RMS to Leica/Pentax/T2 adapters

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:27 am

Periodically people go looking for adapters to fit RMS-mount lenses on bellows etc.

Here is another source of such things: http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/ind ... opic=38248.

I believe these are from our member Klaus Schmitt (kds315*).

--Rik

Peter M. Macdonald · Post by **Peter M. Macdonald** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:42 am

There are a couple of others on ebay at the moment.

From Germany, there is http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT with a But price of $29.99. I cannot say anything about the quality of this, but the price looks good.

From Italy there is http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT at 48 Euros. I bought one of these last year and am entirely happy with it. This seller usually has one or more listed on ebay. Just search for "Luminar" or for "Photar"

Peter

Chris S. · Post by **Chris S.** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:11 am

Another nice one, which I use and like, is from Beljan Manufacturing in Pennsylvania, USA, which sells as eBay vendor "beljanmfg". It's a beautifully-machined, cone-shaped adapter that sells for $50 shipped within the U.S.

I see that Beljan doesn't have any listed for sale at this moment, but has sold three in the last few days. I see them pretty regularly, and imagine they will post some more for sale. Below is a link to a recently sold one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Universal-Macro-Len ... 414984fd4e

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:48 am

Chris S. wrote:
I see that Beljan doesn't have any listed for sale at this moment, ...... Below is a link to a recently sold one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Universal-Macro-Len ... 414984fd4e

That really caught my attention as I had just bought and paid for one earlier today.
I'm hoping that the "recently sold one" is 'mine'.

Thanks Chris S for all the photos and descriptions of your rig. Some ideas here for my own setup.

Chris S. · Post by **Chris S.** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 9:21 am

My pleasure, NU! Very nice to hear that some of it was useful.

I'm betting you'll really like your Beljan adapter.

--Chris

Eric F · Post by **Eric F** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:42 am

NU, Chris: I have had one of these Beljan rms cone adapters for some time, and can attest to the excellent fabrication, etc.; I have another type of Bejan adapter as well, and it is also superbly machined. However, I have noticed that the cone-shaped adapter is very susceptible to flare -- and this problem needs to be addressed before you get your best photo results. (To check, I used the Krebs method: look down your bellows/ extensions -- as if you were the camera --through the attached objective at a very bright spot. With the cone adapter in place, you see a faint white glow around the objective opening, then a brighter white glow beyond that. The fainter glow corresponds to the cone part, and the brightest glow to the cylindrical part of the adapter -- at the base.) I wrapped the inside base (cylindrical) part of the adapter with sticky-felt (Protostar "Light Trap;" also per Krebs), and this cured the flare. The slight, remaining glow (from the inside cone portion) does not seem to produce noticeable flare on images; also this part of the adapter is much harder to cover with sticky felt!

Eric

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:25 am

Eric F wrote:....However, I have noticed that the cone-shaped adapter is very susceptible to flare ...

now that might explain somethings that have been troubling me. Thanks for the reminder / pointer.

Andrew

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:45 am

I have the first one to which Peter linked. It came from the USA, not Germany! It does have flocky stuff inside, and I don't see any flare sources.
I'm not sure any plastic fine thread is destined for a long life, so I leave it in a T mount permanently. It fits at the rms end better than my other "adapter" which is made from a screw box-cap with a hole drilled through, but I'm always wary as it is possible to do damage if clumsy.

Gimme the job and I'll finish the tools...

Does anyone know of an adapter for Nikon BD lenses? I'm not sure if they're 26mm or 27.

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:19 am

Eric F wrote:. The slight, remaining glow (from the inside cone portion) does not seem to produce noticeable flare on images; also this part of the adapter is much harder to cover with sticky felt!

Eric

For anyone else whose basic geometry resides in decaying neurons like mine, if you want to cover the cone part:

Draw two concentric circles, radius 66mm and 97mm respectively to make an annulus 31mm across. Mark off a 75degree sector. Cut out the piece of the annulus bounded by the sector. Protostar is springy enough to hold itself in place without driving yourself insane trying to stick it down, or if you want to secure it try cutting a 70degree sector and then just use a scrap piece of Protostar with the adhesive exposed to tape across the gap and secure the liner to the metal.

