adapting Contax RF to Leica M

räuber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

I try to find a working solution to adapt a Contax RF Carl Zeiss Sonnar 5cm F1.5 to Leica M mount. I spend some money but as it stands now it seems I just dumped that money. Are there any other users here that solved this and how?

Here are my experiences so far.

* I bought a 80 bugs Ukraine CRF -> Leica M adapter made from a Kiev camera. Looks ok. BUT it can't focus down to 1 meter. And the worst of all, it has some severe light leak issues. With a lens cap put on you can see the light coming from left and right and reflecting in the chrome adapter ring.

* I bought a 80 bugs China CRF -> Leica M adapter without distance scale. Looks gut. BUT it has no helicoid! You can rotate the lens but can not focus at all. The seller mentioned this with no word. One might use it on a near focus adapter on a Sony Alpha or Nikon Z. But you can't use it on a Leica M body. Or do I miss something?!

* There is a 80 bugs Yeenon CRF -> Leica M adapter. But as I see it it has no helicoid as well. It is intended to be used on a helicoid adapter for mirrorless cameras. Isn't it?

* There is a 370 bugs Kipon CRF -> L39 Adapter. You can use a L39 -> Leica M Adapter to get it to Leica M. After the experience with the China adapter that looks similar to this one I'm hesitating to spend 430 bugs for a solution that might not have a helicoid as well.

* There are those 350 bugs Amedeo CRF -> Leica M adapters too. Beautiful and there is one that even has a reversed focusing direction to match the Leica direction. BUT they are sold out everywhere. You can not buy a single one.

Did I miss something?

Alun Thomas · Joined: 20 Aug 2018 Posts: 628 Location: New Zealand

I bought a similar adapter from Aliexpress in china. This one does focus, down to about 800mm, not as close as I'd like, but acceptable for my use. Link:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002924356562.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.50a24c4dpgNCPW

Is this similar to the one you bought?

If you're feeling rich (and lucky) see if you can locate an Orion adapter second hand:

https://www.cameraquest.com/adapter.htm

fiftyonepointsix · Joined: 30 Apr 2017 Posts: 292

I bought this one for under $70. I needed to use black marker to reduce reflections.

https://cameraderie.org/threads/inexpensive-adapter-nikon-rf-to-leica-thread-mount-70.48673/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284434413650

tb_a · Expire: 2019-08-28

Maybe it's better to buy a Jupiter-3 in M39. Most probably no visible difference to the old RF Contax lens and adapter troubles are solved.

BTW, I have one of the war time CZJ 135 sonnars in M39 and testet it against the Jupiter-11 in M39. Not even on my A7R II in pixel peeping mode I could dedect any differences.

räuber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

fiftyonepointsix · Joined: 30 Apr 2017 Posts: 292

The Fotofox adapter that I showed has a helical, and is RF coupled. I am using it with an 8.5cm F4 Triotar.
For 5cm F1.5, I would recommend Amedeo's dedicated internal mount adapter. It has an indexed Cam for precise focusing. That is what I use for my post-war 50/1.5 Opton.

This is with my 1934 CZJ 5cm F1.5 Sonnar on the M9, wide-open.

Warm November day by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

sonnar_1607_4 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

The pre-war CZJ 5cm F1.5 Sonnar is uncoated, and gives a different color rendering from the J-3. Quality of J-3's vary greatly. I've cherry picked mine over the last 18 years and have the best of the best, having handled more than 200 of them. I've gone through 10 Valdai J-3's to get a great one.

L1007938-Edit by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

valdai_on_M9 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

And this one took a complete rebuild including grinding down the mount to move the helical in deeper before it could be used.

fiftyonepointsix · Joined: 30 Apr 2017 Posts: 292

Eight is Enough.

Eight is Enough by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

1934 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar on the M9, perhaps the first batch that can be converted to Leica mount using a J-3 focus mount.
1935 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar, front element is Coated- first Sonnar that I converted to Leica Mount.
1936 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar, uncoated- very sharp same batch as the one next to it.
1936 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar, all surfaces are coated- a few lenses from this batch were pulled to try out the new coating equipment.
1938 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar T, fully coated and marked with "T" for transparent, Marked F11 but goes to F16.
I converted these five lenses to Leica Mount.

These three are original Leica Thread Mount.
1943 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar "T", recomputed optics, new metal alloy fixtures, original Leica Thread Mount.
1945 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar "T" on the Canon 7, note "black nose" for filter ring, original Leica Thread Mount.
1946 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Spnnar "T", post-war lens, "transition lens" as I call it. I needed to replace the middle triplet on this one, the original was unfinished.

