Micro 4/3 Adapters, odd types?

[Stephen]

As a 4/3 Olympus Pen is being bought, I have sourced Leica m39, M42, Exakta, and Alpa converters, and a set of micro 4/3 extension tubes, all from Ebay at modest costs.

I have found a Robot lens to micro 4/3 fit, but although I am sure I have seen a reference to it, I cannot trace a Paxette M39 converter, (44.70mm film register).

It may be possible to use the back of the 4/3 extension tubes, the thinnest extension tube and the front 4/3 bayonet, plus the Leica M39 converter on the front, to meet the 44.7mm film to flange distance.

The other one missing is the Miranda, many references to searches for this one on the net, and mention of a US maker at a high price.

Anybody, have you seen these references and possible suppliers?

Stephen.

[jack]

Found a thread at another forum that somewhat addresses your Miranda adapter search. It does involve making your own adapter from other adapters which may not be a problem for you since you have a machine lathe. Take a look at the link below, some good information and proof of concept pictures. This may give you some ideas and a start to another project.

Miranda bayonet 50mm f1.8 E on Olympus EPL1

[Stephen]

Many thanks, I had come across that Miranda conversion, it used a 2x converter to provide the mount bits, a terrible waste of an expensive converter these days, handy if you have a duff one around!

The Paxette one only has to use a cheap extension set and a Leica converter, about £8, whereas a 2x Miranda sold for £40 on Ebay!

Funny that Arri and Mitchell mounts are done, they must be rarer than Miranda bayonet.....and they do Alpa...now there can't be that much call for Alpa! (but I have ordered one for the Kern Macro Switar).

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Also has anybody attempted to use the Russian 35mm F2.8 Sonnar clone wide angle lens on a Micro 4/3 camera, the depth might just fit, but the diameter may be too much for the space in the body. I know it will not fit the 4/3 full sized mirrored cameras, obviously!!! but is there enough space on micro 4/3?

Stephen.

[lloydy]

Jack The Hat Photographic is OK, I've had many NEX adapters off him and the delivery is very quick, they are decent quality Ixco adapters, he's based in Maryport, Cumbria rather than in some distant corner of the planet, and his prices are fair. His selection is a bit smaller that most ebay sellers, but if he's got what you want I recommend him.

www.jackthehat.co.uk/




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[Stephen]

This is a repeat of the details from the post about the Olympus Pen mini PM-1 and is not commenting on the adaptors supplied by the references you kindly posted, but is purely from personal measurements and checking by myself of my own items etc.,

One area I am a bit disappointed in is the standard of the converters to micro 4/3, they are very well made, all metal in most cases, but are not made to the correct film flange distances.

It seems that makers are deliberately making them to focus farther than infinity, to cover themselves against not reaching infinity focus. The first adapters I examined are all short, too thin, by about .25mm or more, a very considerable mistake in optical precision gear.

It is quite easy to cure, packing washers under the flange screws where used etc., but the Leica, a simple screw mount, is difficult to add the .25mm to to get the correct scale focus marks to work, and reach infinity.

Expensive ones are no better, I checked a friends and it was .09mm too thin.

Leica worked to near zero tolerances on the film to flange distance at 28.80 +/- zero, and even the Russians worked to this, so why do the Chinese work to such slack standards?.

It explains a lot of slightly soft shots I have seen from other Micro 4/3 cameras with third party adapters, using only the screen to set things is simply not good enough, at the very least a scale set to infinity should be accurate to rely on.

I deeply suspect the real issue is that the cameras themselves are not made to traditional precision engineering standards anyway, they may be allowing for slack assembly standards from the camera makers, as to the exact plane the Sensor is set to. Call me suspicious, but the makers are very coy about revealing the sensor to flange distance for the Micro 4/3 system, it has been published only by third parties measuring it, The makers will not reveal it, or the tolerances used......makes you think?

In the longer term I think I'll get one of the ELV units for the Olympus, it will help, but also re-machine the adapters to exact distances. It is no good putting a Leica lens on a camera body and finding the distance scale markings are next to useless.......


Apart from the above, no complaints apart from the glaring omission of the Miranda mount from the ranges of commercially made Micro 4/3 adapters, looks like machining up a home brewed one from a gutted 2x teleconverter, (real Miranda extension tubes are far too expensive to waste on converters!), and a cheap set of Micro 4/3 extension tubes.

Stephen.

[lloydy]

It is a problem, all the adapters I have focus slightly past infinity, which is better than not reaching infinity but still not right..
Having said that, I have had lenses that go past infinity on the cameras they were designed for, but not all lenses do that.

It's cheap production standards in most cases, but many of the expensive ones also have the same reputation. Are we getting ripped off by the manufacturers / retailers of supposedly 'quality products'?

With live view on the NEX and surprisingly accurate focus confirmation on the K10 I have got used to trusting that technology and not hitting the stop for infinity.
It doesn't make it right, but I think it's all we'll get.

[Stephen]

I partly think I know the answer, after a chat to a friend who is a computer designer and a camera expert, it is the fact that film cameras remain stone cold, or at relatively stable ambient temperatures, and Leicas standard film to flange, along with Zeiss, were quoted at 60F.

Now digital camera are prone to heat up from the screen, electronics, and battery heating, and have to operate from stone cold to about 90F, with relatively large changes over a short period of time.

Add in plastic chassis, which expand and contract more than metal, and the sensor to flange distance, if correct at say 50f, would expand a lot at 90f, (from the internal heat).

I now wonder if the short adapters are made short for this reason, to allow for the heat generated inside the digital cameras.

