distinguish loss in quality by eye
- Using a lens reduces the viewing angle of the lens, roughly speaking, slightly changes the real effective focal length.
- A corrective lens is completely useless when used with rangefinder optics. By and large, it does not change anything, and you can still focus on the rangefinder lens only in macro mode, this was confirmed by the use of such a lens on the Industar-50 P. lens
By the way, buy any adapters with Lushnikov Dandelion for Nikon, Canon, Olympus 4/3 and Dandelions without adapters, buy from the only official representative of the inventor of Dandelion, Viktor Lushnikov in Ukraine - Andrey Kuryanov. Andrey’s page on Lushnikov’s website: http://filmprocess.ru/oduvanchik/ukr.htm write that you came from Radozhiva. You can also buy manual lenses for Canon, Nikon, Olympus cameras from Andrey. In addition to all of the above, Andrey refines lenses for Nikon cameras (with Nikon F mount) and installs Dandelion on them, you get a lens completely ready for use. Andrey is also making the finalization of the adapter so that the lens can be screwed up to infinity and programs Dandelion immediately for any focal parameters and the entire range of required aperture values, the adapters he sells are always of the same quality, since they are taken from the same manufacturer. By the way, there is no locking screw in these adapters either, he drills the hole himself and glues the locking screw
Personal experience
I don't like lens adapters. Of course, lenses are of different production, different enlightenment. How to distinguish a cheap Chinese lens from a better quality one - I don't know. Also, it is difficult for me to say how much the lens enlightenment will help correct the situation with the loss of quality. Many lens adapters have very strong flaw - when they are mounted on certain lenses, the rear lens of the objective rests against the corrective lens and does not allow focusing to infinity. My copy of the adapter made it possible to focus to infinity without any problems using such a 'problem' lens as the Helios-44-2.
If you really want to use old optics with M42 threads, enjoy its vintage quality and other advantages, then the best way would be to use it on another system, for example, Canon, Pentax, Sony Nex, etc. If it is very important to work on Nikon cameras, then you can hand over the lens to the master for revision or redo yourself. Many lenses can be forced to focus on infinity without problems, while others require laborious refinement.
Conclusions:
An adapter with a lens allows focusing to infinity when using optics with a M42-Nikon landing thread, but it can be image quality is degraded. You will find a lot of useful information on working with old lenses on Nikon cameras. here.
Where to buy?
It's the easiest way to buy such an adapter nowadays on Aliexpress: with a chip without a lens here, with lens and chip here.
Comments on this post do not require registration. Anyone can leave a comment. Many different photographic equipment can be found on AliExpress.
Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram
As I expected, extra lenses worsen the native picture very much, everyone who asks me about such adapters will give a link to this review. Thanks for the brevity, capacity and availability in the description.
Yeah. For example, I use an adapter with a lens to check whether a particular lens can focus beyond infinity, and after the purchase I redo the shank and put the prepared ring there without optical elements.
The adapter with Dandelion was provided by me, the one who wrote “Andrey” above has nothing to do with me.
I also refine the adapter so that the lens can be screwed up to infinity (for this, the frame of the built-in lens is grinded) and program Dandelion immediately for any focal parameters and the entire range of required aperture values, The adapters that I sell are always of the same quality, since they are taken from the same manufacturer ... By the way, there is no locking screw in these adapters either, I myself drill a hole and glue a stopper, without which the adapter can be easily twisted and it will jam in the camera.
@@@@ If work on Nikon cameras is very important, then you can hand over the lens to the master for revision or remake yourself. Many lenses can be made to focus on infinity without problems, while others require laborious refinement. @@@
Please explain, if I correctly understood Soviet-made M42 lenses, you can stupidly screw the adapter without a lens for Nikon to fail, or to succeed without focusing on infinity. That is, you need to send the lenses to you. I get 4 of them, I have to send you 4 lenses and buy a transitional with dandelion for each.
Hello, do you write that you redo lenses, etc.? A friend gave me a MD Rokkor-x 45mm 1: 2 lens with a cut-off shank, that is, ears or grooves I don’t know how to call it cut off pressing the lens to the m42 adapter, Nikon tried to take a photo with his hand, it turned out that there was no focus beyond half a meter. That's the question, can you remake it to Nikon with infinity? And is this lens worth attention at all?
Andrey, how to order an adapter for Helios 44M-4 (with a jumping diaphragm) for Nikon D5100 from you? is it even possible?
