I’ve decided to have one of my compact camera lenses converted to Leica thread mount by MS-Optical in Japan. Since Miyazaki, the name behind MS-Optical, doesn’t offer the service to anyone outside of Japan, it is only possible to have a lens converted by him with the help of a third party in Japan, in this case Japan Camera Hunter.
Rather than wait until the end of the project to document the whole process, I thoughts I’d document it in parts. This first part being about how I came to choose the lens to be converted…
I’d been thinking about getting a 35mm Leica thread mount lens to use on my Leica iiia. The main goal was to find something small. I really like my iiia as a pocket camera and so didn’t want anything that’s going to project from the body too much. I’d spent a lot of time reading around online, and really only come up with the Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5 as a possibility.
The Voigtlander seemed like quite an attractive option until I remembered having seen an MS-Optical lens conversion not all that long ago. It was of a 28mm lens of some sort, but it was tiny. I couldn’t remember where I’d seen it, but since I know Bellamy (off of JCH) has a positive working relationship with MS I thought I’d get in touch with him and get his thoughts.
A bit of too and fro with Bellamy and I worked out the lens conversion I’d seen was a Nikon 28mm lens off an AF-600. Of course 28mm isn’t any good to me, I already have a 28 I’m happy with. I asked Bellamy if MS would do the same work to an Olympus mju-ii lens, the answer was unfortunately negative, and whilst Bellamy did come back to me with some options, none were as small as I wanted. I did a bit more research online to get some more ideas and I found reference to someone having a Yashica T4 lens converted (scroll to the bottom). I asked Bellamy, and of course the answer was that I could too have this conversion done.
It was nagging on my mind a bit though, these conversions aren’t cheap – they aren’t all that expensive considering that a man in Japan is going to hand make a rangefinder coupled lens from a donor compact camera – but it’s still a few quid. Because of this, I wanted to make the right choice, so before I committed to anything I had a bit of a head scratch about other lenses I might like converted instead.
Going back through my compact camera reviews there was one camera that instantly jumped out at me, the Ricoh FF90. A bit of a sleeper of a camera, perhaps because by most people’s standards it’s as ugly as sin and not what you might call pocketable, but it does have a fantastic lens. It’s also a 35mm, not to mention the fact that it’s a f/2.8 lens rather than the f/3.5 lens of the Yashica.
So, I emailed Bellamy, and whilst the answer wasn’t a resounding yes, since it wasn’t mentioned on the list of lenses he has that MS won’t convert, he said if I send him the camera he would have the possibility investigated.
Of course, the next problem was where to get the lens. I actually have two Ricoh ff90s, the original and the later ‘super’, both working fine. It seemed a little reckless to have a camera killed off just for the sake of extracting its lens. So on to eBay I went looking for a donor non-working camera. I found one in the states, the owner of it even said he was happy to ship it to Japan for me. I contacted Bellamy, he said this was fine, but that I should get a detailed description of the lens. Apparently MS doesn’t clean lenses, he just strips them from the body of the camera and mounts them as they are. I thought this a bit odd to start with, but thinking about it, I suppose he is just maintaining the lenses character as it was when he was sent it…?
One way or another, it seemed only sensible to use one of my cameras as a donor. So just yesterday I got it back off a mate who’d borrowed it, and in the next day or so I’m going to get it shipped to Japan.
Before I do though…
I’m interested to hear which you would choose? Would you choose the well regarded Zeiss lens from the Yashica, or the faster lens from the Ricoh? I must admit, one of the big draws to having the Ricoh lens converted is that I will have something that as far as I know would be completely unique…
Answer the poll and/or comment below …
Cheers
Hamish
[poll id=”4″]
Share this post:
Comments
arato on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Halka on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Ken Hindle-May on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
I'm not sure which I'd go for. There are tons of broken FF90s out there, but knackered T4s aren't exactly rare, either. I'd say the T4's lens is that bit sharper, but the FF90 maybe has a touch more character.
As it happens, I've been thinking about doing this myself recently. I've been trying to source a Fuji Tiara (aka DL Super Mini) and while looking noticed an APS camera called the Tiara iX which appears to have a very similar lens (though it's a 24mm rather than a 28mm). It occurred to me there must be some nice APS cameras out there with great lenses that just aren't going to get used anymore. They would be natural candidates for this process, although I probably need a better rangefinder than a Fed 4 before it will be worthwhile!
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Graham Ashton on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Have you asked yourself whether this is really just a big exercise in GAS? It’s interesting, sure, but do you really need it? Why don’t you just shoot one of these Ricohs already?
I’d spend the (not inconsiderable) amount of cash on photography books and trips.
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
Comment posted: 22/12/2015
James Fox-Davies on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Francois on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Great service provided by Bellamy, delivered on time as promised, highly recommended.
Does that make for better pictures, no of course not, but a great small and sharp lens that fits over all M bodies.
BTW...a great Christmas gift idea!
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
foto2021 on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
It is a very compact lens with superlative optics.
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Blinx on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
François on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Link to pics of the lens: http://photogab.blogspot.ca/2015/10/summarit-24-40mm-ou-la-recherche-de.html
Two taken pre-conversion, for those who know of Robert Frank's the Americans:
http://photogab.blogspot.ca/2015/09/je-pensais-au-livre-americans-de-robert.html
Post-conversion: waiting for my films to be processed.
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
John M on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Comment posted: 23/12/2015
Filmosaur on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 28/12/2015
Hacking a lens into a different mount isn't really difficult if you've got a donor of the same focal length. My 35mm Nikon hack ended up as a zone focus lens because the donor was a 50mm. This doesn't bother me in the least with a wide that I intend to use mostly as a compact street shooter: just set at 3m and shoot. Wanting a working RF coupling does limit your choices for donor bodies, or forces you to pay someone who can build one. Me, I'm cheap.
BTW, if you want to see a few recent results with this lens, you can have a look at this: https://filmosaur.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/fading/
Hamish, if you have any questions about your project that you think I can help with, feel free to ask.
Comment posted: 28/12/2015
Christos Theofilogiannakos on A 35mm compact camera lens conversion – Part 1 – Choosing the lens
Comment posted: 29/12/2015
Comment posted: 29/12/2015