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Veteran Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: GTA, ON, Canada Posts: 1,673
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 23, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Allows use of legacy M42 lenses on K mount bodies | | Cons: | may wobble with lenses that have a narrow base, inconvenient to switch between K and M42 lenses | |
I have 3 of these genuine Pentax adaptors. One has the spring clip on it for days when I'm only shooting with M42 lenses, and I've removed the clips on the other 2 so that I can leave the adaptor on a lens and mount/dismount the lens as though it had a regular K mount.
One of my M42 lenses is wide enough that I've drilled a small hole in the base to engage the K mount locking pin. The rest are too narrow to use the locking pin on the body and I rely on friction between the body and the mount to keep them in place.
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Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: Florida Gulfer Posts: 3,054 | | Review Date: July 10, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Works great with the M/42 glass | | Cons: | Tricky to remove adapter | |
Don't settle for any other adapter for your screw mount lenses. This is the best and only one you should spend your money on.
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Veteran Member Registered: June, 2008 Location: Limbo, California Posts: 11,263
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 25, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | safe, vanilla | | Cons: | tedious, costly | |
Basically, three types of M42-PK (screwmount to K-mount) adapters exist.
1) The Official Pentax Adapter, reviewed here. Adapted lenses can focus to infinity.
2) Cheap clones of (1), sometimes bearing the Bower name. Variable quality.
3) Cheap flanged adapters, shiny or painted black. Safe, but lacking infinity focus.
If you have few and ordinary screwmount lenses, buy one or more OPA's (1). I own one. I use it when I want to use unadapted screwmount lenses all day. I've grown used to screwing and unscrewing and screwing and unscrewing...
If you have many screwmount lenses, buy some of (2). I own a couple dozen. Warning: REMOVE THE SCREW AND CLIP OR YOU WILL GO APESH!T!! The clip easily becomes stuck in the camera mount and is difficult / infuriating to remove. Stripped down, it's simple: firmly screw the adapter onto a lens, using the rear lens cap as a wrench. Leave it there. The lens now might as well be a K-mount; you might even forget the adapter is on.
For special cases, use (3). I own a half-dozen. The flange pushes the lens a bit away from the camera, so infinity focus is lost. I use them on teles and scopes that normally focus past infinity, and with macro, closeup, and portrait lenses where I don't care about infinity anyway. Shiny, or with the paint filed off in the appropriate place, (3) also allows Catch-In-Focus.
Every Pentaxian with screwmount lenses should own at least one Official Pentax Adapter (1) -- but don't limit yourself. I own ~70 screwmount lenses. I cannot afford OPA's for each of them.
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Moderator
Site Supporter Registered: June, 2008 Location: Florida Hill Country Posts: 17,377 | | Review Date: August 10, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | well made and precision fit | | Cons: | | |
The genuine Pentax adapter can easily be removed with a finger nail. It allows infinity focus and is precision fit. The only improvement would be to have the inner ring to depress the auto aperture actuation pin like some other makers did such as Mamiya for auto aperture lenses that lack an A-M switch.
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Site Supporter Registered: November, 2010 Location: California Posts: 2,223
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 26, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | The best thing Pentax made to allow use of M42 lenses | | Cons: | Genuine Adapter is great, come copies are not. Bowers is good. | |
This adapter is the best thing since sliced bread. There are some cheap Chinese copies that can work, but no infinite. The Bower is well done and works fine. I had many problems trying to use M42 lenses and the adapters because I did not have instructions. However, when I bought the genuine Pentax / M42 adapter, it came with instructions and it works MARVELOUSLY. The truth is that I was then able to use my Bower adapter and found that it also works just fine. The main mistake: I was attaching the adapter to the lens, and that is not the correct way to do it. The adapter has to be attached to the camera, then the lens is screwed in and voila'. To remove the genuine adapter, you pinch the spring with a ballpoint pen and rotate and done. The Bower brings a tool to lose the spring and rotate at the same time, so it is indeed easier to use. Go and enjoy the M42 legacy lens. Here is a transcript of the instructions to install and remove the adapter:
1) Fit the adapter, matching the red dot of the adapter with the red dot of the body mount.
2) Turn the adapter clockwise until it stops (65 degrees) by using a ball-point pen or the like to lock it. Then screw-mount lenses can be used.
3) TO remove the adapter, push the spring with a ball-point pen and turn the adapter counter-clockwise until it stops.
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Loyal Site Supporter Registered: November, 2007 Location: Sparwood, BC, Canada Posts: 12,385
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 26, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | The perfect M42 adapter | | Cons: | None that I know of | |
This is the only adapter that reliably does what it is supposed to do. I've had one since the mid 1970s when I bought my first K mount camera. It clicks in solidly. It allows infinity focus. My M42 lenses fit tightly. The adapter goes on off with a fingernail. I am too anal to not use the clip.
I am astonished at those who want to save $20 and buy a cheap adapter that may or may not be easy to install or remove, or might not even allow infinity focus.