Dear Donut, if you carefully read the review again, you will see there the necessary link for ordering the adapter.
great site ... minimum advertising, maximum information and pleasure! it is almost impossible to find better!
Are you about Radozhiva?
A good site is nothing more.
If Arkady paid for one and the other, then there would have been no crowding from advertising and he would have written not about what he wants, but about a completely different one.
Arkady is great. Self-discipline in writing articles at the level. And this despite the fact that the site is non-commercial!
Arkady, how do you shoot on Soviet optics in the absence of focus on infinity?
Only within 2 meters?
Dmitry, this is written in every review.
In some cases, these are modified lenses that can even focus on Nikon at infinity (by the way, where are the enthusiastic comrades Nikonists from the next topic? :)) Or shooting is carried out to the maximum possible focusing distance. Sometimes this is only a small undershoot ad infinitum - usually Arkady indicates this separately - how each particular instance behaves on a particular camera.
Yes, that's exactly it.
I have "Helios 44m" which focuses on infinity:
First, I unscrewed the back cover from the lens and screwed the M42 adapter to it, carefully drilling the holes - the lens began to focus at infinity between 0,8 and 0,9 on the focuser. After I set the focus to infinity by the method of test shots, I twisted the lens and measured how much the rear lens protrudes beyond the adapter! Then I removed the adapter, screwed back on the rear lens cap, put on the adapter, set the focus to infinity and again measured the rear lens, how far it protrudes from the adapter! The difference was 2mm! I gave the lens to the turner and he cut off the back cover for me by 2mm, having previously twisted the “jumper” mechanism off it! When I tried to put on the lid, it turned out that the lens unit, which has protrusions, rests in the middle and does not allow the lid to press tightly! The turner again grinded off the lid literally half a millimeter from the inside (following the link, in the photo, you can see where the lid was grinded - http://s019.radikal.ru/i630/1302/39/64000bdd2725.jpg ) then the cover of the village is fine and with the M42 adapter the infinity works as expected! But, with such a refinement, you will have to remove the “jumper” mechanism and in the lens itself you need to cut and fix the aperture control lever! (photo from the link - http://s017.radikal.ru/i418/1302/95/2ccf3031d53d.jpg ) This is an important point! I do not want to say that this is an ideal refinement of the lens, but with such a refinement, the lens focuses on infinity, and the aperture works completely in manual mode!
Good article advertising. I also don’t accept adapters with lenses. I redo the lenses myself. Of course Andrei is cunning. I agree that there is no stopper in Chinese adapters (he himself made a stop at the beginning), but turning the adapter will not jam the lens and the adapter. Of course, if the hands are straight.
Ivan, it makes no sense to dissemble ... They brought me a camera with a jammed adapter. Everyone's hands are different and everyone can be wrong. For example, a person who brought me a camera, in which the adapter with a lens was jammed, used to shoot with Canon, in which the lens is set clockwise, unlike Nikon cameras. Out of habit, he turned the lens in the "Canon" direction ...
Hello, you can share a photo of the stopper on the M42 / Nikon, otherwise I ordered it myself and I would not want it to jam.
This is not an advertisement.
After reading the instructions for the dandelion firmware, I realized that this process will cost extra gray hair.
Savely, and "dandelion" does not have to be stitched. The firmware is done so that the correct data is entered into EXIF - the aperture (usually its minimum value is used) and the focal length of the lens. At the same time, such data does not change from shot to shot, that is, the value of D will be the same on all frames.
Well, it turns out that in the case of using an adapter, for example, on different lenses, this information does not make any sense at all.
And the chip itself will work fine without firmware. I have a chip that shows D = 1 :-)
Irina, what you wrote applies only to Dandelion for Canon. In Dandelion for Nikon, you can change the aperture value and you need to do this while shooting! (Nikon cameras are measured by the aperture value sewn into Dandelion). These are absolutely 2 different Dandelions, so you do not need to write what you do not know.
Savely, if we had carefully read the review, we would have seen such information there:
“Andrey programs Dandelion immediately for any focal parameters and the entire range of required aperture values”
When I ship the Dandelion, the Dandelion adapter, or the Nikon Dandelion lens to the customer, everything is already programmed and ready to go. In addition to all of the above, I give each of my customers a video instruction not only on programming the Dandelion, but also on the correct installation in and removal from the camera.
