The other day while becoming interested in old soviet era cameras (probably due mostly to their relative cost to other gear) I found this wonderful post or video about how great the Jupiter 9 85mm/F2.0 lens is. Jumping onto eBay and sorting by lowest price first found me a whole set of excellent quality lenses (along with camera). It was only after aggressively pressing the buy now button that I realized these were not m39, or m42 mount lenses, but rather Automat lenses. What’s an Automat lens? exactly. looking around I found that basically no one makes adapters, etc. for them because they are so obscure. Cool. But I found a few projects on the usual 3d print sites and after checking that the focal flange distance was more than that of the various cameras I wanted to try and put it on, I thought it just might be possible to make an adapter. The trick is that the aperture of these lenses is controlled by the camera body, not a dial like 99% of other lenses out there. Funny that basically all modern digital camera lenses function this way. What are we going to do in 50 years when we are trying to adapt a modern mirrorless lens to whatever it is we move onto next. If the focal flange distance is >10mm and it’s newer than a 2030 model, I’m not buying it.
Anyway building on the various projects that came before, I started modelling up some parts in fusion 360.
Print it up and… nothing fits.
Adjust tolerances… nothing fits.
Adjust tolerances. almost fits
Force it together, break a little plastic. Perfect.
Receive m39 adapter for M4/3 camera to test, M39 threads are too small. Sweet.
Will get back to this at some point, probably after lenses arrive but for now it seems promising.
Eventually will post the files too once I can get it working. (and buy all the Automat lenses before the prices go sky high after my awesome adapter makes them relevant again… lol)
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