High quality adapters - a market research by a serious firm

bghomofaber · Joined: 03 Mar 2016 Posts: 154

Hallo all,

I have a friend who is thinking of setting up a line of well made, low tolerance lens adapters.

He is based in Southern Europe in an area where precision machinery work is a common trade.

He is also a brilliant engineer who graduated with high grades from a serious university.

he is set up for either mass production or low quantity production, in a quite flexible way.

I would like to know what you would think of a series of carefully made adapters, which would have very low tolerances and which would be subject to a decent quality control.

He might set up his machines also for low series production, and his brother could also afford some dedicated conversion work by machining new bayonets for specific lenses, on special orders, to satisfy tinkerers and repairers with a separate line of work.

prices would be higher, than ordinary chinese stuff (surely decent and honest though) but the adapters would be classic european quality with a special attention to dedicated customers need and a focus on durability and smoothness of operation.

Relationship with customers would be very good, treasuring customers suggestions, with fast response times.

Last but not least he would like to know which would be the more useful ones, what you might feel could be seriously lacking as an offer by current makers, in sum which ones would be the better candidates for production, without leaving behind more exotic adapters that could be made in low series or on specific order.

Group orders might be welcome as well.

Pls consider that he is at a pre-alpha stage, as programmers use to say, so a survey with many suggestions, however expressed, is extremely important.

ZoneV · Expire: 2011-12-02

Sounds good Smile

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7554 Location: Hong Kong

Let me know if you need someone to test the adapters as well as give suggestions for improving the design.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Happy to discuss from my engieering standpoint, as I have and had made a heck of adapters...

How would you like us to get in contact with him? Anonymous I can not allow as a moderator,
as I see the possibility that our collected knowledge might be abused... Wink

bghomofaber · Joined: 03 Mar 2016 Posts: 154

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

bghomofaber · Joined: 03 Mar 2016 Posts: 154

Himself · Expire: 2013-05-30

Would it be cheaper ( like in way cheaper ) than Novoflex but same quality?

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

Would lens opening tools be on offer? Some finer/thinner (also stronger) lens spanner (interchangable) parts would be nice. I have Chinese ones but the flat head spanner bit is too large for some of the finer rings on the lens.
See below the two flat head spanner ends are just a fraction to thick...it would be nice to buy some extra bits that could possibly fit in the spanner I have .

SVP · Expire: 2017-12-17

Very interesting indeed, and with visible potential.
I particularly like the idea of running a more exotic product line in parallel with a "normal" one. I do have some medium-format adapters in mind...

bghomofaber · Joined: 03 Mar 2016 Posts: 154

Ty for your suggestions. Everything coming up from your minds is warmly welcomed by Marco's team. I had already pointed out to his brother the necessity of making high quality spanners, so any suggestion in that field is also good. Heat treating facilities are abundant in our area as well, so well treated bits of different sizes might also have a market.

Not only but my experience at opening long zooms would suggest me to create a more flexible and precise type of spanner who would operate more safely and easily on complex lenses, being able to work in difficult to access areas.

Such spanner would not be so cheap as ebay spanners but it wouldn't cost an inordinate amount of money as well, it should be a real versatile and safe pro tool assuring long years of satisfactory use.

More broadly, any suggestion for any product that may be coming out from a precision mechanic shop is welcome.

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

a good spanner would be a great product, gaining the reputation would be biggest problem. But a lot of people, like me, would be prepared to pay a bit more for a quality product rather than taking a chance on unknown stuff from ebay; where its tempting to equate a higher price with higher quality, but we know that's not the way it is.

For adapters - I think a useful thing for people like us would be the ability to easily add or remove shims.

bghomofaber · Joined: 03 Mar 2016 Posts: 154

DConvert · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 902 Location: Essex UK

paulhofseth · Expire: 2018-06-28

In my experience, all lens mounts subject to thermal expansion were designed with mounts that also went a little bit beyond infinity. Hence the adapters should conform precisely to the original mount specs. Not a micrometre more, not one less.

Since the wide-angles suffer most from lack of precision, that might be a market, long lenses can use cheaper stuff. The large public use autofocus and many manual lens aficionados may already have secured their Novoflex etc. so the market may not be that big (even if you may gain some custom by flaunting the excellence of Italian stylish design and point to the engineering heritage of Officine Galileo, Ducati and Ferrari).

p.

bghomofaber · Joined: 03 Mar 2016 Posts: 154

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

I've got a 17mm lens in Canon FD mount that is way out in reaching infinity, it just won't do it. I've put the lens on a Canon AE1P body and it still doesn't reach infinity. So the lens is at fault. There are a few options, I could take this expensive lens apart myself and have a go at adjusting it. Probably not the best option. I could send it to a reputable repair man, which is expensive. Or, I could use an adaptor that I could adjust with shims to use the lens on my Sony A6000. I kinda like the last option, for the simple reason I can get to use the lens and see if it's worth spending the money on to get it calibrated properly.