Read more..
Visit Camera Enthusiast!
Today, I will introduce the piece of “gear” that has been most influential to my photographic journey to date. It cannot be bought commercially as it is a self-modified piece of equipment. I call it the Pentax K+ Multi-Mount, a modification of my Pentax K-x camera mounting ring that now lets me mount lens from Nikon F-mount, Olympus OM-mount, Contax/Yashica C/Y-mount and Konica AR-mount in addition to all my Pentax-K lenses.
How K+ Multi-Mount was made
On the front, you cannot see any difference from the usual mounting ring because my modifications were done on the underside of it. After unscrewing the 5 screws that held the mounting ring to my K-x and flipping it over, I filed away some of the metal that were previously at the brass-yellow areas seen below using a Dremel tool. The reason is because these areas were thicker than other mounts so I had to file them down by a few millimeters, flushing it with the non-protruding areas of the ring. There was not much precision required (or possible), only steady hands to ensure an even surface after filing, sufficiently deep and smooth enough to mount all the lenses. Some trial and error is definitely required by mounting the different lenses directly on it. Once tested to accept all lenses, it was time to screw it back to my Pentax K-x.
Using the K+ Multi-Mount
To enable secure locking, I made a notch in a red plastic sticker and pasted it on the lens mounting area of each adapted lens as shown below.
Each different mount lens required different mounting position, some at 3 o'clock while other may be 7 o'clock, except Nikon which coincidentally is the same position as Pentax. Operation-wise is same as Pentax M42 screw mount lenses; Manual mode, Manual focusing and Green button stop-down metering.
Why did I make the K+ Multi-Mount
Jealously. That was the reason I embarked on this project as I wanted to mount lenses of different mounts/makes like what Canon, Micro Four Thirds, NEX and other MILC owners have been doing so easily with adapters. I was so envious of them that I had to do something to make things work out for myself.
The influence of K+ Multi-Mount?
The journey leading to the creation of my K+ mount played its largest influence in my photographic journey. I learnt 3 things from it.
1. Venturing out of the Pentax circle and experience excellent lenses from other makers like Nikon, Olympus, Contax, Yashica and Konica. My current favorite lens are:
- Nikon's Nikkor AF-S 28-70mm F3.5-4.5. Sharp zoom lens.
- Olympus's OM Zuiko MC Auto-Macro 50mm F3.5. For macro shots on a small budget.
- Yashica ML 50mm F2. Almost pancake size.
- Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.4. Close focus only but very sharp at wide-open.
2. Gained tremendous knowledge on the design of cameras, how film register distance affects focusing zone and its ability to focus to infinity, lens locking method and surprising facts of cameras and their makers. Here are some to share:
- Nikon's F mount mounting direction is anti-clockwise, different from others.
- Olympus's DOF (Depth Of Field) preview function designed into every OM lenses.
- Yashica's lenses ability to mount on Contax SLR and their sharing of technology.
- Konica's outstanding quality lenses was used by Japan Industry Ministry to judge produced lenses from other manufacturers.
3. Learned to bid on/buy used cameras and lenses cleverly (read: really good and cheap) with limited budget from Ebay and ship them back to my country where such deals were rare.
Lastly, I am happy to share my shots here taken with my adapted lenses!
Taken with Nikon Nikkor AF 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 D on the Pentax K-x.
Taken with Konica Hexanon AR 50mm F1.4 on the Pentax K-r.
Taken with Yashica ML 50mm F2 on the K-r.
And finally, an adapted lens family shot:
You can also see more photos of these lens on my Pentax DSLRs:
 |
 |
 |
|
Finally, if the comments/interests in my K+ Multi-Mount are highly positive, I will seriously consider fabricating it professionally for more Pentaxians to enjoy this modification too!
-Alston (Gnarelsek)
Gnarelsek, please add me to the list of potential interested buyers. What distant country were you referring to -- if you don't mind me asking?
I was surprised you have done quite similar modification! I have testing with OM S Zuiko Auto-Zoom 100~200mm and Nikkor-H Auto 50mm/f2. OM lens is good to fit Modified K mount and no need to adjust the focus infinitely (but there's 0.5mm differences between K and OM).
Nikkor lens is not quite good fit and need 1mm adapter to get infinity focus but it won't to fit .
It will be good to make small two holes on OM lens mount to lock , And good to put a plate with holes on Nikkor lens.
And some people already done similar modification. I found it on Yahoo! auction (Japan) and BBS in Japan.
I think if Pentax makes this mount with new camera, another camera user will buy Pentax DSLR. It looks like Apple prepares to use Mac OSX and Windows on Macs.
Very nice work.
classA: the trick is he's only grinding on the underside, the "frontside" mount surface remains factory "perfect", so no danger of changing the alignment of the lens; this is only a danger if the lens doesn't mount "tight enough" to the modified mount (it's loose, has some play), but if it's done so that it will force the "adapted" lens onto the outside surface of the mount, you should be golden.
pretty cool, i heard before this could be possible for a few mounts (there's a guy out there who made a "pentax & many others" adapter for his canon i think, based on a pentax-canon adapter).
