M42 mount...?

[Marcel]

http://www.marcelbooth.co.uk/m/dads_camera.jpg

This is my dads old camera gear that I got when he died 9 years ago, and I have recently been planning to dust it off. Stick some film in it (it still works), and give it a whirl (especially as I now know what the settings are..lol)..I did try using it when I first got it, as I remember my dad getting really vibrant, crisp and sharp prints from it....but I failed miserably.

Anyway
Praktica MTL-5B
Two Pentacon 50mm lenses.
Prinzflex MCZOOM (I think it s 70-300).
And the Cobra flash.

Anyway, I also had an idea. I wouldn't mind sticking the lenses on my 350D if it's at all possible. I don't expect super results, but it's nice to have a play, so to speak.
So, until I get round to getting some film for the camera, and loading her up...

Is it an M42 mount I need? And what can I expect from it all? Absolutely disgustingly poor quality to what I'm used to, or not-bad-at-all?

[KenCo]

I don't know a great lot about this but I believe an m42 to be a screw thread....so if these lens screw to the body I'd say m42. Just what i've picked up searching for my bellows mount, I could be wrong though.

[Warspite]

The old Praktica mounts usually are M42 - screw fit bayonet - normally adapters cost a few £s off ebay. So long as the lenses have manual aperture you shouldnt have any problems, just put the camera in aperture priority and the camera will meter through the lens.

[trip]

i have that same pantacon 50mm lens by the looks of your pic, and i used to have a practika mtl something.

the 50mm isnt bad but i dont use it as i have a 50mm mk2, just be prepared to get some slightly out of focus shots on the 350. i find manual focus tricky without a split focusing screen.

[condyk]

The adapters are easy to get off ebay for around £8-10. There are better M42 lenses you could get for very silly money if you want to play, but some of the better stuff is now moving into more serious money, like the Zeiss 34mm and 135mm. One of the best cheapo's is the Helios-44 58mm f2. I just did a few test shots v's my 24-105mm IS L and you can hardly tell the difference. Helios looks better ;-) Jupiter 85mm f2.0 is also very nice. Pentax 50mm 1.7 is wonderful.

[Steep]

As condyk says you can get an m42-canon adaptor easily enough. You'll not have autofocus of course and you'll need to use the camera in aperture priority mode since it won't be able to adjust the aperture itself.

[Marcel]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll go hunting on ebay.

Understood about the Av mode.

So basically, in Av mode, I manually adjust the aperture as per normal, and the camera sets the shutter speed accordingly....lovely..
But what if I was in shutter speed mode? Jsut out of curiosity, would it throw up an error or something? Or would it just over/underexpose, (obviously depending on what I'd manually set the aperture to).

[Warspite]

You wouldnt get an error - it would just mean that you would be controlling the exposure manually, aswell as the aperture.

I use a 135mm f3.5 Zeiss with my 350D and an M42 adaptor and although my pics are nothing special its quite enjoyable change in technique to have to manually focus, takes some practice but find it more rewarding than the almost P&S process of many autofocus lenses.

Heres a shot with mine:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a365/war_spite/IMG_8948-01-cropf.jpg

[Gandhi]

NICE!!!!! :D :D :D

One of those was my very first camera!

As mentioned above, adaptors from ebay. These lenses don't work properly on nikons at all, create some problem with the minimum focus distance grrrrrrr.