HELLIOS 44mm LENS and M42 NIKON ADAPTER?

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paulkane1

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Could someone clarify something that I have read on this Forum,I have just bought a Hellios 44mm Lens(Based on a very good endorsement,on this Forum)
I have a Nikon D3200 ,so,I bought s Carl Zeiss M42 ADAPTER,with Infinity Glass Optical,(which I haven't received yet from Amazon),I have since read a article on this Forum,that because the Flange distance is less on a M42,than on a Nikon Flange distance ,the lens would intrude into the Nikon Mount,to get Inifinty Focus,and,this could damage the Nikon Mirror?Has anyone on this Forum,had this experience,or ,has anyone used the Lens and M42 Mount on a D3200 ,with no problems?

Paul
 
I don't have this combination of camera body and lens, I do have an OM lens to chipped EF adapter and also a Lens Turbo II EF to M43 focal reducer. I can therefore use most, but not all OM lenses on my Canon 5D2, some OM lenses, if fitted, will collide with the mirror. I can also use the OM lenses with a plain OM to M43 adapter or the Lens Turbo on mainly my Lumix G7. The Lens Turbo has a lens element which can also collide with the rear element of the lens, so care is needed again.
My personal view is that mirrorless cameras are much better suited to fitting legacy lenses. Focusing is much easier, especially with 10x magnified view at the press of a button and focus peaking being available on later bodies. It would be very difficult to obtain accurate manual focusing using a D3200 viewfinder or by using the fixed rear screen in live view. I'm fairly sure that the D3200 (which I used to own) does not meter with anything other than a Nikon lens which will communicate with the body. If I recall correctly, it would be necessary to upgrade to a minimum of the D7xxx series for legacy glass metering.
The Helios lens is well regarded by other users, whilst it might be possible to physically fit the lens, trying to both accurately meter and focus on the D3200 might well be a rather unsatisfactory real world arrangement. I'd buy a cheap secondhand M43 body for which almost any lens can be adapted using a plain adapter, or look at a used Sony or Fuji body for a better crop factor than the M43 body, albeit at a higher cost. I use OM, M42 and Tamron Adaptall lenses on my G7.
 
HarveyM said:
I don't have this combination of camera body and lens, I do have an OM lens to chipped EF adapter and also a Lens Turbo II EF to M43 focal reducer. I can therefore use most, but not all OM lenses on my Canon 5D2, some OM lenses, if fitted, will collide with the mirror. I can also use the OM lenses with a plain OM to M43 adapter or the Lens Turbo on mainly my Lumix G7. The Lens Turbo has a lens element which can also collide with the rear element of the lens, so care is needed again.
My personal view is that mirrorless cameras are much better suited to fitting legacy lenses. Focusing is much easier, especially with 10x magnified view at the press of a button and focus peaking being available on later bodies. It would be very difficult to obtain accurate manual focusing using a D3200 viewfinder or by using the fixed rear screen in live view. I'm fairly sure that the D3200 (which I used to own) does not meter with anything other than a Nikon lens which will communicate with the body. If I recall correctly, it would be necessary to upgrade to a minimum of the D7xxx series for legacy glass metering.
The Helios lens is well regarded by other users, whilst it might be possible to physically fit the lens, trying to both accurately meter and focus on the D3200 might well be a rather unsatisfactory real world arrangement. I'd buy a cheap secondhand M43 body for which almost any lens can be adapted using a plain adapter, or look at a used Sony or Fuji body for a better crop factor than the M43 body, albeit at a higher cost. I use OM, M42 and Tamron Adaptall lenses on my G7.
Click to expand...
Thanks a Kindly for your help.Greatly Appreciated
 
I have a D3200, and regularly use an infinity focus element adapter for M42 lenses, including Helios 44, which is actually neither 44mm nor 50, but 58mm!!! And I don't think I have fitted it to the Nik more than once TBH... its most at home on the Zenit 35mm film camera it came with TBH.... WHICH is the dilemma... because the D3200 when fitted with M42 adaptor has all the functionality of that old soviet era Russian film camera... ie not a lot!

You get absolutely NO Automatic modes enabled on the camera with the adapter; and it DOES NOT provide even hi-low metering on Manual... it works like the old meter-less Zenit; and you have to meter by the old f16 sunny rule and eye, chimp test shots and bracket; use a separate hand held meter, or another camera.. or on the Nikon, another lens to get metering and suggested settings.So it can be a fair bit of a 'faff'.

Main benefit of digital, at least to me, is actually the 'lack off faff' convenience, of shooting straight to digital and exploiting all the automation, from automatic TTL metering through Auto-focus to MOT have mess about using a hand held meter, or deciding on settings, and stuff, so whilst my old M42 lenses can deliver pretty impressive results on the digital compared to the 'kit' lenses, the 'experiment' has actually seen me make more use of the film cameras they are native to, where they aren't strangled but the crop sensor behind them, and they give the full frame field of view and perspective they should have, and scanned at 10Mpix 32bit colour resolution, they are still more than 'acceptable' digital image quality... IF I am in a mood to mess.

I bought the adapter when I first bought the D3200, primarily as I couldn't afford to buy a complete new set of lenses covering the same range I have for film cameras so I could use my old M42's until I could expand the digital kit. Only 'niggle' really was trying to mount my 12mm fish-eye, that I really loved on film cameras; knowing it was going to be strangled by the crop factor, but was still potentially a good UWA; unfortunately that lens has a rear element inboard of the mount, and wont even fit onto the adapter with the correction element in the way... which is lucky in a way, had I bought a cheaper uncorrected element, that probably would have fouled the mirror.

BUT, to allay your fears, my element corrected M42 adapter doesn't foul the mirror, or damaged it or the AI/AF connections on the camera.... so little reason to assume that a Ziess branded one would either.
 
Unfortunately Nikon DSLRs aren't a good match to most older (Nikkor excepted) lenses due to the flange depth, requiring optically corrected adapters which lower iq and act as a mild teleconverter. You also have the other issues mentioned above around entering I'm afraid. But at least your mirror is safe :)
 
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