Sunday, January 31, 2016

The [Fixed] Rangefinder Lens Craze

I have been taking out lenses from rangefinder cameras to be used on digital for a while now, but usually only on German made ones, because they are so much simpler.  I took apart a couple of Japanese ones, namely the Minolta Hi-Matic and a Yashica with a 45mm f1.7 lenses.  Both ended up failed attempts due to their very complicated construction.  But I have Matt and Ian to blame for all the rangefinder lenses they shared on their Flickr streams, and of course, they made everything look so easy.  So I started to experiment with the Japanese rangefinder cameras again.

Failed attempt - only the gut is left, but still usable on the helicoid.  This lens is from either the Hi-Matic S or Yashica Electro 35.  It's a 45mm f1.7 lens.

The very well regarded Zuiko 42mm f1.7 Lens vs the garden variety 40mm f1.7, that few other makers use (Canon, Minolta, etc).

Last week I got a few mostly broken rangefinders for my experimentation.  Some are just so beautifully made that I can't put myself through tearing them apart.  I will save those that are still working and only take apart those that aren't "perfect".

I am taking this slowly, and try to take the time to understand how they are put together, so that when I take them apart, I can still adjust the aperture/focus.  Many of these that I disassembled, have seized aperture rings.  I am not a patient person and sometimes I just wanted to take them out quickly and used excessive force when seemingly there are no way to remove certain parts of the lens.  These usually ended up as lenses with no aperture control, and being used on the focus helicoid.  I try to preserve as much as possible the built-in focus mechanism, but the side effect is that each one will need its own mount, which will add to the cost.  It also means no close focusing capabilities.

Some recent additions.

The reason I like these rangefinder lenses, is because they usually have pretty fast maximum apertures (f1.7, f2, etc) and they have short flange distance, which match up nicely with mirrorless cameras, especially the full frame A7 series.  Let's not forget the most important aspect of these gems, that they have very nice, sometimes unusual rendering characteristics not found in your kit lens or even the very expensive, well corrected fast primes.  These things are sometimes like drugs; once get hooked, it has to go through its course to recover, and sometimes you don't!

Yashican Color-Yashinon DX 45mm f1.7 on Sony A7.  Looks nice, no?

Empty Milkweed Pod - Nikkor-H 48mm f2 from Nikkorex

14 comments:

  1. Superb image, defines the word "painterly"

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  2. Of the fixed lenses that you have taken off from camera bodies, which ones were relatively simple to remove? I am considering looking into doing the same since I find that SLR vintage adapted lenses on mirrorless cameras protrude unnecessarily too far because of the long adapter needed.

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    1. I find the older German rangefinders are much easier to do. If you intend to use the lens' own focusing, it's sometimes easier if you retain the lens board.

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  3. Very interesting work, fun to watch ! I also love dalemark including German, but very good Soviet lenses industar-73, industar-63, industar-70. This camera LOMO-135, Zorki-10, Falcon-automatic and many other. I think if You try them you will like. Good luck and all the best !!!

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  4. Nice idea to use those old rangefinder lenses. I wonder if I could mount one on my 5Dii close enough to the focal plane to get infinity focus. Nice with the A7 you have room for a helicoid.
    I find that I've amassed a collection of m42 Takumars that I really like.
    I like your blog- keep it up and post more pictures !

    Ford

    http://fordbailey.com

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    1. I would say most rangefinder lenses would not work on the Canon. The flange is just too short, evening using the built-in focus mechanism. However, you might be able to use one like a macro lens for close focus only.

      Takumars are very fine lenses that I like too!

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  5. Hi there - can you tell me about the lens hood you have fitted to the Yashica 45mm? I'm puzzled to see that it says "24mm 28mm", but the 45/1.7 has a 55mm filter thread!

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    1. Hi, the 24mm 28mm on the hood refers to the focal length of the lenses it could be used, not the size of the hood itself. The hood was originally made for the Konica SLR lenses.

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  6. Hi, would you share some info about the way you connect the 58mm focus helicoid to the A7 bayonet, please ? Thank you for the great idea ! :)

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  7. hi men, I very very like your work with rangefinder's lens. I want to do one, but I don't know about the Lens flange distance oh these lens. Can you show me how to calculate the Lens flange distance of these lens to creat mount adapter ? Thanks you very very much :)

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    1. Pretty much every rangefinder lens has a different flange distance. There seem to be no standards. What I usually do, is after taking the lens out, is to hold it against the camera and move the lens until infinity focus is achieved, then measure the distance between the lens and the mount. That's the amount of space required between the lens and the camera. Of course this is approximate. You will still to get precise infinity focus by trial and error. Good luck.

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    2. yeah, thanks you very very much :)

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