It's good that I wrote a comment. It's funny that I have just "Nikon". D5100. None of the chips (purchased specifically on Lushnikov's website) behave as correctly as you describe. At the same time, one of the chips was bought together with the lens and positioned as adjusted specifically for this lens ...
Andrey, is it possible to read your programming instructions somewhere?
PS And yet, I can't imagine how this chip “takes” the aperture readings from the lens and transfers them to the camera. Sensational!
My instructions are only available to my customers.
Andrey Kuryanov, you seem to distort the terms themselves. TTL exposure meter is a metering of the light that passed through the lens, from the words Through the lens. And you say that everything is supposedly already programmed correctly and therefore the measurement will be normal only with yours. You are opening some Know-how for us.
From your dandelions, the camera can only record information in an EXIF file, but not do metering. Or how do you then explain the correct metering in adapters without a lens and a chip?
Clearly, then I will turn to my sellers :-)
Buy from me and then there will be full technical support
The site is the same, I live in Siberia, it is more convenient for me to buy from Aksyonov ...
But if Alexey doesn’t tell me all the tricks, then I will definitely order from you, I just need a couple of chips :-)
Thank you, Andrew!
Aksenov will not tell, he does not know all the subtleties, and the price of delivery from Ukraine is only 200 rubles, the cost of Dandelion is the same.
I use Kenon 350d and Jupiter 11 (pomegranate). The camera does not correctly detect exposure. All photos are overexposed (rarely, when overexposure is equal to one step) to 2 or more steps. Will installing a dandelion adapter help me? Or is it a camera metering issue?
It will help with exposure and exposure compensation
It is more correct to ask what type of metering you are using. If it is a point, then very often big misses are possible.
Thanks! I used the “Center-weighted average” mode and considered it ideal, but turned on “Evaluative metering”, the simplest one, and found what I needed. Thanks!
Although, this did not completely solve the problem, it only improved the result.
There is a way to reach infinity without a lens and lens alteration:
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/moisievich/album/192801/
The mount itself under the bayonet mount Nikon f machined from the mounting ring removed from the Zenith, turned it over and twisted it. The thickness and diameter of the ring had to be reduced to the size of the desired mount. Then you need to make another large ring with a hole for the lock (so that the lens does not turn away), the inner diameter of this ring is equal to the diameter of the ribbed ring of the lens (for which you hold when you screw the lens into M42
Therefore, I did not take Nikon, but took Kenon. Still, the canon is more correct in something: both the lens is correctly screwed / unscrewed, and the working segment is suitable.
I found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8la9fdmvPw I will buy a transitional ring I will try, I will unsubscribe
will not work!
you need to bring the entire lens block to the matrix and not just one lens!
It will turn out due to some deterioration in optical characteristics. Each optical design allows for certain tolerances, the magnitude of which determines the quality of the lens image. But in the case of biotars, these tolerances are higher than, say, for the World, which ensured their popularity. Even in the conditions of the Soviet conveyor, lots of high-speed employees left the factory. Not every lens can be easily disassembled and assembled without alignment and alignment literally on the knee or swap lenses from different lenses. And here it works.
… I don’t know about Helios 44m-4, but this number didn’t work on Helios 44m! focusing was within 4 meters, instead of 2,5 meters before the rear lens was twisted!
I tried an adapter with a lens, since one of the Helios77m4 went to the ball. After the first experiment, he placed Helios in the farthest corner. The adapter sold. I have Arsat h 50 and Jupiter37. Enough with the head. And you don’t need any dances with tambourines near inappropriate lenses. There are enough analogs and you can always choose a more suitable lens.
Dmitry, through an adapter with a lens, you can normally use only lenses with aperture from 2,0. More fast lenses through an adapter with a lens give a blurry image that resembles strong soft focus.
Arkady, I’m still reading other blogs here and don’t think it’s advertising. I came across an oooooochen interesting article, which, I think, will help a lot to cope with manual optics better.
http://evtifeev.com/7974-rabochie-otrezki-raznyih-fotokamer.html
Actually, I recommend Dmitry’s blog to everyone :)
It is necessary to create a links section with the most similar and useful resources. Why search if you can find everything here ...
About dandelions…. now there are a lot of them on ebay only in chinese, .. what can you say about them, ... just for many it is easier to buy from there
Ivan, Dandelion is only a microcircuit that he invented in 2005 and is produced by the only person in the world - Viktor Lushnikov! He also came up with the name. The Chinese copied their EMF chips from Dandelion, as usual, unsuccessfully, therefore, if you want to buy Dandelion, then from me (if in Ukraine) or from Lushnikov, if in Russia.
