[Ratmagiclady]

A bit of two-cents: has anyone noticed how cheap Contax SLR bodies are out there these days? (Or, at least, recent days.) Ye Gods, if I had a pile of glass for those, including a key Zeiss or two, I might be like, "What digital? Don't rush me, child. "


(edit: Ah. Undead thread. I think, Rico, that while that lens is fairly nice, it's not that spectacular, especially given what you have: you'd get more happy out of just finding a Yashica body. )

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Last edited by Ratmagiclady; 10-28-2010 at 03:59 PM.

[bimjo]

A bit of two-cents: has anyone noticed how cheap Contax SLR bodies are out there these days? (Or, at least, recent days.) Ye Gods, if I had a pile of glass for those, including a key Zeiss or two, I might be like, "What digital? Don't rush me, child. "

I got a nice RTS w/winder I'll sell ya.

I've got a Contax 85/1.4 I've almost butchered several times to get it to lock up, but just can't bring myself to do it.

[georgweb]

Rio Rico I think the Yashica ML 1.4/50 is a heck of a lens. It is very similar to its Zeiss brethren. The 28/2.8 is a blast on APS-C, too.


Full open Yashica ML 1.4/50 on K100D. Very contrasty, very good for black and white use

There is a very easy way to get all those C/Y goodies onto PK-mount cameras. Just utter the magic words, and you're done. Wishful thinking ? Probably, but that is what people expect these days .-) However, there are some ways to do it and there are some further links on the whole thing here.

For me the easiest way was the camera bayonet conversion. However, there are still problems on some lenses with the aperture lever of the lens (shorten about 1mm or use full open only) and the inf. setting (spot-on or a tad off).

You can always hand-hold any C/Y lens onto your PK DSLR in a 4 o'clock position (lens mount will sit on cam bayonet) and do some test snaps, full open inf. etc. Be thoughtful with all things protruding from the lens before releasing the mirror. This is a problem with small format DSLR's (a.k.a. SoNiCan).

Best, Georg (the cannibal)

[RioRico]

Great shot, Georg! I gotta get that lens on my camera! As soon as the rain stops and my back-porch-railing 'workshop' dries out, I'll excavate the Dremel and try my shave-the-bayonet-flag trick.

[later the same day]

Still raining, so I took lens and Dremel into the bathroom and performed open-sink surgery. Success! Here's the trick:

This C/Y lens base has three bayonet flags, same as a PK lens. One of those flags has a big notch on the left side. I call that direction the "leading edge", because it's that side of the non-notched flags that hit corresponding lugs on the PK mount. On those two notchless flags, use a Dremel metal-cutting blade to shave away some metal on the FRONT of the flags.

* By FRONT, I mean the side of the flag facing the lens base, towards the objective.
* By SHAVE AWAY, I mean to taper the flag back about 10mm, making the edge a thin wedge.

This C/Y base mod was a bit easier than modding an OM base, since the OM required shaving all three flags. Both modded lenses fit the PK mount with a nice tight grip, although not locked-in. One of these days I may get ambitious and cut little slots in my modded Nikon, OM and C/Y lenses so they WILL lock on. Wouldn't that be something?!?!?

[georgweb]

Aaah, I am not alone in the Pentax universe's tinkerer's corner .-)

Rio Rico, the same procedure you have done was also successful for me on Praktica B-mount lenses, albeit in conjunction with the camera bayonet mod. Like you I filed/tapered the 'tongues' of the flanges till the end got very thin.

Looking at the actual remaining area of the flanges where all the load is going through it left me wonder how good a metal we are dealing with on those flanges .-)

If I would be honest I'd have to say the Yashica mod is really worth it but the Praktica B-mount is not. If it wasn't just for the fun of 'creating new things'...
PS: In what position in a clock-sense does your Yashica lens sit on the Pentax camera now?


Too much: Had to dial the contrast ('sharpness') down from the original. Yashica ML 1.4/50 @f/5.6 on K100D

[vdm999]

Leitax.com in Barcelona, Spain does these very well for about $100

[bimjo]

Leitax.com in Barcelona, Spain does these very well for about $100

Unfortunately only certain lenses though. Of course mine's the AE one they don't do.

[interested_observer]

I have a Contax Zeiss Distagon 28mm that I acquired two weeks ago. I ordered the K mount conversion from Leitax which just arrived. Though about doing it myself, but I just did not want to take the chance of my butchering such a nice lens, so I am going to send it to Eric.

As far as adapters, there is nothing I could find. The lens came with a C/Y to M42 adapter, however that is to mount an M42 lens on a Contax camera. I'v found nothing for the other way around. So for these lenses it appears that a physical conversion is the only option.

I do believe that for certain lenses (for instance that are on the Leitax list) acquired at reasonable prices - that this route should be a reasonable path. For instance the Contax Zeiss Distagon T* 28mm f2.8 is suppose to be a wonderful lens. Zeiss sells it in the ZK mount (Pentax K) for about $1,300 (and it a f2 as opposed to a f2.8). So a $100 conversion should result is a very nice lens. The gentleman I acquired it from had a large set of wonderful images, and was reducing his collection of Contax glass.

So, I figure that in a week or so - I hopefully should have the lens back and some images to compare with my 31 Ltd. I am really hoping for this set of the 31 and 28 providing the glass for a lot of wonderful images far into the future.
_________________

Edit - My wife had told me that the mount arrived - it turned out to be the M42 to K mount adapter that I ordered from Pentax. The C/Y to K mount conversion kit wound up in US Customs for 11 weeks (the holidays, the Post Office told me). So now Eric has it and is converting it - as I did not want to botch the job. Hopefully, I should have it within a week or so....

