[yeatzee]

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Im curious how many are out there I own a Pentax m42 bellows:




Mainly because i could not find a K pentax bellows and because the prices for them were WAY to steep Now adapting the bellows/tubes to the body is extremely easy and no issue, especially for someone like me who owns a couple takumar's

The lens side however is a completely different story. Im limited to screw mount m42 (or other screw mounts) lenses or buying a 42mm-XXmm reversing adapter to reverse my ordinary lenses. On ebay there does not exist an adapter to give us FULL K mount compatibility and thats incredibly frustrating. I KNOW I cannot be the only one who wants to essentially convert their M42 pentax/assorted brand bellows to K mount for FULL lens compatibility

SO.... here's my question:

1. If an adapter that went male M42 - female K mount were to be made available, who would buy one?

Just a macro shooter trying to help out the fellow pentaxian macro shooters out there

[chemtech]

I have run into the same problem, so, would be interested in a solution. Does your question mean that you have come up with an adapter or found one?

[yeatzee]

I have ran into the same problem, so, would be interested in a solution. Does your question mean that you have come up with an adapter? Most interesting.

A friend and I "made" one actually, and I have used it to get these recent images:













My dilemma was a bit more complex I guess because of my situation where I was sent the wrong adapter originally from ebay. Basically we had to work around that and come up with a fix so I could get shooting again (waited aprox. two months for adapters on ebay). That opened up the door though. He has two m42 bellows so he needed a solution as well

[RioRico]

I have two M42 bellows (US$20 and $30) and one PK bellows (US$35) so it ain't my problem.

But I just diddled with my hardwarez and came up with a couple solutions. Both involve ultra-cheap PK macro tubes, the kind that are about US$7 shipped. One solution requires a cheap non-M42 bellows of almost any mount; the other needs a cheap flanged M42-PK adapter and a cheapest M39-M42 adapter ring.

* Get a cheap non-M42 bellows, the kind with screw-down front and rear mounts. Nikon, Canon, Minolta, whatever. Unscrew the mount pieces. Drill matching holes in the mount sections from the cheap PK macro tubes. Screw-down the mount sections on the bellows. Voila! PK-M bellows!

* Take the female mount section from a macro tube set. Use contact cement to glue the M42-PK adapter to its back (threaded) side. Let it dry. Apply glue to the M42-PK adapter's threads; screw the M39-M42 adapter ring halfway in. Let it dry. Now you have a male-M42-to-female-PK adapter that is about 10mm thick. Mission accomplished!

How did you and your friend make an adapter?

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Last edited by RioRico; 07-26-2011 at 03:34 PM.

[yeatzee]

I have two M42 bellows (US$20 and $30) and one PK bellows (US$35) so it ain't my problem.

But I just diddled with my hardwarez and came up with a couple solutions. Both involve ultra-cheap PK macro tubes, the kind that are about US$7 shipped. One solution requires a cheap non-M42 bellows of almost any mount; the other needs a cheap flanged M42-PK adapter and a cheapest M39-M42 adapter ring.

* Get a cheap non-M42 bellows, the kind with screw-down front and rear mounts. Nikon, Canon, Minolta, whatever. Unscrew the mount pieces. Drill matching holes in the mount sections from the cheap PK macro tubes. Screw-down the mount sections on the bellows. Voila! PK-M bellows!

* Take the female mount section from a macro tube set. Use contact cement to glue the M42-PK adapter to its back (threaded) side. Let it dry. Apply glue to the M42-PK adapter's threads; screw the M39-M42 adapter ring halfway in. Let it dry. Now you have a male-M42-to-female-PK adapter that is about 10mm thick. Mission accomplished!

How did you and your friend make an adapter?

