Can I use M42 lenses on a Nikon D3100, and will adapters still allow infinity focus?
Asked 1/27/2011
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I’m considering buying inexpensive vintage M42 lenses for my Nikon D3100 (DX). Because Nikon F mount has a long flange distance, I understand that simple M42-to-Nikon adapters usually won’t allow infinity focus. Some adapters include an optical correction element to restore infinity focus, but I’ve read that these can reduce image quality.
Has anyone used M42 lenses on a Nikon DSLR with either a plain adapter or an adapter with an optical correction lens? What should I realistically expect in terms of sharpness and overall image quality, especially if I want to use a longer telephoto lens around 300mm or more and still focus to infinity?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
11
Having recently gone through this exercise first-hand, I'll share my results.
I bought a Helios 44-2 58mm F/2.0 (M42 mount) on eBay for very cheap. To use the lens with my Nikon D7000 body, I bought a Fotodiox Lens Mount Adapter which includes a removable infinity focus correction lens.
Shooting with the infinity focus corrective lens, I was very disappointed with the quality. Unless used with a very small aperture, the shots were not usable at all. Even when stopped all the way down, it was still soft when pixel peeping. It also seemed prone to a highlighted area in the center of the image. Here are a few test shots I took in the park.
Sorry I don't have the exact settings used for each picture. It's a fully manual lens (including an aperture ring), so the aperture doesn't get recorded in the EXIF data of the photo.
Being disappointed with my initial results, I removed the infinity focus correction lens, and tried again. This time with spectacular results at Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory. Except for the first one, all shots in this set are taken with the Helios 44-2 lens.
So what have I learned? The infinity focus corrective lens is a waste. The Fotodiox adapter still works great without it. The lens works great on a Nikon body as a macro lens. And since I can't focus on anything more than a few feet away, that's all it can be used for. Considering how little I paid for it, I think I'm ok with that :)
Originally by user4231. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4231
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes, M42 lenses can be mounted on a Nikon DSLR, but there’s a tradeoff:
- Plain mechanical adapter: no added optical degradation, but you generally lose infinity focus on Nikon F bodies.
- Adapter with a corrective optical element: restores or improves infinity focus, but users report a clear drop in image quality, especially with inexpensive adapters.
From the shared experience here, an M42 Helios 44-2 used on a Nikon body with a correction-lens adapter was very soft wide open and still not especially sharp even stopped down. There were also reports of image issues such as a brighter central area. More generally, adding a cheap corrective element introduces extra aberrations, flare, and reduced sharpness.
So if your goal is a 300mm+ lens that can focus to infinity, an optical adapter is unlikely to give satisfying results unless you accept noticeable quality loss. A non-optical adapter preserves the lens’s native rendering better, but it won’t meet your infinity-focus requirement.
In short: M42-on-Nikon is workable for experimentation, but not ideal if you specifically want a long telephoto with good infinity performance.
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