Have you tried praktica bayonet lenses on it?
cheers, and well deserved win i'd say (it seems many people were inspired, and that's what matters)
Thank you to all who voted for me and the "interested" comments. As promised, I am now investigating how to fabricate it professionally so you do not need to DIY one yourself.
I did this today to my k20 and it's a pretty awesome mod, my only complaints are that the aperture on the Nikon lens is locked to whatever you set it , also the Nikon Ai doesn't seem to rest evenly on the plate, yashica-contax work well and i dont have any olympus to try
This is great! I have a "Nikon NIKKOR 28mm f/2.8 AIS" lying around, don't know what to do with it.
I'd love to be able to share my nikon lenses with my pentax cameras.
HECK YES! Fabricate it and I will buy it
Wow ! thats cool, I want to have one !!!!!
Nice!
good work. I will be on the waiting list if you ever want to make it happen commercially,
Ohh, very ingenious! I want one too
Let me know how much you charge!!
Way too cool. Monetize your effort before we see knockoffs on ebay. Do it!
That is just off the hook crazy! I'd LOVE to have one.
This is pretty awesome. Great work. I'm pretty amazed by the fact that this is actually possible.
For those interested in video, I just uploaded one on my modification on Vimeo, just search "Pentax K+ Multi Mount". I will try to clear some doubts here as much as I can.
1. Pentax lenses functions (including AF) are not affected in any way.
2. All camera mounts are different but Pentax K have the larger spacings between metal tabs, thus allowing the other mounts lens to clear them for mounting. Note that this is not vice-versa meaning that a Pentax lens will not fit onto an Olympus OM camera (Tried that). I guess I should have added a section "How K+ Multi-Mount is possible".
Me too. I would like to have one. One thing we need to check with Pentax parts dept, are the mounts on all DSLR same?
Ring on Kx looks the same as the one on my dead sf1, plenty of those dead to get cheap on ebay. easier to experiment on something that doesn't matter.
Count me in as well....willing to beta test.
Count me in the group of interested parties...
chiane, I'm with you ;) I would need much more information, since I find it hard to believe that nothing more complex than some thinning of a piece of metal is required to use any lens with a K-mount camera.
Seriously, this could be a business. Get a quality machinist to work this out with you and you could really have a big impact on people... and even your pocketbook.
Am I the only one slightly confused and wishing there was more info on this?
I have some capital. Want to start a company together?
This would be perfect with a K-01 since the focus peaking would make manual focus easy.
I'd need one with minolta and canon adapter :)
Oh can I send you one of my cameras and have you work it? This is excellent!
PENTAX itself should adopt this idea! That would blow off Canikony 's brain ;-)
Excellent concept and delivery! Count me in the group of interested parties...
This is really neat! I imagine the other lenses would be limited to MF, but does this affect the AF of Pentax lenses at all?
Very cool. Does it have any drawbacks when mounting Pentax lenses? No AF or anything?
I wonder if these couldn't be produced in a factory, with the mounting points marked down on the ring, and with the necessary precision and maybe some improvements (if possible).
I might have to try this...
Very interesting approach.
How do you avoid creating a small tilt? If the mount plane is not a 100% parallel to the sensor plane then lens performance will suffer in parts of the image. The precision required is measured in micrometers, so I wonder how you manage this aspect.
Truly excelent!
I'm in as soon as I get my third body I'll send ya my Kr!
Wow, this might be my ticket to finally getting a Sigma 120-300/2.8 on my mount. Good thing I have time before making this decision.
Naise.... I did consider to make one too but i didn't get around to doing it as i'm too busy shooting and/or PP-ing photos.. ;P
But neertheless, i've kept two spare K mount rings for that and i think i'll get down to modding it too! (don't ask me where i get it from.. LOL!)
Thank you all for your comments. As mentioned by wildmo, only Konica cannot focus to infinity while the others can. Tried adapting Minolta but lens mount was too small, fitting totally into K mount and not able to lock. Fujica mount was too big. Haven tried a Canon yet as I am still figuring our the many lens mount variation.
me too want one
I want one! Count me in.
well done
@vass Look for Flange focal distance tables. if the flange focal distance is the same in mm or a bigger number Infinity is no problem. If its smaller, you need lens hacking.
logically Olympus OM, Contax/Yashica and Nikon will hit Infinity, Olympus and Nikon even can focus behind infinity.
Minolta and Konica work only for close focus work, as Exacta would do
wow fantastic ingenuity! Pentax, take notes.
Best mod I have seen for a while. Finally I might be able to get my wife's Tamron 200-400 f/5.6 to fit on a real camera instead of her Nikon D200.
I want one!!!!
dubcityman
Need to adspp my Minolta Lens to my K20D & K30,NEED INFO.
Great easy tip. My little doubt is, do you focus infinitely with the adapted lenses? Thanks very much for sharing your knowledge.
Nicely done. Do you get infinity focus with each of the lenses mounted?