Suggest me M42 to Nikon Adapter

[mdmosta319]

I want to use Helios 44-2 2/58 mm (M42) lens on Nikon D5200.

Suggest me thinnest adapter without glass element, for maximum focus, from china site like Aliexpress or other.

Or Should I buy adapter with glass elements to achieve infinty? As far as I know this will affect image quality.

Thank you.

 

[Frank F.]

Lots of people on Nikongear use these Russian built lenses and some even hacked them for infinity. The lens is IMO best used in the near field anyway:
Painting with Lenses

But there are several threads, esp. in the hardware hacker corner:
What the Nerds Do

PS: There are some of tzhese lenses available in F-Mount which saves a lot of brain power and does not challenge craftsmanship either

Another hack: ZENITH Helios 44m (M42) to Nikon F Mount Conversion.

 

[pixmedic]

i use Fotasy adapters for my fuji camera. i have them in several mounts and seem to work good.
just look for the adapters without glass if you dont want it.

 

[fmw]

Without glass you will lose infinity focus.

 

[mdmosta319]

Without glass you will lose infinity focus.

Some said, with glass will lose photo quality.

 

[fmw]

Without glass you will lose infinity focus.

Some said, with glass will lose photo quality.

And I agree with them. You choose between losing image quality or losing infinity focus. In general SLR lenses aren't adaptable from one mount to another. If you want to adapt SLR lenses then buy a mirrorless camera and you can have both infinity focus and good image quality.

 

[petrochemist]

In general SLR lenses aren't adaptable from one mount to another. If you want to adapt SLR lenses then buy a mirrorless camera and you can have both infinity focus and good image quality.

That's certainly true of Nikon SLRs, but less so with others. I've used M42 lenses on my PK cameras for ~30 years. There's also a large number using them with EOS cameras (several large groups on Flickr). Adapting lenses will usually loose any automatic features, but in most cases that only slows you down a little.

Mirrorless cameras are certainly more suitable for adapting lenses, actually leaving space for special alterations to the adapter to give a wider FOV, macro focusing or tilt/shift capabilities in addition to standard use. Most mirrorless cameras also have viewfinder features that help in manual focusing etc.

 

[Solarflare]

The only good option to use foreign mount lenses on Nikon is converting them with Leitax, which is only possible for a selected few of mounts.

M42 lenses however might or might not be convertible and either way Leitax doesnt really offer direct help with that.

Adapters are only a real option on Nikon F for medium format lenses. Though mounting say a honking 17.7kg Pentax 67 800mm f4 is probably very fun, its not really very practical.