Niks Been Helios'd

[Dan Cattermole]

Quite chuffed that this has arrived today.... An M42 to Nikon adaptor.
Unable to focus to infinity but that's not an issue at the moment..... Just looking to get some nice swirly bokeh from this beauty... But now instantly.
Hhmmm, where's the woods


image by dajoolzcat, on Flickr

 

[Pete Askew]

Looking forward to the results Dan.

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Had a play with last night (as expected) and living the result of it already. Very dreamy like lens.
Of course the downfall to it is that I can only focus as far as around 6/8 foot.
I'm not going to fuss about that at the moment as most of my shots are around that distance anyway, especially with the my sprogletts.
Shall post some results later....

 

[Brian Moore]

I thought the Canon adapters were the ones that wouldn't allow focus to infinity. I guess it depends on the adapter?

 

[Hamish Gill]

The canons do allow, nikons don't! It's all in the FBD

 

[Dan Cattermole]

It's all about the flange back distance, your undoubtedly right H, as I suspected you knew that already.

Anyway, there is a way to do it, but that involves butchering the lens slightly.
I have seen a tutorial on how it 'shave' the focus slider rail back a bit so that the infinity can be achieved, looks relatively simple, and something that I could easily achieve. HOWEVER..... When it's back on the film SLR, I'll have to physically focus to infinity and not go 'beyond' to ruin a shot.
To modify the lens will mean that it will be more appropriate for the D7000 as a manual lens full time.... And apparently non reversible.
I'm happy at the moment, it's serving my needs..... So far.

You can get an adaptor with a fixed element that is attached to it, but this has been reported to effect the image quality. I simply cannot justify altering what this lens achieves as it is for the benefit of infinity.
Loving it so far....