Will a Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f/3.5 M42 lens meter on a Nikon D7100?

Asked 3/3/2019

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I’m considering a Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Electric MC S 135mm f/3.5 lens and want to use it on a Nikon D7100. Will it meter correctly on this camera, and is an adapter enough?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

7y ago

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This is, as far as any other camera than an "electric" compatible Pentacon/Praktica (eg the Praktica LLC) is concerned, a fully manual/stop-down-metering M42 lens. The automatic aperture (for a bright viewfinder. Not shutter priority!) will only ever work on a native M42 camera, and the meter-coupling facility of the "electric" lenses will only work with said very specific M42 cameras.

Note that M42 lenses and Nikon F cameras are a particularly awkward (read: unserviceable if you look at it realistically...) combination. You'll be either limited to macro range or introducing additional glass.

Note that you might need an M42 adapter that depresses the automatic-aperture control pin on the back of the lens, some "electric" (and other "automatic" M42) lenses cannot be made to stop down at all without that (unless you modify the lens).

Generally, such lenses will work on any camera that allows metering without a known lens attached. Aperture simulation is not needed since you will be metering at working aperture, so what you get in the viewfinder/meter is what you get on the sensor. Consumer DSLRs are notoriously often crippled regarding that capability.

The D7100 (unlike, eg, the D3100) is known to be able to meter with "CPU-less" mechanical Nikon F mount lenses; since an adapter will usually pretend to be such a lens, it can be expected to work (obviously in aperture priority and manual only, no EXIF).

BTW, the "electric" contacts on various M42 lenses (Praktica/Pentacon system, Zenit system...) just couple to simple potentiometers or switched resistor networks, not to a CPU or ROM....

Originally by user58185. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user58185

7y ago

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Not in any straightforward way. This lens is an M42 screw-mount lens, and its “electric” feature was designed for specific Praktica/Pentacon cameras, not Nikon DSLRs. On a Nikon D7100, that electrical coupling will not be usable.

In practice, the lens behaves as a fully manual, stop-down-metering M42 lens. The bigger issue is mount compatibility: M42-to-Nikon F is a poor fit because of flange distance differences. Without corrective glass, you typically lose infinity focus and are limited to close-focus/macro use. With corrective glass, image quality can suffer.

You may also need an adapter that presses the M42 auto-aperture pin, otherwise some versions may not stop down properly.

So: the D7100 can meter with some manual lenses, but this specific lens does not natively meter on Nikon in the way its “electric” name suggests, and adapting M42 to Nikon is generally awkward. If you want easy metering and normal focusing on a D7100, a native Nikon F-mount manual-focus lens is usually the better choice.

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7y ago

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