The first seems way to much, and not very cost effective (unless you get lucky with buying a bellows set.... im sure you have a story of getting a cheap one but for the rest of us thats not really feasible We don't have those magic cheap ebay powers hahahaha )

im not sure I understand the second though

[Steinback]

If I decided that I needed an adapter I would probably make my own. One additional feature to work in would be a remote stop down switch using a cable shutter release so that the lens can be stopped down remotely just before tripping the shutter. Composing with the lens wide open and stopping down for the photo would be somewhat faster, which is why several bellows manufacturers used to offer the feature.

[newarts]

....
If an adapter that went male M42 - female K mount were to be made available, who would buy one?

I recently bought one - it works well - it is not shiny but that's easy to fix if you feel the need.

I've looked but haven't found where I bought it... I'll search more...

One can get by reversing the K type lens and using the appropriate m42 reversing ring to mount to the bellows - like this: REVERSING RING M42 SCREW ? 49mm for MACRO | eBay

or this: Macro Coupler / Reverse Ring 49mm to 42mm (1.0) M42 | eBay

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Last edited by newarts; 07-26-2011 at 06:24 PM.

[yeatzee]

I recently bought one - it works well - it is not shiny but that's easy to fix if you feel the need.

I've looked but haven't found where I bought it... I'll search more...

One can get by reversing the K type lens and using the appropriate m42 reversing ring to mount to the bellows - like this: REVERSING RING M42 SCREW ? 49mm for MACRO | eBay

or this: Macro Coupler / Reverse Ring 49mm to 42mm (1.0) M42 | eBay

I've searched and searched as far as I can tell none exist. A picture for proof perhaps?

Reversing is a whole different animal (albeit a much easier one)

[Lloydy]

My bellows are Russian Helios, well made and sturdy as you'd expect.

Both ends have mounts that are the same - conical is the easiest way to describe it. And I have an assortment of nylon bushes that slide over various size threads such as on enlarger lenses, and are then tightened down onto the lens thread by a small screw in the bellows mount. I have mounts with the conical part and PK and M42 as well.
The nylon bush / adaptor is perfect, and something that I haven't seen before, but maybe it's a common thing that I haven't come across ?

[Lowell Goudge]

I would think a pair of teleconverters would come in handy. Take the M42 mount off the back of the M42 TC and mount it in place of the bayonette and then pull the glass out of the TC

On a bellows it should be much easier use the body mount off the TC and adapt the bellows I to a K mount on the lens side

The other option is just use it with M442 lenses. I have a miranda bellows which I modified to mount to k bodies but I put a M42 to T mount on the other end and use M42 lenses when I am not using a 135mm enlarging lens

[yeatzee]

FWIW he's listed one on ebay:

Pentax "female K-mount" "male M42 mount" (Adapter) | eBay

[newarts]

FWIW he's listed one on ebay:

Pentax "female K-mount" "male M42 mount" (Adapter) | eBay

Looks good tanner!

[Stone G.]

I had the same problem so, I made one myself:

Marexar M42 extension tube + Soligor Auto Extension Tube with inner parts and PK bayonet removed + glue =



A bit primitive perhaps - but it works. The only "trick" is to find components that fit reasonably together diameter wise.

[bjake]

would it be possible to remove the camera mount from the bellows and replace it with the mount from a junk k mount camera?Don't remember how the mount was secured to the bellows,my wife threw mine out about 25 years ago after it got a hole in it.
Jake

[newarts]

Here's a no-cutting, off-the-shelf solution:

Get a set of inexpensive PK extension tubes New Macro Extension Tube Set for Pentax K/PK mount | eBay
and an m42-m42 reversing ring: 42mm to 42mm Male Macro Coupler Reverse LENS REVERSAL Adapter Ring FOR CLOSE UP | eBay

Put epoxy on one end of the reversing ring and slip it halfway into the male PK mount on the extension tube end. Hoorah! Mission accomplished.

The ends of the tubes now comprise a PK (female) - m42 (male) adapter.

PS this is almost identical to RioRico's earlier recommendation using an m39-m42 adapter - the essential difference is the m42-m42 reversing adapter is thicker hence allows twice the gluing surface at the adapter side and twice the threads available at the male m42 side.