Since I bought Nikon, and there is a desire to use Soviet and other manual lenses, after a month of testing I came to the conclusion that I need to have two adapters. I use an adapter without a lens mainly for portraits and shooting at close range - I open the aperture. I photograph distant objects at hidden values - I use an adapter with a lens. So far, something like that.
Andrey, I got such a lens from a good person for a long time - Carl Zeiss flectogon 20 / 2.8, I thought about your adapter. What "subtleties" and problems can be when using on the D90. I want to fully enjoy the purchase :)
Olesya, it will be difficult to use an adapter with a lens for wide-angle lenses. If your Carl Zeiss flectogon 20 / 2.8 has an M42 thread, then it is better to use it on Canon or other systems that do not need a lens in an adapter. Or find a craftsman who will remake it for you on the Nikon flange.
I wanted to find out from experts: they say that PIXCO and other Chinese people have plastic lenses. And there are Russians who are really MS and made of glass. Is it so?
The lenses are all glass. There are no adapters of Russian production. I wrote to the Lytkarinsk plant through the feedback form on their website and asked this question:
Hello, in ads on various forums I often see M42-Nikon adapters with a compensating lens supposedly produced by your factory. Does your factory produce such adapters?
Here is the official factory response:
Hello!
JSC LZOS has never made M42-bayonet adapters.
Best regards,
Molev Alexey
Optics Group firm, LLC
Exclusive distributor of Lytkarino Optical Glass Factory, JSC
1 Parkovaya Str., Lytkarino, Moscow Region, 140080, Russia
Fax: + 7 495 552 17 90
Tel: +7 495 552-18-90, 552 99 57, 552 32 95
Email: info@lzos.ru
Website: http://www.lzos.ru
Hello to all lovers of manual optics! I bought an M42-Nikon adapter with a compensating lens on ebay, screwed it on Helios-44-2 and ran into a problem - the adapter blocks the lens block and prevents them from spinning to the position of the infinity sign. I put on another M42 lens and the same problem. What to do? faced someone with such a problem?
I bought an M42-Nikon adapter with a lens, the image became: 1) darker, 2) soapy) and 3) never saw infinity. lens Helios 40. Conclusion - I do not advise spending money.
Alexander, if you carefully read my comments, you will find an explanation, which I once again post in my comment in a more expanded form.
ADAPTER with lenses can be used on a lens with M42 MOUNT - ONLY WITH aperture FROM 2.0 TO ALL OVER aperture lens PURCHASE SUCH ADAPTER - absolutely useless, since high-luminosity and much more DIAMETER back lens aperture lens conflict with the lens in the adapter. ALSO THIS - THE ADAPTER WITH THE LENS REQUIRES ADJUSTMENT EVEN FOR THE HELIOS-44 OF DIFFERENT MODIFICATIONS, BECAUSE THEIR REAR LENS UNITS WHEN FOCUSING ON INFINITY IS ENDED INTO THE RISE OF THE LENS TRANSITION. IT IS NECESSARY TO GRIND THICKNESS OF THE FRAME INTEGRATED INTO THE LENS ADAPTER. AND IN SOME CASES, IT IS NECESSARY TO GRIND THICKNESS AND THE FRAME OF THE REAR LENS OF THE LENS. I EXPLAIN ALL OF THIS IN VERY DETAIL TO ALL OF MY BUYERS, AND 9 OUT OF 10 MY POTENTIAL BUYERS REFUSE TO PURCHASE SUCH AN ADAPTER, WHICH I AM VERY PLEASANT BECAUSE THERE ARE THERE ARE THERE ARE THERE ARE NOT TWENTY.
Good afternoon, help with advice :) Today I bought a Helios 44-2 2/58 lens under Nikon D40 and a number of -1 questions arose. what adapter is needed ??? If I understand correctly, this is an M42-Nikon with a lens, and where can I buy it in Ukraine ??? Thanks for the answer.
Elena, you read what is written in this article!
Recently bought a lens with a Nikon dandelion- and all focusing distances work great on the D200
Hello.
I have Helios 77m-4 and Nikon D90, at first there was one adapter without a lens, but the focus was only at close distances, and so I then bought a walk-in switch with a lens, and there was focus at infinity, but now there are a lot of haze in the pictures, it’s very soapy , What can be wrong?