The joys of adapters.

[gizmo2071]

It has taken me a long time to get around to doing it, but I have finally purchased a M42 adapter for my EOS systems.
I've got pentax and Zenits sitting in boxes with some really great lenses, but they havn't been used for years.
So I picked up my adapter and was slightly disappointed when i realised that it wouldn't hold the aperture pin down when attached to my camera.
So with there being 0% chance of me wanting to shoot everything at 00 aperture I had to do some DIY work on my lenses.

But first I actually checked and tested they were all working fine.
On 2 of the lenses the aperture doesn't seem to be working at all.
I've tried holding the pin down, moving it between A and M. Nothing.... so I was a bit bemused.

I figured out that on the one, the spirals were just sticking and worked if I kept twisting the focus and ring and the aperture ring.

On the other... I am toally bemused. There's reason for it not to be working. It's only a Makinon 135mm Macro f/2.8 lens and I know it's not fantastic a lens, but it's still a semi macro lens that i don't own digitally and I think it's quite sharp on the tests I've done using 00 aperture.

I've taken all the lenses apart and modified them so the aperture pin stays down or in other ways to get the aperture to work while on my EOS's.... all apart from this Makinon.
I just can't see why it won't work. I think I've done more damage than good to it at the moment. I've looked at how it works and what each component does, and to me it looks like theres a piece missing or broken. I'd guess not broken as I can't find any bits or hear and rattles. but i'd also say not missing as i used to use the lens alot and this is the first time I've ever taken the back off.
I've got it to work between f/22 and f/5.6 but it won't go lower and the ring feels a little lose. >_<

I have no idea what good this thread is going to do, but it made me feel better about it.

Matt

 

[Steph]

I don't understand why you had to modify your lenses to use them with your adapter. The lens should work by setting the switch on M and using stopdown metering... Am I missing something?

 

[gizmo2071]

Most of my lenses don't have the M and A switch.
Only a couple, and those were not modified. ( apart from the makinon which just wasn't working in the first place)
So the ones without the M or A switch coudn't have the aperture set unless I had the pin held down

 

[ksmattfish]

I'm going camping this weekend with my brother. He's bringing a Pentax K1000 w/ 50mm lens, and asked me if I had any lenses he could borrow. I dug up a 500mm mirror lens and 7mm fisheye with T-mounts, and a T-mount to K-mount adapter (I need to get a T-mount to EOS adapter!). I've also got an assortment of M42 lenses and a M42 to K-mount adapter.