[Buddha Jones]

I am curious, aside from M42 usage, what is the easiest lens make to adapt or get a convertor for to fit on a K mount body. I don't care about AF and metering is not a huge concern but would be nice to have. Like making an Olympus or Minolta fit a Pentax, how hard is that to do?

[Lowell Goudge]

I will take a stab at this.

Based upon the registration distance (lens mount to film/sensor plane) Contax/Yashica is identical to pentax at 45.5 mm and therefore should be the easiest to modify for correct focus at infinity.

Olympus OM is at 46 mm and would need .5mm (.0197 inch) of shim
Nikon F is at 46.5 and would need 1 mm (.0394 inch) of shim

these would be the easiest to mount using either a mount recovered from a scrap K mount lens, or by using a flanged M42 adaptor and drilling screw holes to suit.

[farfisa]

I will take a stab at this.

Based upon the registration distance (lens mount to film/sensor plane) Contax/Yashica is identical to pentax at 45.5 mm and therefore should be the easiest to modify for correct focus at infinity.

Olympus OM is at 46 mm and would need .5mm (.0197 inch) of shim
Nikon F is at 46.5 and would need 1 mm (.0394 inch) of shim

these would be the easiest to mount using either a mount recovered from a scrap K mount lens, or by using a flanged M42 adaptor and drilling screw holes to suit.

There are a few threads here now that talk about the Nikon F lenses being converted for Pentax.

"Easy" is relative, I guess But as Lowell says, anything the same or a bit longer will be the easiest. Anything shorter will require optics, which is why nobody adapts things for Nikon. Canon and the 4/3rds cameras are so easy to adapt for because they have the shortest register distance.

Here's a good chart with register distances too:
mounts.htm

[stevebrot]

There have been some posts on this site regarding conversion for both Minolta and Konica. While the registration distance is less that Pentax, apparently the mounts themselves were thick enough to allow infinity focus when replaced with a thin k-mount. It was some time ago, but the results were extremely impressive.

Steve

[redpigeons]

The easiest way to convert a lens is to complain here on the forum..

Like so:

"but Nikon have this zoom".. and "canon have this prime" and so on...

Its free, you can do it literally from the comfort of your own bedroom , and who knows maybe one day you will get the lens you want .

P.S

its also the easiest way to build a FF Pentax body

[georgweb]

Hi Buddha,

+1 for the Contax conversion. I've done a quick and dirty one on the Contax Planar 1.7/50. Just loosen the 3 most backward screws (that's behind the flange), put some spacer material in between, fasten screws, done. That makes for a lens which can be mounted and used (on K100D) but for security the minimum should be a drilled hole to accustom the PK-locking pin.
Contax is a tad further out with infinity (sometimes goes, mostly doesn't). On the 1.7/50 it is easy to unscrew the name ring and adjust infinity.

I've also done an irreversible M42 conversion to a Leica Summicron R 2/50 1st version. Quite brutal, but for Leica and Contax there is a very nice offering from
Leitax (click the left side logos to get to the desired conversion)

AFAIR Aegisphan has done a lot of spreading the word on this forum about converting those renegades to the Pentax-church :-)
He posted a camera-mount conversion method which is the easiest for those with a cabinet full of renegades (I'm still too lazy but will do this to my K100D).

The best resources for the conversions is surely the alternative gear section of fredmiranda's and the manualfocusforum.

Good starting point hopefully: Other manual lenses >> PK

In the above-mentioned thread there is the link to a french thread which pictures the abundance of lenses you can put on with the camera mount conversion

One more especially for Oly to PK

Maybe the easiest is to grab your Nikon lenses and give them a try (the older the better the chances). These will either fit right onto PK or not.

Beware of anything that could trip in the screwholes or the AF-hole on the mount, Murphy's law is always in full effect :-)

Best, Georg (the other)

[RawheaD]

Not the OP but I would just like to THANK YOU for these links!!!! Awesomeness Maximus!!

Hi Buddha,

+1 for the Contax conversion. I've done a quick and dirty one on the Contax Planar 1.7/50. Just loosen the 3 most backward screws (that's behind the flange), put some spacer material in between, fasten screws, done. That makes for a lens which can be mounted and used (on K100D) but for security the minimum should be a drilled hole to accustom the PK-locking pin.
Contax is a tad further out with infinity (sometimes goes, mostly doesn't). On the 1.7/50 it is easy to unscrew the name ring and adjust infinity.

I've also done an irreversible M42 conversion to a Leica Summicron R 2/50 1st version. Quite brutal, but for Leica and Contax there is a very nice offering from
Leitax (click the left side logos to get to the desired conversion)

AFAIR Aegisphan has done a lot of spreading the word on this forum about converting those renegades to the Pentax-church :-)
He posted a camera-mount conversion method which is the easiest for those with a cabinet full of renegades (I'm still too lazy but will do this to my K100D).

The best resources for the conversions is surely the alternative gear section of fredmiranda's and the manualfocusforum.

Good starting point hopefully: Other manual lenses >> PK

In the above-mentioned thread there is the link to a french thread which pictures the abundance of lenses you can put on with the camera mount conversion

One more especially for Oly to PK

Maybe the easiest is to grab your Nikon lenses and give them a try (the older the better the chances). These will either fit right onto PK or not.

Beware of anything that could trip in the screwholes or the AF-hole on the mount, Murphy's law is always in full effect :-)

Best, Georg (the other)

[Quicksand]

Easiest would be the long-register-distance medium-format lenses like Pentax 645 and Pentacon Six. There are adapters for these on eBay. They are essentially plug-and-play.

Pentax makes its own 645-to-K adapter but it's hella expensive.

[Buddha Jones]

Well here is the resoning for my madness... I want to build a stable of Macro lenses, 50mm, 100mm and other focal lengths, but I want to use old glass, and I was thinking that older non-pentax glass would be cheaper to get, as is usually the case.

[Lowell Goudge]

Well here is the resoning for my madness... I want to build a stable of Macro lenses, 50mm, 100mm and other focal lengths, but I want to use old glass, and I was thinking that older non-pentax glass would be cheaper to get, as is usually the case.

I know where there are M42 50mm and 100mm Takumars right now, for about $100 each how cheap do you want

p.s. my interest in this is getting fast MF primes.

[Buddha Jones]

I saw the set in the MP, but they are sold IIRC. I am not sure of my budget, $100/per sounds fair, just not sure what I wanna do right now, ust exploring.

[chse]

I am curious, aside from M42 usage, what is the easiest lens make to adapt or get a convertor for to fit on a K mount body. I don't care about AF and metering is not a huge concern but would be nice to have. Like making an Olympus or Minolta fit a Pentax, how hard is that to do?

Hi I converted some Topcon lenses to Pentax, I wrote a blogspot entry about this here:
Converting Topcon lenses to Pentax K

- good luck!

[chse]

Easiest would be the long-register-distance medium-format lenses like Pentax 645 and Pentacon Six. There are adapters for these on eBay. They are essentially plug-and-play.

Pentax makes its own 645-to-K adapter but it's hella expensive.

I tried some of the russian Kiev lenses (I believe a 45mm and a 90mm) with such a converter, but the results were disappointing- compared to 35mm lenses of the same length the resolution is much lower.