Edit 2 - I now have had the converted lens for about a month or so. Its the equal of the FA 31 Ltd - but only manual - aperture and focusing (like a K or M lens). Its sharper and its "character" is a bit different - not worse or bad. It handles contrast and colors slightly differently - very pleasing to me. My total cost is 1/3 that of either a new FA 31 Ltd or Zeiss 28/2 ZK, and it the equal of either of them - just more "manual".

[Bostjan]

I started this thread aome time ago, and since then, it accumulated some really useful informations... Thank You all, and keep up with the conversions, it makes this hobby even more interesting :-)

Regards,
Bostjan

[Lacyt]

Have been researching this lens conversion for some time now as I just picked up a very nice Yashica ML 55mm f2.8 macro lens that does 1:1 standalone (no additional adapters needed), and I'd love to use it on my K100D.

Reviewed Wong's Y/C to M42 conversion and I'm sure I can do that easily enough. So today, I picked up a Hanimex M42 with a stuck aperature because it has 4 screws holding it to the lens body exactly like my Yashica does, and they look to be positioned in exactly the same places in both lenses so maybe I wouldn't have to do any drilling, etc.!

My concern is the two levers that control the aperature blades of the Yashica 55mm. When I extend the Yashica 55mm all the way out, you can see down inside that both these levers also extend all the way to the front of the lens. I have a Tomioka 60mm f2.8 macro in M42 mount that doesn't have those; however, the two aperature rings on that lens (one clicks, the other is stepless) are located on the front edge of that lens.

My question is What happens to the two lever arms in the 55mm when you change the mount to M42? Is such a conversion of that lens not possible because of those? Is converting the 55mm to PK the only possiblility?

[RioRico]

If it wasn't just for the fun of 'creating new things'...

Ah, but that's part of the joy, isn't it? If not total creation, then at least creative re-purposing -- changing something so it can do what it could not do before. This is the traditional meaning of 'hack': a clever-re-build. Some radios have only a built-in speaker. HACK: Install a switched jack, so the radio can drive external speakers or amplifiers. Or, some P&S cameras have only a fixed lens. HACK: install a mount so CCTV lenses can be screwed in. Et cetera.

PS: In what position in a clock-sense does your Yashica lens sit on the Pentax camera now?

Looking from the front, it fits best about at the 3:00 o'clock position. Another measure is that a PK lens in a PK mount has about 15mm of lens bayonet flag gripping the camera mount lugs, while the modded C/Y lens has about 10mm of grip. And the lens achieves infinity focus.

I picked up a Hanimex M42 with a stuck aperature because it has 4 screws holding it to the lens body exactly like my Yashica does, and they look to be positioned in exactly the same places in both lenses...
My question is What happens to the two lever arms in the 55mm when you change the mount to M42? Is such a conversion of that lens not possible because of those? Is converting the 55mm to PK the only possiblility?

I don't know about M42 conversion. I look at M42 Hanimex 28/2.8 and Porst 35/2.8 bases with the same 4-screw pattern as your sacrificial Hanimex, and their mounts seem too thick.

With the PK mod I describe above, those two lever arms seem irrelevant. On my PK cameras, the C/Y lens operates manually, with no aperture linkage. But the lens should still work normally on a C/Y body. I considered replacing the C/Y mount with a flanged M42-PK mount but that would have meant cutting off those lever arms. One of those arms opens the aperture, the other transmits aperture information to the C/Y camera. Maybe they wouldn't be missed in conversion. Maybe they would be. I just don't want to f**k with them.

[magkelly]

I love the C/Y lenses I have. They're all excellent and I'd love to be able to use them on a Pentax but that would mean converting them and losing them for use on my FRI which I also really like. Somebody really needs to figure out a way to do this that doesn't require butchering the C/Y lenses. There's an awful lot of really good C/Y glass out there. It's a shame you can't use it on Pentax with one.

[RioRico]

Somebody really needs to figure out a way to do this that doesn't require butchering the C/Y lenses.

I'd say that my mod is more like shaving than butchering. Tapering the bayonet flags is really quite minor surgery. A shorn lens is no longer pristine, but should be completely usable on a C/Y mount camera.

Over at MFLenses.Com someone posted a reversible camera mod, replacing a Pentax film camera's PK mount with a Nikon mount. I doubt that is feasible with a PK dSLR though. But it's an interesting approach.

[Lacyt]

Yeah, I guess I'm with you, Rio. I really don't have the skills or the desire to hack into the Yashica with only HOPE that it would still be functional on a Pentax. So, I think I'll sell it as a Yashica. I paid only $10 for it at a local antique mall. Surely it will turn a bit of a profit elsewhere. This little gem can help finance a nice Pentax mount macro instead.

I got my son an older (1990s w/Ricoh pin that I removed) Sigma 50/2.8 macro that he fell in love with at first shutter click. I also have a Kobori Vivitar 70-210 that does 1:1 macro at 210mm. Wow! I've used it successfully handheld (shock!), and though it's slender, it's a bit heavy and long for me. Very sharp, though, and legendary Vivitar buttery smooth bokeh!

If anyone is interested in the Yashica macro, let me know!

[DanielT74]

Has anyone got an idea about converting a Contax T* Distagon 15/3.5 which seems to be the same as out Pentax K 15/3.5?