Inexpensive Chinese Contax Mount to LTM- Maybe a little work required.

The Kiev external mount lenses should work with no problem. The rotation of the focus is the same as the Zeiss Contax. I used the adapter with an early black/nickel 13.5cm F4 and the Triotar 8.5cm F4.

The Internal mount lenses- will be slightly off, just like the internal mount Zeiss Sonnars. The adapter uses a Helical Pitch so the Cam travels to match the Leica RF as the lens rotates. The down-side, it does not travel far enough for the internal mount lenses made to the Zeiss standard,

I have several external mount S mount Nikkors short telephotos and one C mount Nikkor 85. Will those work ok?
 
The C Mount Nikkor 85 should work as the rotation for the focus is made to the Contax standard. The S-mount external mount will be slightly off.
 
A quality heritage lens is to be used on a $9,000 modern camera and in between, is a plop of metal of dubious metallurgic properties and even more dubious manufacturing tolerances and precision. All the while, ingeniously designed Amadeo adapters aren't that much more expensive.

Sorry, but I just don't get it.
 
Didn't Amadeo make a LTM-Contax adapter that focused the right way? That would be the one I'd love to have.

I bought a Russian adapter years ago. Kinda sloppy. I fixed it with aluminum foil though. Worked great after that.
 
A quality heritage lens is to be used on a $9,000 modern camera and in between, is a plop of metal of dubious metallurgic properties and even more dubious manufacturing tolerances and precision. All the while, ingeniously designed Amadeo adapters aren't that much more expensive.

Sorry, but I just don't get it.

I received and returned two of them. Amadeus was gracious and understood completely that they did not meet his standard. He has problems to solve
 
Didn't Amadeo make a LTM-Contax adapter that focused the right way? That would be the one I'd love to have.

I bought a Russian adapter years ago. Kinda sloppy. I fixed it with aluminum foil though. Worked great after that.

This was discussed on the Classic Lenses podcast a year or so ago. People had contacted Amedeo directly trying to purchase his CRF to LTM adapter, but he isn't making them anymore due to production issues. The speculation was that the LTM mount required machining the metal too thin for it to be a viable product.
 
A quality heritage lens is to be used on a $9,000 modern camera and in between, is a plop of metal of dubious metallurgic properties and even more dubious manufacturing tolerances and precision. All the while, ingeniously designed Amadeo adapters aren't that much more expensive.

Sorry, but I just don't get it.

The adapters are made of Brass. The adapters are Leica Thread Mount. The adapters have user-adjustable alignment, using set screws. My adapter focused my 1932 Black/Nickel 13.5cm F4 Sonnar perfectly on my $8000 M Monochrom. My adapter focused my 8.5cm F4 Triotar perfectly, and revealed a design issue when used with long focal length anastigmats, easily fixed.

I have four Amedeo adapters, two early LTM internal+external adapters in LTM. One was free from an RFF member because it was off. Amedeo replaced it, told the member to keep the original, They gave it to me, I use it to calibrate lenses using a TTL viewer. I had to mark the focus scale with the distance to a set object: the focus mount itself is off my 2m at a 5m range. The adapter I bought from Amedeo- works fine, but the mechanism to stop the adapter from over-shooting the close focus mark is easy to overshoot. These were his very early ones, he stopped making them. I have two adapters that HE made in M-Mount, one for Contax and the other for S-Mount, these are for internal mount lenses only. They are perfect, one has a Zeiss-Opton 50/1.5 in it, the other has a Millenium Nikkor 50/1.4 in it.

I bought this cheap Chinese adapter to have a first-hand look at it before suggesting it to others. I've documented the issues. As stated, it is an LTM adapter, will focus external Contax mount lenses correctly, and will focus internal mount Nikon S-Mount correctly. At $70, cost as much as a good LTM to M-Mount adapter.

For a good quality LTM to M Mount, https://www.ebay.com/itm/191811392008. I also bought two of those to get a first-hand look.

Amedeo stated years ago that the metal on the LTM version had to be too thin to accommodate the mechanism. Owning two of them, I agree.
 
8.5cm F4 CZJ Triotar on the M Monochrom using the $70 adapter, as received.

G1020028.jpg


This was the first time I used the Triotar, figured it flared badly. Took me an extra 10 minutes to figure out it was the adapter.

Same adapter, same lens, inner surface now black using a marker. 5 minute job.
This is shot into the Sun with an uncoated lens, I wanted to test the fix. It worked.

G1020046.jpg


G1020051.jpg


Focus good at distance, and the kind of veiling flare I expected from this lens.

G1020043.jpg


Exposure set for the tree line in the shadws, lots of sun in foreground- another stress test for the fix.
SO- these are the results from my adapter and my lens, and my Sharpie.
 
These are with the 1932 CZJ Sonnar 13.5cm F4 on the Fotofox adapter, before I blackened the inside of the adapter. The Sonnar is a telephoto design, and did not exhibit problems with reflections. All wide-open on the M9.



 
This was discussed on the Classic Lenses podcast a year or so ago. People had contacted Amedeo directly trying to purchase his CRF to LTM adapter, but he isn't making them anymore due to production issues. The speculation was that the LTM mount required machining the metal too thin for it to be a viable product.

Unless things have changed very recently he's still making LTM adapters, as he shipped to me and to others. Certainly production has been affected by the mess in Venezuela.
 
8.5cm F4 CZJ Triotar on the M Monochrom using the $70 adapter, as received.

G1020028.jpg


This was the first time I used the Triotar, figured it flared badly. Took me an extra 10 minutes to figure out it was the adapter.

Same adapter, same lens, inner surface now black using a marker. 5 minute job.
This is shot into the Sun with an uncoated lens, I wanted to test the fix. It worked.

G1020046.jpg


G1020051.jpg


Focus good at distance, and the kind of veiling flare I expected from this lens.

G1020043.jpg


Exposure set for the tree line in the shadws, lots of sun in foreground- another stress test for the fix.
SO- these are the results from my adapter and my lens, and my Sharpie.

Convinced me....
 
A quality heritage lens is to be used on a $9,000 modern camera and in between, is a plop of metal of dubious metallurgic properties and even more dubious manufacturing tolerances and precision. All the while, ingeniously designed Amadeo adapters aren't that much more expensive.

Sorry, but I just don't get it.

Perhaps we have some appreciation of what can actually be realized with the metal plops and dubious processes...

Wabi-sabi - Wikipedia
 
I have an Amedeo adapter for external mount Contax to ltm or M (?), and an adapter for external mount Nikon to ltm (or M?). I will take photos of these two adapters and post them here. I also have an Amedeo Prominent to ltm (or M?). I just cannot recall whether these adapters were ltm or M.
 
There is a new adapter for Contax-Leica M to be made in South Korea that promises focusing down to 0.7m. Not sure if these are available yet or what the price will be. http://coirooptics.com/

These adapters are for internal mount and external mount lenses. The company does not show the back of the adapter, an indexed Cam is required to be accurate with both internal mount Zeiss lenses and external mount Zeiss lenses.

The Chinese adapter did not use an indexed Cam, but chose a helical pitch to translate the rotation of the external mount Zeiss lens to the travel required for the 51.6mm Leica RF standard. The problem is the internal mount lenses are 52.4mm. An indexed Cam would allow the full travel required for the 52.4mm focal length to be translated to the 51.6mm standard.
 
Are these two adapters made by Amedeo, or are they low grade copies and are they for external mount lenses?

IMG_4115-X2.jpg

IMG_4116-X2.jpg

IMG_4117-X2.jpg

IMG_4118-X2.jpg
 
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