If the above description doesn't work for you:

Draw a pie 97mm diameter.
Make the outside crust 31mm thick.
Divide the pie into 5 almost equal slices - make one just a tad larger than the others. It's easier to find your old school protractor and measure 75degrees.
Cut the crust off and keep it - that's going to be your liner.
The pie filling can be anything you want but I prefer cherry

If you want to work in inches, radians or some other interesting units - knock yourself out

Andrew

kds315* · Post by kds315* » Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:20 am

Well, a few comments from my side since I was the one who listed these adaptors:
a) my adaptors allow the 100mm Luminar AND the 16-63mm Luminar to be mounted. All the quoted ones DOES NOT
b) my adaptor come in three variants fitting M42, M39 and T2-mount on teh camera side. All the quoted ones DOES NOT either.

Price is simply based on the high production cost for small batches here. I also asked Joe Beljan be he could not do it cheaper (plus the import taxes to the EU of 19% and shipping cost)

I was the mechanical designer of Joe Beljans cone shaped adaptor and I still have the prototype here. Inside it should have a rough matted surface, but obviously it does not have it, so I will talk to Joe to see if it can be modified to suppress the flare effects.

The idea with that flocked antiflare tape is a good idea. I used matte black laquer with sand mixed in years ago.

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:33 am

kds315* wrote:Well, a few comments from my side since I was the one who listed these adaptors:

Well apparently your adapter is an "Aptus 65 with Mamiya camera ...." based on the initial link so i'm none the wiser.

Your adapter fits all those threads in one go or does it exist in several different models ?

Andrew

kds315* · Post by kds315* » Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:41 am

Indeed, it is gone, need to find out what happened to it.

Yes, the front side (lens side) has TWO threads cut, so it allows two different diameter lenses mounted! For all the following options teh front is the same.

The rear mount (camera side) comes in three options as described in the following quoted text.

Here the technical parts of it (I hope this is OK Rik?):

Due to several requests I have decided to have a small batch of such adaptors made.

Front Side (Lens Side) accepts RMS mount lenses such as Zeiss Luminar 16-63mm,
Nikon Macro Nikkor 19mm + 35mm and also accepts the Zeiss Luminar 100mm lens (!!).

Rear Side comes in three options:
1) UMA-1: Leica Thread Mount (M39 x 26tpi) also known as enlarger lens mount (very common)
2) UMA-2: M42 x 1.0 Pentax thread mount (very common, many bellows, helicoids etc. have that mount)
3) UMA-3: M42 x 0.75 T2 mount (fits any camera/bellows using a suitable and easy to find T2-adaptor ring)

Made in Germany of best available alloy, black anodized.

P.S.: I have very few such adaptors left, which have on front (Lens Side) RMS and M40 mount for mounting the TOMINON series of macro lenses

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:06 am

Just received my cone-shaped adapter and followed Eric's advice and did a Kreb's test.
Saw quite a bright glow around the objective opening and a fainter glow from the rest of the inside. The amount of 'glow' depended on the angle of the light source. When the light entered the objective at an angle there was a bright spot on the cone, when the light entered along the same axis as the objective just a slight amount of reflection.

The bright glow as the base where the objective screwed in was not due to the cone, the male threads on the Nikon 4x CF N Plan Achromat completely covered the female thread on the cone.
The bright glow came from the lens mount. The back of the 4x has a very shiny bright (chrome-plated?) ring. A ring of Protostar stuck to this shiny ring eliminated all reflections from it.

I tried to follow Andrew's instructions. Got out my high school geometry set (I knew math would eventually prove useful); try to draw a 97mm radius circle with a 90mm max radius compass or a 31mm crust on 97mm diameter pie - it ain't easy.

Trial and error with a paper template gave me a Protostar inner cone.

The really scary part of this little experiment was the amount of dust visible in/on the 4x objective when looking through it, at a bright light, from the camera end of the bellows.

Next job is to check the CF 10x.

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:30 am

NikonUser wrote:....
The bright glow came from the lens mount. The back of the 4x has a very shiny bright (chrome-plated?) ring. A ring of Protostar stuck to this shiny ring eliminated all reflections from it.

....

I got lazy with that ring and just ran a black marker around it. The trouble is , as soon you fix one problem you see another

On my 10x I can now see an interior "glow" from the inside top of the objective tube itself. I thought of flocking that but decided enough was enough !

Andrew

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 12:05 pm

kds315* wrote:(I hope this is OK Rik?)

Sorry, I missed seeing your question earlier.

Yes, this is fine. I wonder what happened to the other URL -- it looks like Luminous Landscape reused it.

--Rik