Nikon DSLR and M42 screwmount lenses

[sushil]

<p>Any body using M42 screwmount lenses on their Nikon DSLRs with adapter? Any information is appreciated.</p>

[gabrielc]

<p>Yes, I do. I have a M42 adapter with glass - noname - and I used it on my former D60 and on my present D80 and a friend of mine use the same intensely on D40. The M42 lense was an old Hellios m44-2 58/2 wich came from my first camera back in eighties - russian Zenith M.<br />The results were fairly good, color rendition especially, but of course everything was manual (metering and focus) with the cameras in M mode. Using apertures below f/5.6 I got the distance/in focus reading though.<br>

You can see an example here : <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00UHCz&photo_id=9679556&photo_sel_index=0">http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00UHCz&photo_id=9679556&photo_sel_index=0</a><br>

Gabriel</p>

<p> </p>

[remco-jan.woldhuis]

<p>Yes, it's possible but due to changes in the distance from lens to sensor, focussing to infinity won't work. Great for macro though. You can buy quite decent M42 lenses for almost nothing.</p>

[tommyinca]

<p>There are two types of M42 to Nikon F adapters. One with optical lens to correct for the flange to sensor distant difference and one without but only offer limited maximum focus distant. Both solutions have significant draw back that in most cases, just buy used Nikon lens make lot more sense. Plus the selection of reasonably priced old quality Nikkor are plenty. IMHO, M42 Lens are better left for Pentax, Canon, Sony and Olympic bodies. </p>

[michael_bradtke]

<p>I use a old Super Takumar which is M42 mount. it is a 135mm f/3.5. It is one of the sharpest lenses I own. And it was only 35.00 in EX+ condition. With the non infinity adapter it is a very nice close focus lens. I can do a tight head shots with it If I use the infinity focus adapter I loose a little sharpness. But the lens is still very good even wide open.<br>

I also have a old Canon 135 f/3.5 lens in LTM mount. I use it with a LTM to M42 adapter. It is a amazing lens. Very sharp and it has some of the nicest OOF rendering of any lens I have.<br>

Here is a link to a shot from it wide open<br>

<a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3451/3815589175_e2e094a489_o.jpg">http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3451/3815589175_e2e094a489_o.jpg</a><br>

Look around on my photo stream I have shots that compare the Canon and Pentax lens</p>

 

[sushil]

<p>Thank you all for the responses. I own a Pentacon 135mm preset M42 lens (15 bladed one, famed for its bokeh) and was using it on my Pentax K20D. Recently I switched over to Nikon D200 and mounted this lens with non-optical adapter. Later I noticed this;<br>

http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00UGH0<br>

Could this be due to the adapter shorting some circuits on the mount?</p>