All of these required a complete teardown and a lot of time spent cleaning, lubing, and adjusting. They are cherry-picked from more than 50 Sonnar 5cm F1,5s that I've gone through.

Some pictures of truly strange Sonnars:
https://ibb.co/album/x3TbSB

KEO · Joined: 27 Sep 2018 Posts: 760 Location: USA

räuber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

For those looking for a Contax RF to Leica or Mirrorless adapter I will share my experience here. I might burn some guys business with my little story but some people might find it helpful.

Here are the Contax RF adapters I bought lately.

#1

From left to right:

Ukraine Contax RF -> Sony E Mount adapter
Ukraine Contax RF -> Leica M adapter
Chinese Contax RF -> Leica M adapter
Fotofox Contax RF -> Leica M39 adapter + Urth Leica M39 -> Leica M adapter
Yeenon Contax RF -> Leica M adapter -> Sony E Mount close focus adapter

Ukraine Contax RF -> Sony E Mount adapter

came with a free Jupiter lens, 75 bucks
custom made from a Kiev camera so should fit all Contax lenses
infinity is ok, MFD is ok, distance scale works
looks cool with the old Contax RF distance scale and all this chrome
it has no MFD lock so you can screw the focus tube further and get a fancy close focus adapter
bad: the guy who assembled the adapter mixed up top and bottom, so the focusing mark is on the bottom of the camera

#1

#2

#3

close focus adapter Very Happy

#4

180 degree wrong turned adapter.

#5

räuber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

Ukraine Contax RF -> Leica M adapter

80 bucks, advertised to be usable with Techart Pro adapter
custom made from a Kiev camera so should fit all Contax lenses
infinity is ok, MFD is NOT ok, distance scale not really works
looks cool with the old Contax RF distance scale and all this chrome
it has a hard MFD lock
bad: the guy who assembled the adapter measured it wrong, it is 1mm to short so you will not the 1m MFD, MFD using this adapter is 1.3m - 1.4m
bad: the guy who assembled the adapter cut a lot of the metal thread of the Kiev mount away, way to much is cut so that there is a severe issue with light leaking into the adapter and causing reflections, even painting the inner adapter with black did not help much

#1

#2

You can see how only a small part of the inner Kiew mount tube is left. This causes severe light leakage.

#3

räuber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

Chinese Contax RF -> Leica M adapter

90 bucks
very well made adapter with good build quality but without a distance scale
infinity is ok, MFD is ok, no distance scale
bad: I thought my adapter was faulty or fake because I could not focus with it, The adapter turned cycles but did not focus at all, it turned out that the screws where to loose, if you tighten them to much you can't turn the focusing ring, if you do not tighten enough the focus ring will not move up and down, after (disassembling and) tighten the screws the adapter is finally usable

#1

#2

#3

Fotofox Contax RF -> Leica M39 adapter + Urth Leica M39 -> Leica M adapter

90 bucks
very well made adapter with good build quality but without a distance scale
infinity is ok, MFD is ok, no distance scale
needs an additional L39 -> LM adapter for usage with Leica M cameras
attention: you have to be careful not to unscrew the L39 adapter when focusing, the L39 adapter will not lock, the Contax RF adapter is slightly stiff so you need some force and this can cause loosening the screw adapter

#1

#2

#3

Rear side with additional L35 -> LM adapter.

#4

räuber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

Yeenon Contax RF -> Leica M adapter -> Sony E Mount close focus adapter

230 bucks
new adapter from Yeenon designed for Contax RF
infinity is ok, MFD is ok, no scale
very nice build quality and chrome look
consists of a Contax RF -> Leica M adapter and a close focus adapter Leica M -> Sony E Mount
attention: the Contax RF adapter has no focus function, it is a simple metal pipe to mount a Contax RF lens without focusing helicoid, you can not use this Contax RF adapter on a Leica M camera
attention: you need a close focus adapter to focus the Contax RF adapter (and lens)! it is designed for Mirrorless camera use only
attention: you focus the lens by using the close focus adapter only
very narrow close focus possible with this Yeenon close focus adapter
nice: you can focus with the used focus direction of new lenses instead of the reverse Contax RF focus direction
nice: since the lens does not turn when focusing the aperture ring of the lens stays in one place (on top), better usability of the aperture ring

#1

#2

#3

With attached close focus adapter.

#4

#5

#6

With and without close focusing.

