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Kyoei Super-Acall 135/3.5 Question


Andrea B.

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I got this Kyoei Optical Co. 135/3.5 Super-Acall off Ebay for $17.

 

It is a solid, heavy silver-barrelled lens. My copy is a bit scratched/dinged, has seen some use. It's dusty inside, but the glass is good. The black finish is a bit corroded.

 

Anyway, to my surprise this lens has a 39mm screw mount. There is also a little flange thingie on the mount end.

 

QUESTION: Does anyone happen to know if this is an M39 x 26tpi mount or an M39 x 1 mount?

 

Our thread gauges include a 1mm but not a 26tpi gauge. So I tried the 1mm and the 27mm gauges and both look like they fit. There really are not enough threads on the mount end of this lens to determine whether there are gaps with either gauge.

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It is a Leica thread mount, LTM. You can use it on your brand new Sony A7r, but as far as I know Kyoei rangefinder lenses are often optically different from their SLR lenses with same specifications (focal length and aperture).
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Thanks, Alex.

 

I have not yet been able to find a "real" M39x26tpi mount adapter. All I can find is M39x1. But I'll look next again next week when I finally have some time. Somewhere in the camera parts bin I do have some threaded rings which change an M39x26tpi to M42. But this particular Kyoei 135/3.5 lens does not have an M42 flange focal distance of 45.46mm. I attempted to figure out its FFD and think it is the typical Leica thread mount FFD of 28.8mm. So no point to using those rings because an M42 adapter won't work.

 

The irony is not lost on me that my $17 lens requires rings and adapters which are more expensive than the lens. Thus the Madness of UV.

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I doubt it really maters, M39x1 is 25.4tpi, and as you note the threaded portion of the lens likely extending only ~3/16 inch that small difference amounts to only ~1/10 of a thread.

I suspect that the threads on L39 to NEX adapters on eBay for $4 to $5 are loose enough that slight difference is probably unnoticeable.

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A nice lens. I have the one without the "Super". But I haven't tested it, because it came with fungus. So it spend about one year on my window sill (to get used UV light B) ). At X-mas, I opened it, and tried to clean it. There was one big lens block inside, I couldn't get apart. The lenses were pressed somehow into a metal ring.... But off course, with some brutal force, you get everything apart ... It came out but the lens block was one piece of two very thick lenses cemented together. So now, how to press this block back into the ring ??? I pealed everything of the metal back, but still, the block wasn't really fixed..... So what? Well I tried nail lacquer :-) to fix it back. Several layers... then I put everything back to dry. Just checked it. Its still drying, but the lens seems fixed :) So maybe as easter holidays are approaching, the next couple of weeks I will test it.

 

Though without the "Super" it seems to have some coatings. We will see.

 

Werner

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Werner, you are a braver person than I to dismantle your lens and deal with that lens block !!!

 

JD, I tried a 39x1 adapter but could not bring this Kyoei 135/3.5 to an infinity focus because the parts would not screw together completely.

Now I don't know what to do with this goofy lens !! Keep looking for parts I guess.

 

Also, 135mm is a strange focal length. It is simultaneously too long and too short.

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JD, I tried a 39x1 adapter but could not bring this Kyoei 135/3.5 to an infinity focus because the parts would not screw together completely.

 

Well, you did not get a loose one, if you have any old LTM extension tubes you might see if you can break in the adapter.

If you have any other 39mm adapters, perhaps an LTM to µ4/3, you might find one to swap the ring out of.

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Nope, don"t have any LTM items. I only have a Leica M to m4/3 adapter for the 50mm Summicron lens I kept when I sold the M8. (I suppose I should let go of that lens. It was rather lost on the Lumix GH1. Maybe I'll try it on the 36mp A7R to see what happens?)

 

But anyway I'm sure I can rustle up a part or an adapter from somewhere. There is a guy in Portugal who machines up some unusual step rings and adapters who might be able to supply sometHing for this Kyoei.

 

 

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