As early as 1949, and more so during the 1960's and 70's, a number of camera manufacturers used a screw-mount lens system, more populary known as M42 screw mount. An East German Company, KW, was the first manufacturer to manufacture M42 screw mount lenses. They later merged with several other East German companies to form Pentacon. The Practika of 1949 was the first camera to use the M42 screw mount system. The M42 mount is also known as the P mount, referring to Praktica. Asahi Pentax later joined in, and was soon followed by the Russians with their Zenits as well as the Japanese with the Yashicas and Ricohs.

 

These lenses were very popular, and in addition to the camera manufacturers, all 3rd party lens maunufacturers like Vivitar, Sigma and Tamron etc., produced a wide variety of M42 lenses.

 

Of course, Pentax had a great range of M42 lenses, and that is where the Takumars, Super Takumars and SMC Takumars came from. Excellent lenses with qualities seldom found in the modern lenses. Others in the range included the superb East German (GDR) Carl Zeiss Jenas, Pentacons, Porst, Enna Ennalyt and the Meyer Gorlitz lenses. From Russia came the Jupiters, Volnas, Helios's, Industars and Zenitars. The Russians were known for their excellent optical capabilities, and produced great lenses at very good prices. And from the Japanese side came the great Mamiya Sekor, Yashinon and Chinon lenses.

 

Why go for M42 lenses?

 

Now, the great thing about these lenses, is that they mostly came in primes and in a full range from 20mm right up to 1000mm, and in about any conceivable focal length in between.  Primes always give the best results at that specific focal length, and are much better performers than the multi focal length lenses, like a 70-300, 24-70 etc.

 

Optical qualities were also superb, and they were quite sharp from corner to corner, and exhibited very little Chroma.

 

And then of course, price. All M42 lenses are 2nd hand, but if one buys from a reliable source, one can pick up mint condition lenses at a fraction of the cost of a new prime. It is astonishing that some of these lenses still come in their original cases with front and rear lens caps! We have some lenses which are 30-40 years old and still look brand new.

 

Quite a range of great M42 accessories is available: from macro extension tubes to macro bellows, as well as dedicated macro lenses.

 

Medium Format camera lenses:

 

There are also a selection of great medium format lenses which can be used on the modern DSLR cameras, by using a Pentacon 6 to M42 adapter. Here the popular ones are the Carl Zeiss Biometars, Pentacon, Arsat and Vega lenses. They obviously cost quite a bit more than normal M42 lenses, but they are of a very high quality.

 

Can my camera use these lenses?

 

These lenses can obviously only be used on interchangeable lens DSLR cameras, and not fixed lens consumer digitals. There are dedicated M42 adapters available for the Canon EOS cameras, the Pentax PK mounts, Minolta MD and AF, Olympus 4/3rds, Panasonic digital backs as well as for Nikon. On the Sigmas, a Pentax K to M42 adapter is used, which is a very close fit but not perfect. There is a Japanese CSSM42 dedicated adapter available for the Sigmas, but quite expensive. But it is a perfect fit and has a built-in flange to use M42 lenses with aperture pins.

 

Although not an issue on Canons, Minoltas, Olympus, Pentax's and Sigmas, M42 lenses cannot focus to infinity on the Nikon cameras with the normal Nikon to M42 adapter. The Nikon's registration distance differs from the others, and the lenses do not go deep enough into the Nikon's body with the normal adapter to give infinity focus. There are dedicated Nikon M42 adapters available which includes a correction lens to overcome this problem. A handful of lenses have problems on the Sigmas as well, which has a dust protector, and these lenses' flanges then hit the dust  protector when trying to focus to infinity.

 

Some M42 lenses have aperture pins sticking out of the back of the lens, and some have funny protrusions. This can easily be taken care of by either glueing the aperture pin in the closed postion with superglue, cutting it off flush at the base, or removing it by opening the back of the lens (really simple and easy). Some Pentax lenses have a plastic protrusion at the back of the lens, which is very easily removed by unscrewing the base plate and it simply lifts out.

 

Pro's and con's:

 

Obviously the pro's are great lenses and image quality at a fraction of the cost of a new prime. And then comes the choice: M42 primes are available in a wide range of focal lengths. For most DSLR users, with the conversion factors of 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7X, the modern prime range is very small and limiting; in fact it is really pathetic, to say the least!

 

The con's are manual focus, but most photographers still prefer this. Even on the modern automatic lenses, manual focus just works better, and focussing is more precise, unless one has eyesight problems! The other con is the screw mount system: it takes longer to change lenses, which is a schlep. The ideal would be to have a M42 adapter fitted to every lens, and then the changing speed would be the same as with a modern lens. This would however cost quite a bit, depending on the number of lenses owned. But at the end of the day, even if one goes to this expense, the lens would still cost you a fraction of the price of a new lens.

 

And then of course, there is no metering. But if you are a real photographer, this should not matter since you should know by now which aperture or shutter speed to use under which lighting conditions. Most professionals in any case doubt a camera's metering system and still prefer a decent light meter. We have used a light meter with all our shots, and never even bother to check the camera's metering system. You can of course use the manual feature of the camera, tell it what aperture is used, and it would still do the metering for you and tell you which shutter speed to use.

 

Availability:

 

There are still a good number of M42 lenses coming onto the market, but the great ones are becoming scarce now. I stick to the brand names - there are numerous 3rd party M42's available, but when comparing, they just do not have the same qualities as the branded lenses.

I have a considerable number of these great lenses in my collection, and am constantly trying to source more of them. Fortunately, I have contracted a number of reputable offshore suppliers who I buy from. They check the lenses for fungus, scratches and whether the coatings are intact. Apertures and iris blades are also checked for smooth operation.

 

There is a worldwide demand for these lenses, sparked by so many DSLR users now going this route as well. They are no longer available in the numbers they used to be, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to source some of them. Prices have also escalated dramatically. I have been collecting for over 18 years.