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| Interchangeable Lens Mounts |
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Interchangeable Mounts can save duplicating of lenses As a camera collector, it is nice to be able to use a variety of lenses on various old cameras. Most interchangeable lens mount systems are for older, manual focus cameras, so that works out fine. Autofocus lenses are too complex for the interchanging of mounts, at least at present. I have just shown some of the more common ones that I have in my collection. Enna in Germany had their series. Novoflex and Kilfitt used a series that had Leica thread on one end and the camera mount on the other. They fit directly to a Visoflex I and took adapters to other cameras. Later I believe Novoflex changed to a bayonet series, but I'm not sure of that. Nikon had a focus mount for mounting lens groups into at one time. There are (and may still be made) adapters to take Pentacon Six/Praktisix mount lenses to Nikon, Exakta, Universal Screw and more. The Exakta and Universal retain the automatic diaphram. The Nikon example I have does not. Sometimes there were also adapter to use various mounts on cameras. Miranda and Alpa made quite a selection of mounts for their cameras. Others also made some - Canon had adapters for Nikon, Exakta and Universal. Minolta had an Exakta adapter. Konica had several mount adapters. This is a lot larger category than the small sampling shown here. |
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One of first with auto diaphram Vivitar and Soligor introduced a system called T-4 that took interchangeable mount using a breech mount style bayonet on system. This was quite popular in the 70's and many can be found used still. Due to limited ability to couple to new meter coupling systems, it was modified to become the TX mount. The easiest way to identify the difference is all TX mounts have TX on the back lens plate. It also has a longer second curved opening with a green dot adjoining it. |
| T-Mount goes way back I haven't researched it, but I'm quite sure T-mount goes back to the early 60's, possibly even the late 50's. It was a thread on adapter, almost identical to universal thread but a different thread pitch. There was no internal coupling system, so lenses were pre-set - you did the lens adjusting. We still see this used on some long lenses, mirror lens, telescope adapters and microscope adapters. An attempt was made to make it be automatic, as seen on the right, with what was called the YS mount. You threaded on the mount just like on T-mount, but it had a pin coupling for stopping down the lens. You can use a conventional T-adapter on these lenses and operate the diaphram manually if you choose. There was also for a short time a lens mount that looked like T-mount, but was slightly larger (like only a couple mm) so the adapters would not interchange between the two styles. About the only way you can tell this oddball mount is to try to put a T-mount on it and find it isn't the right size to thread on. Go to bottom of this page for an illustration showing mounts that would fit each of these lens styles. |
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Tamron Adaptall This interchangeable mount is the only survivor in the auto-diaphram style. I believe they still make some of the Adaptall lenses presently, although the selection has been reduced. It is an easy to change bayonet mounting system. It couples to a large variety of lens mounts (unfortunately for us Exakta fans, not to Exakta). Tamron optics, especially older ones, are outstanding quality. Many new ones still are, however I feel some of the autofocus lenses have been cheapened to be competetively priced and don't stand up to the standard of many of the old lenses. The Tamron SP series of Adaptall lenses are particularly outstanding. I have the 60-300mm SP which I would put up against any lens that zooms to 300mm I know of today, including the top names (out of deference to my respect for the great company of Zeiss, I would hope they would outperform it - barely). |
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Tamron Adaptamatic Tamron's first attempt at an interchangeable automatic diaphram mount. Generally very good optics - I have always like Tamron lenses, especially pre-Autofocus. The Adaptamatic was a more complex system with a 2-piece adapter - the mount, and a retaining ring that threaded on to hold the mount in place. Some, like this Nikon mount, also had an addition collar that fit on the lens and moved with the f-stop ring to couple to the old style metering (not shown). |
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Exakta T-4 adapter T-4 mounts were available in Universal thread mount, Beseler/Topcon, Canon (FL), Exakta, Leicaflex SL, Minolta (MC), Miranda, Nikon (butterfly coupling) and Petri. I don't have list for TX, but I know they added Yashica/Contax, Olympus and Pentax-K mount and probably some others. |
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Conversion of one mount to another This is just a small selection of the many mount conversions available. These happen to all take universal thread mount lenses. They fit them to Fujica-X, Canon manual focus and Pentax K-Mount bodies. I also have universal adapters to Alpa, Petri and Contax SLRs. There have been many more made. Adapters to fit Exakta lenses to Minolta and Canon. Konica and Miranda made a wide variety of adapters for their SLRs. |
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YS mount compared to T-Mount Near the top (2 picture down) is a picture of the back ends of YS and T-Mount lenses, showing the single stop down pin on the back of the YS mount to provide auto stop down. Shown on the right here is the side of the YS mount that couples to that pin. The white arrow points to the collar that pushes up on the lens pin when the camera closes down the lens. In this case, the adapter is for Exakta, and the collar is in the raised position, where it would be at the point of stopping down the lens. The other mount is a regular T-mount which is has no coupling devices. It threads onto a T-Mount or YS mount, but you have to use the YS mount lens in manual stop down if you are using a T-Mount on it. |