contax c/y lenses on m mount cameras?

[rbelyell]

i just saw this adapter on ebay and, frankly, i dont understand how this can work, especially at infinity?!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ELEFOTO-Adapter-Contax-C-Y-Zeiss-lens-Leica-M-M7-M6-/250541149176?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a556a8bf8#ht_4480wt_960

if anyone can help me understand this, i would be most grateful!
tony

[Orio]

I have this adapter. Of course the Contax/Yashica lens can not be rangefinder-coupled to an M camera. This means that you need a separate rangefinder (such as those old ones that can be fit on the camera's flash shoe). Then adjust the focusing on the lens by means of the printed scale. This of course can give very coarse result depending on how precise the rangefinder and how precise the distance scale on the lens after having been mounted on the adapter. If you shoot a digital Leica, the preview LCD is your friend. If you shoot a film M camera, you're completely on your own luck (or lack thereof).

Another difficulty is framing, if your M camera offers some frame selection you'll need to activate it manually, if not (or if the lens that you use is of a focal lenght for which there is not a frame built in your camera) then you need to use a separate viewfinder that matches the lens. Expect huge parallax errors when focusing close.

All in all, it is a totally impractical solution for photography. I was aware of this when I bought the adapter. I only bought it for testing purposes, as I was interested to test the Contax lenses on a camera that has no AA filter, such as the M9.
If you don't have testing purposes, and "only" want to photograph, I strongly advice against this way.
_

[Seele]

A fair while ago Novoflex also made adapters for fitting SLR lenses to CRF cameras; I have two, for putting Minolta amd M42 lenses to screw-mount Leica bodies. Like Orio said, focussing has to be done without the use of the rangefinder, but I like to scare people when shooting blind with my Minolta 16/2.8 on my Bessa R: at least the exposure meter works!

[rbelyell]

yes, thank you both, it seems like a great deal of trouble for not great result. the ad made it seem as though this was a photographers dream come true! more like a little nightmare....