An M39/Leica Vivitar ? A most unusual adapter

[luisalegria]

Just a request for information -

I recently picked up a Vivitar-brand lens mount adapter, thinking it was a T-mount (I can always use another T-mount).

But it was a lot stranger than that. This thing looks rather like a T-mount, with an outer ring and an inner ring held by set screws. But the internal female thread is M39, Leica thread. The male thread on the outer ring is M42.

It came in a box marked Ponder&Best (they owned the Vivitar brand). The box is labelled simply "Camera Adapter for Vivitar lens Praktica-Pentax".

The only use of this thing would be to convert an M39 lens to M42 camera. But as far as I know Vivitar never made an M39 lens !

It gets stranger -

This thing is the wrong depth to be either an adapter for rangefinder M39 (which won't work on Pentax-Praktica mount anyway, due to the flange distance), or for Visoflex M39, as the adapter is too short.

So even if this was meant as an adapter for an M39 Vivitar lens, that lens could not have worked on any known M39 camera !

So, a mystery. Any ideas ?

[rick_oleson]

All I can think of would be an enlarging lens - I'm sure Vivitar made those in M39 mount - but that would have had no focus adjustment and so would have given just a single arbitrary focus distance.
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I don't know what I want to be when I grow up

[peterqd]

Possibly it's a M39/M42 adapter for mounting the old Zenit M39 SLR lenses on M42 cameras. I would have died for one of them years ago when my old Zenit 3M's shutter packed up and I was stuck with a useless M39 Industar 50 lens. Funnily enough I ended up using the lens on an enlarger.
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Peter - Moderator

[rick_oleson]

The register of M39 Zenit and M42 is the same, so that adapter doesn't look like a T mount .... it's just a thin ring, threaded M42 on the outside and M39 on the inside.
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I don't know what I want to be when I grow up

[peterqd]

[luisalegria]

Thats right, the M39 - M42 adapter from Russia/Ukraine is just a little ring, I have one of these.

I also have a couple of VisoflexM39-SLR type adapters (Minolta and Nikon) that came with my Komura lenses, and these are long tubes >25mm, as the Visoflex mount was very deep.

This Vivitar thing is very different.

[gcrimmins]

Such an adapter could be used to mount an enlarging lens on M42 bellows for macro photos.

--Geoff

[Odinz]

I know this is a long dead thread, but I just stumbled across it while I was trying to research a mount on an old Vivitar lens that I have.

The lens is a P&B Tele Vivitar 1:3.5 135mm two ring preset lens. It has what looks like a T mount adapter on it that threads to an M42 mount on a camera and I have always used it on my camera with an M42 mount adapter. The other day I figured that I would swap out the M42 for a T mount to PK adapter but when I went to put the adapter on it was too big on the female end. I checked and sure enough the threads on the back of the lens are 39mm not 42. The top of the mount has a recessed area so that the lens threads deeper into the mount, but the registration distance of the threads is not the same as using a standard M39 to M42 adapter so this must have been some early version of the T mount as the lens focuses just fine while using this mount with my cameras.

I have never run into this on any of my other T mounts, but I thought I would share this info. Now if I could just find an M39 to M42X.74 adapter I could swap out the mount.

Steve

[Odinz]

Here are some photos of the Vivitar P&B 135/3.5 lens. It is a two ring preset lens with 15 blades. It has an M39 thread and came with a M39-M42 T mount adapter:

The first is the ID ring on the front, the lens takes Series VII filters and came with a Series VII hood

With the mount and the lens hood attached, and the lens focused at minimum distance (full extension) it is about 5 1/2" long, it's 4 1/2" without the hood and about another 1" shorter yet again at it's minimum length.

The lens itself has a M39 thread and the adapter adapts it to M42. The lens does not sit flush on the face of the adapter like a typical T Mount to M42, but rather the lens recesses about 3/4 of the way into the mount so that the overall length of the lens is less than 1/4" longer with the adapter attached as it is without. The lens focuses from about 5 feet to infinity.

For comparison here it is next to the Pentax-M 135/3.5, a very compact 135mm lens. Both lenses weight about the same and while the Vivitar is longer it not as big around as the Pentax

[luisalegria]

Thank you, a very interesting lens. The interchangeable mount system seems to be unique.
Something new is always turning up !
In the early 1960's several makers had their own versions of a T-mount, such as the Tokina 47mm.
It seems this is another one of those odd cases.

This is the first I have seen or the actual lens, though I did have one of those odd mounts.
I have no clue as to the maker.
This lens certainly predates the Vivitar serial number system, probably from the early-mid 1960's.

BTW - whats the filter thread. The hood looks original based on the finish, but it seems to have an adapter.
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I like Pentax DSLR's, Exaktas, M42 bodies of all kinds, strange and cheap Japanese lenses, and am dabbling in medium format/Speed Graphic work.

[Odinz]

I think you might be right about there being an adapter on the front end of the lens. I never really looked at it that hard since the finish of the ring, hood and lens match so closely. I tried to remove the adapter with my typical filter wrenches and assorted other gizmos, but no luck so far once I get it loose I'll let you know. The outside diameter of the lens just below the Series VII ring is 48mm FWTW.

[Odinz]

Got it, the inside diameter reads as 46mm.

[luisalegria]

46mm was a fairly uncommon filter thread, but I have a few.
It makes sense that the maker would have provided a 46mm-Series VII adapter.
The fact that the hood is Series VII indicates an older item, as during the 1960's the Series system was being abandoned.
Its unusual to find a Series accessory on a 1960's lens.
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I like Pentax DSLR's, Exaktas, M42 bodies of all kinds, strange and cheap Japanese lenses, and am dabbling in medium format/Speed Graphic work.

[Braddanman]

Same lens

http://forum.mflenses.com/federal-135-3-5-preset-t52020.html

[Lloydy]