#7

#8

Last thoughts

After spending a lot of money for adapting Contax RF lenses to Mirrorless cameras I can say there is no cheap adapter solution. The cheapest working solutions are not of high quality and you might regret it later.

The Chinese adapters are good enough for longer use. But the way to go would be a Amedeo adapter. I wish I was able to get one. Unfortunately Ebay has none, CameraQuest has none and those that own one will not sell them. Wink

The second best would be a Kippon adapter for the same money but with the caveat that it is Leica M39.

I found a nice side effect of playing around with all these adapters. You can mix a close focus adapter with a Contax RF focus adapter. For example the Yeenon close focus Leica M -> Sony E adapter + Chinese Contax RF -> Leica M adapter. That way you get a real close focus adapter! Very Happy

#1

#2

#3

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

titrisol70 · Joined: 14 Dec 2021 Posts: 149 Location: State of Denial

Thanks for the comparison!
Using this old lenses is still fun

KEO · Joined: 27 Sep 2018 Posts: 760 Location: USA

FWIW, I use a Ukrainian CRF to FX adapter made from an old Kiev, and it works great - no problem at all. I've got two of them, actually.

I must reiterate though, that I recommend a separate adapter for the CRF external bayonet lenses. The homemade Kiev adapters are fine for the lightweight 50mm lenses, but they don't have the durability for long term use with bigger lenses.

arozenfeld · Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:35 am Post subject:

Thank you guys for all the information!
For me, adapting Contax RF to mirrorless was very easy. Got the home-made Ukrainian adapter and it focuses well, much closer even than MFD. Since I shoot portraits mainly, I am not sure I checked too much for infinity, to tell the truth.
But I am struggling with what to get to use these lenses on film. The Amedeo adapters seem excellent but they are not only expensive, I may need two different ones.
My priorities are using 1) Zeiss Sonnar 85mm f/2 and 2) 50mm lenses like Opton Sonnar 50 1.5 or Helios-103 on my Bessa R3M or Canon 7. If I also could use 3) Jupiter-12 on either camera, it would be a great bonus.
Is any of the more affordable adapters going to work with reasonably accuracy on my rangefinder cameras with these lenses? Or maybe buying two different adapters for the 85mm and the 50mm lenses, as long as they are not terribly expensive?
Thank you!

PS: I am so frustrated, because I am considering this route now, after I got very nice, L39 Jupiter 9 and Jupiter 12 for this purpose and focus is terribly off for both at close distances on my Bessa and Canon 7! My Jupiter 3 seems reasonably usable.

KEO · Joined: 27 Sep 2018 Posts: 760 Location: USA

räuber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

I would vote for a separate CRF external mount adapter for the Sonnar 85mm too. Those adapters are pretty cheap and easy. What is good since they allow mounting the lens and have no moving parts that can fail.

The Yeenon Contax RF adapter can be bought with a separate CRF external and internal adapter. I noticed lately that the internal mount adapter from Yeenon has some trouble mounting some of my Sonnar 5cm lenses. The measurement of this adapter is very tight and that will cause trouble with some lenses where the mounts spacing are a little bit tight by default. Even on different Contax / Kiev bodies this issue exist. So an adapter with higher tolerance would be better with this old lenses.

My suggestion is to get an helicoid adapter to M-Mount and a second Contax RF -> M-Mount adapter. That way you get close focus focusing and have not need to rotate the lens. A little nuisance with the inner Contax RF mount is that you rotate the whole lens to focus it. That way the aperture display will move too. To look up or alter the aperture you have to search for it when you use the Contax RF inner mount focusing. With a helicoid you focus with the helicoid and do not need to turn / rotate the lens at all. The aperture stays in place where you like it.

Fun fact: the Carl Zeiss Opton Sonnar 50mm f1.5 has 2 aperture scales so when you turn the lens you can see one of those 2 scales all the time. Problem solved. Very Happy

Alun Thomas · Joined: 20 Aug 2018 Posts: 628 Location: New Zealand

#1

#2

Recently I bought another adapter, it wasn't actually for this reason, but to allow use of a Rubin Zoom lens I bought with my DKL-Leica M then Leica M - Leica L setup. The Leica M to Leica L has a small helicoid in it which extends 5mm, as well as the extension given by the RF to M adapter. This enabled focus to about 350mm for a Helios 103, not too bad. Of course it cost another US$80, to mean about $160 for the whole setup. If you use a lot of Camera X - Leica M intermediate adapters, this can get some nice close focus results for older or RF type lenses.