Meyer-Optik Primagon 35mm f/4.5 - what's this mount?

kido · Joined: 06 Jun 2013 Posts: 105 Location: Chile

Hi everyone, I'm new to MF lenses in general and to this forum in particular. Last month I got excited about the whole idea of old lenses, decided to give it a try and went shopping online Smile

Ended up with:

- Tamron 52BB 90mm 2.5 (two of these actually) + the 1:1 tube,
- Tamron CT-105 105mm 2.5,
- Tamron and Olympus teleconvertes (Olympus came paired with one of the Tamrons),
- Sears Smile

50mm 1.7,
- Sears 135mm 2.8 with its funny "macro" function (bought those Sears lenses reeealy cheap)
- Meyer-Optik Primagon 35mm f/4.5
- some big_is adapters

I'll be taming this lenses on my Canon 60D.

Since I live at the end of the world, most of these lenses are yet to arrive (or so help them God!) but the Primagon came yesterday. To tell you the truth I originally signed up to mflenses.com just to be able to buy this lens, here:

http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic,p,1321944.html

It came in one piece and seems to be in pretty nice shape considering its age. There is just one problem, looks that Aanything was mistaken about this lens having the Exakta mount. Did some digging and to my unexperienced eye it looks more like the Praktina mount. But since that's what I am: unexperienced, I took some quick snapshots an prefer to ask the experts. What does it look like to you and what options (if any) do I have fitting it on EOS:

You can see that screws holding the black ring-mount were obviously moved before, so I went ahead and did the same thing. The mount slides off without putting any fight and could be replaced with a different one, there are even more screw holes underneath (like 5-6, don't remember exactly).

Anyway, if I'm right and this is Praktina mount indeed, I imagine that getting just the mount will be as hard as getting the adapter so I'm not very optimistic about the whole thing right now. Would really appreciate some advice.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

It looks like conversions should be rather easy.
Yes its Praktina, which is irrelevant as there are no Praktina adapters to anything.

If the mount is easily removed it could easily be replaced by something else.

A good source of mounts are the common M42-Canon adapters.

When you have such an adapter, drill countersunk holes in the flange to match the available screw holes in the base of the lens, and use the existing screws to attach this new mount in the same way as the old mount.

You may have to put in some spacer rings to make infinity match, more or less. Spacers are easily made from plastic sheet I have found.

I have done a dozen of this sort of conversion, the first one may seem like a challenge but it really isn't difficult.

Aanything · Expire: 2014-05-30

I wrote a pm to you: I deeply apologize for the mistake.

If you want to keep it and try adapting it, I will partially refund.
Or if you decide it's not for you and want to send it back just let me know and I will fully refund you.
Also, since it's not the lens I tested, if some issues come out later on, just let me know any time and we'll find a solution.

I hope you believe me if I say that I had no intention to cheat, and it was only an extremely stupid but genuine mistake.

kido · Joined: 06 Jun 2013 Posts: 105 Location: Chile

Thanks for your advice luisalegria. Finally I have some time to share my findings.

I revised carefully the possibilities of adapting this lens and decided not to. Sheer M42-EOS adapter wouldn't do for two reasons:

1. The inner flange has too large a diameter so adapting it to fit the existing holes would be more complicated than just drilling
2. As you can see on the photos I posted, the black ring/mount is screwed to the bottom side of the lens but it also has side walls. These walls are there for a reason as they support two pins that serve a purpose of a guide for the focusing system.

In conclusion, adapting this lens using only the M42 adapter and somehow locking these two pins would be a true handicraft and I'd feel bad about it Smile

While searching for possible solutions I've found (mostly on German forums) that the most common solution is to hunt a Praktina extension tube. After some precise dimensioning you can use one of those combined with the M42 adapter to produce a working adapter as described here:

http://www.dslr-forum.de/showthread.php?t=539723
http://www.praktinafan.de/kw-dresden-praktina/Praktina-EOS-Adapter.html

Of course, buying Praktina macro tubes is neither easy nor cheap.

If my grandpa would have left me a Praktina mount Zeiss lens collection, I'd probably be more determined to look for a viable solution. Since it's just this one lens, it really doesn't seem to make much sense. Simply put: if I would like to do a proper adaptation, its cost could surpass buying the Primagon again. And to be completely honest that's exactly what I did: bought the one our admin Attila was selling and as soon as I put a description together, I'll try and sell the Praktina lens to some Praktina fan Smile

Just to clear the air I must add that the seller, Aanything, acted great and is a very honorable person. Once the mistake was discovered, he offered me the possibility of sending this lens back and refunding what I've paid. I completely believe it was a honest mistake, especially that while searching the internet I've found it has been made before. Finally I decided not to send it back because it'd just add the shipping cost and damage risk to the lens that seems to be in nice condition.

On a side note, I've found that there are some Praktina adapters on the market. According to the description it will fit Praktina IIa and Praktina FX lenses and the manufacturer offers 3 options:

Praktina - Sony NEX
Praktina - Samsung NX
Praktina - Micro Four Thirds

You can order these here:
http://www.rrlens.com/shop.html#!/~/product/category=0&id=19693116

Price is steep, but maybe someone can justify it, so I'm sharing what I've found