What cameras used M42 lenses ?

BADGER.BRAD

BADGER.BRAD

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I have a few M42 lenses which I used on an old Praktica, The view finder is so dirty it's now affecting it's use, I'm going to try to fix this but I may well kill it ! but I wondered which other cameras used M42 ? I'm looking for something quite small rather than the Zenit Bricks !
 
Pentax Spotmatics, Practika you know about, I believe there may have been some others (according to Wikipedia); I have an M42 to M4/3 adapter to use my old Pentax lenses on my Olympus digital kit when I feel like it.
 
Zenith, Practica, Pentax, Fujica, and I'm sure a lot more. It was a fairly common fitting back in the day. My personal fav was the Fujica stx605n (I think) still it somewhere.
 
Cosina did a range of M42 cameras, CSL, CSR, CSM. I find my CSL quite nice to use, stopped-down metering, nice smooth winding.
 
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The Contax S and D (the first "modern" SLRs with built in pentaprisms, Ricoh (some made by Cosina as noted above) The later Petri SLRs, The later Mamiya 35mm SLRs, various "rebadged" types such as the Prinzflex in the UK or Porst in Germany, the Olympus FTL (predecessor to the OM series) - It's actually easier to say which makes didn't use the 42mm screw mount.
 
Probably more than didn't in the 35mm SLR era of the 60's and 70's.

I have quite a few used with an adaptor for my Olympus EM1 MkII. I particularly like the Helios 44-2 and the Pentax 50mm F/1.4.
 
Wow ! Thanks for all the replies everyone, It gives me quite a selection to look for. I have various lenses including The Helios 44m from my dads Zenit as I remember and I think two lenses by Prinzflex, Centon and a couple of fairly short zooms 28-70 ish cannot remember the names off hand Some of which I have used on my Digital stuff.
 
You can use a M42 adapter for many more modern cameras that are not for screw lenses, BUT the M42 lens has to have the built in switch for stopping down as modern cameras can't operate the lens for stopping down. Of course older preset lenses there is no problem.
 
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Plus Edixa. It used to be called the Edixa/Pentax screw.
 
excalibur2 said:
You can use a M42 adapter for many more modern cameras that are not for screw lenses, BUT the M42 lens has to have the built in switch for stopping down as modern cameras can't operate the lens for stopping down. Of course older preset lenses there is no problem.
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An old trick for using automatic Pentax screw lenses on a camera without an actuator was to tape a small piece of card over the pin. This was mainly used with the Zenith cameras, old Contaxes and early Prakticas - most other cameras had an actuator bar.
 
One of the most advanced M42 camera was the Chinon Memotron II, mine was great until it stopped working and can't remember why I threw it away :rolleyes:
www.filmshooterscollective.com

Chinon Memotron II 35mm film SLR camera | Jane McLoughlin | Film Shooters Collective

My display case at home contains too many 35mm SLR cameras. Beautiful, elegant examples from some of the big names in film camera manufacturing; Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Minolta, Konica, stare wistfully through the glass. The cameras are from my brief yet intense period of searching for my perfect 35mm
www.filmshooterscollective.com www.filmshooterscollective.com
 
The Pentax S1A is a very nice solid smallish camera, and they're not overpriced.
 
I think you may find this is the complete list of M42 cameras.

M42 Mount Cameras List

M42 Mount Cameras List
www.kentfaith.com www.kentfaith.com
 
The smallest M42 camera I had (and it was small) was the Petri MF-1, I liked it but couldn't cure an intermittent light leak (tried everything as it was a challenge)......but gave up and threw it away erm £1.50 wasted :rolleyes:
 
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medwaygreen said:
I think you may find this is the complete list of M42 cameras.

M42 Mount Cameras List

M42 Mount Cameras List
www.kentfaith.com www.kentfaith.com
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Not quite accurate. I looked to check the Edixas, but spotted the Exa 1a in the list. The very late runs of some Ihagee cameras (after the take over) used the Pentax screw rather than the Exakta bayonet. If I'd been asked, I would have said that the Exa 1as were all bayonet, and the screw was the later non-a models, but I assume I'm wrong.

What I can say is that the bayonet mount can be easily removed and replaced with a screw thread, so this may have been done to some copies.

Conclusion - a good list for a first check, but may not be 100% accurate for any given camera.
 
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I have been having a closer look and I think that the 1a shown above has maybe had the model plate changed from 1b to 1a.
There are name plates for sale even now.
 
medwaygreen said:
I have been having a closer look and I think that the 1a shown above has maybe had the model plate changed from 1b to 1a.
There are name plates for sale even now.
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I didn't know there was such a thing as a 1B. how do you tell?
 
Plain Nev said:
I didn't know there was such a thing as a 1B. how do you tell?
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There wasn't.

The "1b" (note the lower case "b") had the Praktica M42 mount - so far as I know, it was otherwise identical to the "1a" which came with the Exakta bayonet mount.
 
That's interesting. I didn't know that.
 
Just to add to the confusion, it used to be possible (and, therefore, still is) to easily swap the bayonet mount for a screw. The lens mount is only attached by accessible screws, and the alternative screw mount was available. Naturally, since the Exakta system used an external automatic diaphragm and screw mount lenses didn't, it was only of use with manual or pre set diaphragm lenses.

Topcon (and some Miranda cameras) used the same bayonet. but because they (unlike the Exakta) used a right handed position for the shutter release, mounted the lenses upside down (from an Exakta perspective) to engage the release on the other side of the camera.

My first SLR was an Exa IIb, and my second a Varex IIb. If the shutter hadn't failed I would probably never have switched to Olympus. I still have some Exaktas (lovely cameras) and an Exa500 picked up at The Photography Show with a couple of lenses and some useful accessories for £30 the lot.
 
I've just been looking at pictures of Exas. The shutter speed dials on the 1b and 1c were different to those on the 1a. The ebay photo shows a camera with the 1b or 1c dial, so a modified name plate.
 
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