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"ist" and Leica Thread Mount Lenses


john_wire

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No, rangefinder lenses are mounted very close to the film plane because their cameras do not have a mirror that swings up and down. Because SLRs have a mirror, the LTM lens cannot get close enough to focus properly. If you could somehow devise a system of adaptors to actually mount the lens, it would only be able to focus in an extremely narrow range up close, like a macro lens. At this point the only digital camera that accepts LTM lenses is the Epson RD-1 digital rangefinder. It was about $3000 when it first came out, but I'm not sure if it has come down since then.
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John, AFAIK the first series of the superior Soviet made Zenith SLRs had M39 mounted lenses at roughly the same distance as Pentax screw mount. Some of the FSU goodies still come with M39 SLR mount and a adapter for later M42 cameras. Stacking 2 adapters might not do much harm, but I have no more M39 SLR lenses so I'm not interested to find out about it and Pentax macro lenses are so convenient to be used that I feel no need to try out my Rodagons too.

 

The cheapest new Epson for RF lenses I've ever seen was going for just about 1800 Euro on ebay. It won't match with the Jupiter 35mm lens and I doubt the antique lenses to feed 6MP very well.

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John, the great thing about Pentax is the backward compatibility. You can find some really, really nice lenses from the old days for a song and they will work great on the ist Digital cameras. The most convenient old ones are the KA lenses. K mount, but with an "A" setting on the aperture ring for auto-exposures. These work seamlessly with the new exposure systems on the ist cameras. They are still manual focus, of course, but with the nice bright viewfinder of the ist this is a joy rather than a pain. Of course the F and FA lenses are fully auto everything and work great as well. The even older KM mount lenses also work nicely, but you have one more step in using them because you have to push a button to momentarily stop down the lens to take a meter reading. Because of this these lenses go especially cheap. Even the old screwmount lenses work with an adaptor, but they are limited to stop down metering. If you want to go digital you can get started really cheap with an ist body and some nice old Pentax lenses. Good luck!
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I second what Del said. I ended up with an ist DS on a trade thinking I'd Ebay it. I bought an

old 'M' 28 f2.8 lens to try the ist out. I was blown away by the resolution and filmlike quality

of the pictures. I've since bought a used 50 1.7, 135 3.5, and 200 f4 (all Pentax SMC). I've

spent maybe $250.00 total on the glass. They're all capable of beautiful images. Not to

mention compact, light, and well built.

 

Rich Reusser

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