Shooting Nikon screw-mount Lenses with Nikon Digital Cameras
Written by Dave Barth, October 24, 2005. Reprinted by
permission of the Nikon Historical Society Journal.
Having proven that it is possible to shoot any non-autofocus, F-mount Nikon lens (non-AI, AI, and AIS) on Nikon D100,
D70, or D70S
digital cameras, I lamented that great, old Nikon Rangefinder glass in Leica screw-mount could no longer be used
with modern digital cameras until I found a way to do it. I found that shooting through a screw-mount lens really
isn't very practical, but my experiment proves that it can be done.
In a dusty corner of an old, Denver camera store, I found an adapter ring for a Nikon mount to a 39mm Leica screw
mount. Apparently, the adapter was not manufactured by Nikon. It has no markings except for a white, alignment
mounting dot.
On eBay, I found a Nikon Nikkor-H C 5cm f2 lens with a 39mm Leica screw mount. These lenses are not rare. During
one week, I bid on three of them and won one for $100USD. I mounted the adapter ring to my Nikon
D100 and screwed the Nikkor lens into it.
The problem that became immediately apparent is that the lens will focus only within a vary narrow, close range of
about 4 inches (10 cm). I believe there are two reasons for this problem. First, when Nikon engineers designed the
F single lens reflex (SLR), they elected to deepen the body, compared to the rangefinder body, to accommodate the
mirror box.
The result is that the SLR lens mount is slightly farther from the film plane than the rangefinder mount.
Furthermore, the adapter ring depth adds about 1/4 inch (5mm) to the mount. Removing the adapter and holding the
lens up to the camera's mount helps only slightly. The lens I have does not fit inside the mount, so I was not
able to carefully hold it inside of the mirror box to determine where the proper location should be to achieve a
normal focus range.
In any case, I was able to take digital close-up photos with the lens. I set the D100 to manual mode, shooting at
about 1/80th of a second. I focused the screw-mount lens at f2, then set it to f16 for the shot. I used the
built-in flash on the camera for lighting.
The photos I took with the screw-mount lens mounted on the D100 include a couple of modern, autofocus lenses;
some coins; and a lapel pin that has the same diameter as a US quarter dollar coin (about 23mm).
I photographed the screw-mount lens mounted on the D100 using a D70, an autofocus 28-200mm Nikkor lens, and
onboard flash, shooting in program mode. The photos of the screw-mount lens and the adapter were taken with the
D100 with an autofocus 60mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, onboard flash, in manual mode at f16 and 1/125th second.
I have yet to shoot digital photos with an N-F tube and a bayonet-mount rangefinder lens. As always, I'm open
for suggestions on how to use older lenses on digital Nikon bodies.