Praktica lenses on a Nikon body?

ShoeQueen

ShoeQueen

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I've been offered some old Praktica lenses, is there any way of using this on my Nikon DSLR? I know I'd have to do everything manually with them, but wondered if anyone knew what, if any, adaptor would enable me to try them?
 
RichardtheSane said:
In what way?
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Infinity focus. The flange distance on a Nikon mount is 46.5mm, so most lenses such as M42 screw will not focus to infinity without the aid of an additional glass element. These elements tend to be of relatively poor quality (although not universally true!) and add a slight teleconverter effect of about 1.1x-1.3x (depending on lens, mount and focal length).

Praktica made lenses for both M42 screw (which literally screw into the mount, the back of the lens should look like a massive screw would) and their own bayonet mount. You can probably get adapters for both, although adapters for the former are far more common.
 
Thanks guys, I've not actually seen them, just been offered them from a friend of a friend, they belonged to a relative of his. He just said they were Praktica mount and Zeiss glass - I didn't know to ask about the bayonet/M42 thing - I'll try to find out more. If they're not going to work, or if I'm unlikely to use them, I'll tell him to find another home for them.
 
ShoeQueen said:
Thanks guys, I've not actually seen them, just been offered them from a friend of a friend, they belonged to a relative of his. He just said they were Praktica mount and Zeiss glass - I didn't know to ask about the bayonet/M42 thing - I'll try to find out more. If they're not going to work, or if I'm unlikely to use them, I'll tell him to find another home for them.
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If they are Zeiss glass, the chances are it's an M42 mount lens. The adapters are okay, with the caveats that I listed above. Still offer a lot of fun, although they would be occasional use lenses more than anything - manual everything lenses.
 
manualfocus-g said:
They probably are M42 lenses then, although several of PB lenses were also branded as Carl Zeiss Jena. In fact, a number of them were direct carry overs from the M42 era </History lesson> :)
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Another history lesson, "Carl Zeiss Jena" and "Carl Zeiss" are two entirely different companies. The Jena company hails from Soviet-occupied East Germany and was effectively the bits left over when the Americans relocated "Carl Zeiss" to the West...
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Another history lesson, "Carl Zeiss Jena" and "Carl Zeiss" are two entirely different companies. The Jena company hails from Soviet-occupied East Germany and was effectively the bits left over when the Americans relocated "Carl Zeiss" to the West...
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I should also point out that after the Carl Zeiss Jena company merged with VEB Pentacon, a whole bunch of lenses were sold as "Carl Zeiss Jena" which were actually made by other makers in mounts for Minolta MD, Canon FD, Pentax K, Olympus OM etc. For example, Sigma made several models branded as such. Cosina did the same, and possibly even Samyang. The later Carl Zeiss Jena branded lenses were even available for the newer AF bodies i.e. Canon EF, Minolta AF etc.
 
You're probably getting the gist that it's just not going to be worth the faff. Ypu'll do better looking for low cost lenses on Ebay.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Another history lesson, "Carl Zeiss Jena" and "Carl Zeiss" are two entirely different companies. The Jena company hails from Soviet-occupied East Germany and was effectively the bits left over when the Americans relocated "Carl Zeiss" to the West...
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I believe at one point,the Americans offer us Carl Zeiss,to be relocated in the UK,but the we turn it down.
 
Thanks again guys. This wouldn't cost me anything other than the adaptor and would really be for fun and to 'make' me do everything in manual as a learning tool.

Would he be able to sell them on if I don't take them? I think he just doesn't want to throw them away and no point in him keeping them himself.
 
ShoeQueen said:
Thanks again guys. This wouldn't cost me anything other than the adaptor and would really be for fun and to 'make' me do everything in manual as a learning tool.

Would he be able to sell them on if I don't take them? I think he just doesn't want to throw them away and no point in him keeping them himself.
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Of course he will be able to sell them on but the price rec'd/offered will be subject to what they actually are. Loads of Nex and M4/3rds users out there playing with the old glass, perhaps if you listed them here a couple of us could advise you of their worth.
 
SussexBlue said:
Of course he will be able to sell them on but the price rec'd/offered will be subject to what they actually are. Loads of Nex and M4/3rds users out there playing with the old glass, perhaps if you listed them here a couple of us could advise you of their worth.
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I'll get more details, maybe even get them off him next time I see him, and post a list, then if they're not something I would use, I can advise him on selling them. Think he just doesn't want to throw them away if someone can use them.

Thanks for the help guys. :)
 
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