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Pentaxian Registered: April, 2011 Location: Lost in translation ... Posts: 18,076
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 26, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Works great, safest investment in the long run | | Cons: | None really - maybe see previous reviews | |
Bonjour,
This was a no-brainner for me because I have no brain and I wanted a near "zero risk" mount my newly acquired Super-Tak 55/1.8 on the brand new K-5. Gladly paid a few bucks more for having a lot of security here ... what is it, "Penny wise and pound foolish"?
Just basiclly asked myself the following: "OK, so the adapter is going to cost about 25 bucks ... not the cheapest about town ... but, how much is it going to cost me in bank funds, lost time to repair and general (in)sanity if a cheaper adapter gets jammed on the K-5?" Again, a no-brainner for me without a brain.
Salut et bon courage, J Frog | |
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Forum Member Registered: September, 2012 Location: Tokyo Posts: 72
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 25, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $12.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | It works | | Cons: | Getting expensive | |
Does what it says. I have both the "Japan" labelled Pentax one and the "Philippines" labelled one. They seem to be identical. In Tokyo, only the Philippines labelled one is widely available, and costs upwards of $50 equivalent. The Japan labelled one I found in a dusty shop in Ginza, in a big cardboard box of bits and bobs. The shop asked for 1000 yen ( $12 ) which I happily paid.
I leave the clips on, it's no hardship to remove the adapter from the body.
Paul
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Loyal Site Supporter Registered: July, 2010 Location: NW Ohio Posts: 2,094
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 13, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | it works, it's high quality, worth the price for peace of mind | | Cons: | None | |
It does the job while providing peace of mind. What more can I say? It's a simple device but some of the most simple things can cause a lot of pain in time and money. This little gadget simply does what it was designed to do. I would not trust a non-Pentax adapter on my camera.
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Loyal Site Supportaxian Registered: September, 2013 Location: Texas Posts: 503
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 3, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Precise. | | Cons: | none. | |
The real deal. Superior to cheap knock-offs. This is the one you want.
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amateur dirt farmer Registered: December, 2014 Location: probably out in a field somewhere... Posts: 41,797
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 26, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | proper fit, easy to remove (if needing to do so) | | Cons: | new prices can be prohibitive - look for a good, used copy | |
mine came in a bundle with a couple of other accessories and then sat in a box for a couple of years...
finally became confident enough to buy an M42 lens (Super Takumar 55mm f1.8) and tried it initially on one of my K-3 bodies....
liked it well enough to buy a dedicated-body to be my M42 DSLR and mounted this adapter on the camera, with the intent to never remove the adapter...
it does what it's intended to do perfectly: allow you to use M42 mount lenses on a K-mount body
a comment on current pricing - I noticed that B&H currently has them listed at $79.95, which seems ridiculously high.... check the Marketplace here, post a 'Wanted' ad, and look also on eBay for a good used copy....
used copies will still be higher than knock-offs, but you'll be getting an adapter that is designed for your camera and less likely to leave you with it stuck on the body...
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Forum Member Registered: March, 2011 Location: Ontario Posts: 89
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 1, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | It does what it supposed to. | | Cons: | Cost makes no sense | |
It delivers 100% on what it is supposed to.
The price is just outrageous though, The $15 I paid for mine was outrageous. I'm thinking of sending mine to a machining company in China to get them duplicated so I can sell them for $10 and make $9.50 apiece. I'll be rich in no time.
But hey, if you need one, you need one. Market economics
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New Member Registered: November, 2019 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: March 20, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Precision made, works exactly as it should do. | | Cons: | None | |
I have two of these, I paid approx. $35.00 for each of them, here in England.
Very well engineered Pentax product. Releases from your camera body without problem, if you find one that comes with its release key
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Senior Member Registered: July, 2023 Posts: 258 | | Review Date: October 5, 2023 | Recommended
| Rating: N/A |
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Seems price has gone up ... a LOT! B&H Photo sells the Pentax one for $99.95 now.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/673977-REG/Pentax_30120_Mount_Adapter_K.html
I got one when I bought the K3 Monochrome. It does say PENTAX etched on the adapter along with Philippines where it was made. Instruction set came with the Ricoh Pentax name change flyer and the isntruction sheet. It seems the real one.
However, when I mount an old Super-Takumar lens the red focus index mark is around the 10 o'clock postion looking at it from the front. The lens red index is not on top where I would have expected it to be. Two lenses too.
Also, the camera's metering system does not work with it. No indication on opening or closing it down on the meter's bargraph. Don't know what is going on there, other than maybe the camera needs some info from the K-mount lens contact pins for it to work. Odd.
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New Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 3 | | Review Date: January 20, 2024 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Optimal adapter for Pentax M42 | | Cons: | Not all M42 | |
I have 3 of them & work perfect for PENTAX M42 lenses mounted on K mount cameras.
Some 3rd party brands of M42 mount lenses do not seat properly, including several Yashica and Mamiya/Sekor lenses I have tried.
Severe issues with tightening, seating, wobble & misalignment are evident.
I use M42 lenses with other adapters for mirrorless cameras such as Fujifilm & have no issues or problems.
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