If they were spot on it might risk not reaching infinity focus when warm.......it is a theory!

Stephen.

[Stephen]

I have had thoughts on a 100MM F3.5 lens for the Pen, the 100m standard lens from my Mamiya Press....no,.... nobody does an adapter for that particular combination!



The camera can nearly hide behind the lens, the focusing
mount of the Mamiya-Sekor lens is about 4inch diameter, and the adaptor would need to be about 78 mm thick.

The Mamiya Sekor lens covers 6x9mm, so with the space available, full shift and tilt could be built in to the adaptor!..and it has it's own Seiko shutter built in and stops to F32, the last stop smallest position is unmarked but about F48 or so.

It ends up on the Pen PM-1 as a 200mmm F3.5 lens, not too bad, and the lens is extremely sharp, and would be using only the lens centre area, so no lens edge defects to worry about.

The problem is the material to build the adapter, a big chunk of acetal plastic sounds the best, or aluminium from a 4 inch bar!!

Stephen.

[Stephen]

At the other extreme I have a 24mm F2.8 Pentax 110 lens coming from Ebay, very tiny and very sharp. It has the curiousity of only working at F2.8 as it stands, as the iris was part of the unique Pentax Shutter on the sub miniature reflex camera, but there is space behind the adapter, ( they are made commercially), to add an iris, as the centre of convergence is outside the camera lens, like the Retina and Zeiss lenses that had a leaf shutter. It would be approximately 6 mm behind the lens, and could be an iris from another camera or Waterhouse fixed stops.
The coverage is enough for the 4/3 sensor, and sharpness is up to any modern prime lens. Should make an interesting lens, equivalent to 50mm f2.8, but very small indeed.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Another lens to try is the Univex Mercury standard lens, the 35mm F3.5 Tricor, which are usually quite good lenses, and being 1/2 frame, have the coverage for micro 4/3 sensors, giving a tiny 70mm f3.5 lens.
The thread is smaller than Leica, and closer film register, I suspect a modified C mount adapter can be arranged to mount it on the Pen.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

I may have solved the Miranda mount problem, Miranda themselves once made a Leica to Miranda adaptor, so that can be used to mount on a Micro 4/3 to Leica adaptor. I will have to look around to find one of these devices, as I have several Miranda lens that can be put in to use again.

[canonnz]

Hi, Richard from NZ here, just joined this forum. This thread is close to my heart, I'm a devoted Micro 4/3's fan as a means of of using my classic lenses on digital and have fun experimenting with them, I've got a large selection of adapters for my Panasonic G1.

With regards to an adapter for using Miranda lenses I was frustrated as well as there wasn't anything commercially available so about a year ago I managed to make up my own by using an adapter that I had to use Miranda lenses (bayonet & M44 screw) on Pentax/Praktica etc. M42 for macro use(again not a commercial adapter but very well put together) plus a M42 extn tube plus a micro 4/3's C mount/M42 adapter(very shallow) these combined gave me the correct registrar and it works very well.

Now to the good part there are now available commercially made adapters on ebay for bayonet Miranda lenses only for about $US25. The trader on ebay who manufacturers these adapters makes them in small production runs. I've got one from him and I'm very impressed with it, the powdercoated finish is not as good as units manufactured in the thousands but the machining is great. He also produces adapters for Canon 50mm f0.95 bayonet mount lenses as well as Petri amongst others, plus adapters for NEX, Pentax Q, Fuji FX, Samsung NX, Nikon 1.

Have a look at ebay auction 170969438862

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with this trader other than as a satisfied customer.

For using Braun Paxette lenses all you need to do is use a standard micro 4/3's-M39 adapter plus a 15.2mm extension tube. I had a friend machine one up for me some years ago to use Paxette lenses on my Canon Rangefinders.
I have not come across a Micro 4/3's - Braun Paxette adapter.

My information has the Paxette registrar as 44.0mm, Leica M39 28.8mm and the Micro 4/3's as 19.25mm.

Regards Richard

[Stephen]

Thanks for the information about the Miranda, I had heard about the Ebay supplier, but he was not listing when I looked before, between batches.

I have got extension tubes bought in for Micro 4/3 in case of building specials like Paxette or Zorki original reflex, another M39 variant. The set provides two mounts, plus screw tubes that can be machined, all for about £5.00, not bad value.

It is the short mounts that are more difficult, like Univex, or AGI, Pentax 110, and Robot, and the existing Robot an Pentax adaptors are very expensive!!
Far easier to modify a cheap set of extension tubes in the lathe, as they are a popular item they are lower cost than the existing "odd" adaptors.

There is even an Alpa "shift" Micro 4/3 adaptor on the market, admittedly a custom made unit, and very pricey!!
The lack of any commercial Miranda Micro 4/3 is still very odd, I wonder if the old US owners of Miranda have a copyright existing on it!!

The main reason for choosing the Olympus Pen mini PM-1 was the adaptors, more than the Nex etc., although I expect they will catch up, but are at the moment a bit more costly than Micro 4/3. The other reason was the cost, £109 for the body, very good value indeed.

Stephen.

[Rachel]

Jan 10, 2013 15:56:34 GMT -5 Stephen said:

I may have solved the Miranda mount problem, Miranda themselves once made a Leica to Miranda adaptor, so that can be used to mount on a Micro 4/3 to Leica adaptor. I will have to look around to find one of these devices, as I have several Miranda lens that can be put in to use again.

Stephen, would this be the adaptor you mention, item 170970474882 on ebay?