Helios-103 in Leica Thread Mount

[Brian]

Okay- With Tim Allen's school of lens design as inspiration, meaning lots of dremel'ing, lots of filing, lots of making up stuff. We're not talking a little dremeling. We're talking cutting mounts, filing mounts, polishing, grinding, shaving a few millimeters off of the circumference of the cut-down Kiev Mount.

Learned a lesson or two. How to make the close-up attachment for the Elmar-Summitar-Hektor into an RF coupled LTM mount. How to cut the back off of a Helios-103 mount and get it into the new RF coupled mount. How to collimate it.

Optics are out, the mount is drying. It will be one piece again tomorrow. I'll get some photo's up soon.

So the questions is: Is this the world's only LTM Helios-103? Orion adapters do not count. Even if you superglue the lens to it.

and I'll post instructions, I'm NOT taking orders!

[raid]

Brian,
The Helios-103 = Menopta, right? Do I have such a monster?

[Brian]

Yes, the Menopta is an export version of the Helios-103. It was made in the early 90's, about 10 years after the Helios.

[Brian]

Required Pieces:
1) Helios-103 or Menopta 53/1.8
2) Leitz Close-up helical for the Elmar-Summitar-Hektor

Step 1: The stop-post on the helical has to be removed so you can separate the pieces. It is screwed in, and the back of the screw threads are "nubbed" so it cannot come loose. You need to drill the nub off so it can be unscrewed.

Step 2: Unscrew the inner helical. The Mount portion has an extension on the back that covered the inner helical. It extends well past the 39mm thread mount. Put the mount in a vice and cut the extension off. I used a dremel. Then, sand and polish down to the Mount. Get all of the filings off. I used an ultrasonic cleaner and then Q-Tips.

Step 3: Mis-Thread the inner helical back into the mount by ~1/4 turn. Believe it or not, the back of the helical will act as the RF coupling as it does on an Elmar. It will couple to about 20m for "infinity". Good enough for me. Otherwise, you have to build the "cam" up with a disk. Put the Post back in. Use some epoxy or Enamel paint to secure it. You drilled the nub off.

You now have a focus helical that goes from 3ft to infinity with a 120degree throw. It can be used for a Zeiss Opton Sonnar conversion, or for the Helios-103. Somebody else hacked a Sonnar. I saw it on Ebay for tons of money. No on edid a Helios-103 that I've ever seen.

Step 4: take the optics module out of the Kiev mount. Two set screws hold it in. Save those shims.

Step 5: Cut the bayonet portion of the Helios-103 mount off. You'll see the concentric rings on the mount. Cut-off in just the mounting flange portion.

Step 6: File and Polish the mount down till smooth.

Step 7: Put the mount into a vice and GRIND about 2mm off of the circumference so that it will fit into the now RF coupled Focussing Mount.

Step 8: Once it fits, put the optics back into the mount using the Shims. F-stop lines up. GRIND and Polish the mount until the actual focus agrees with the RF coupling. I selected a target at 5m, and focussed the RF-coupled helical. I marked the spot, held the focus mount at that spot. Then ground the mount down so that the actual focus agreed with the RF coupling. I use a TTL viewer for this.

Step 8: (anyone remember "Chickenman"?)Take optics out, epoxy the Kiev mount into the RF coupled Mount. Let dry. Put optics back in.

DONE. You end up with an RF-coupled, Helios-103 in Leica Thread Mount.


http://www.ziforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=105&d=1235597794

Some care is required for mounting: I found it best to set the focus to 3ft when screwing in. The threads of the inner helical could catch on some RF wheels. Setting so the "CAM" is flush with the mount made things easier.

[Brian]

After hearing the dremel running in the basement after the first hour, my wife asked "what are you doing", and then "Why are you doing it".

I told her, "because no one else has".

"Good answer", she went back up to leave me to my lens hacking. I wore out several pieces of sand paper and a couple of dremel bits. I'm not making another one. But a Zeiss Opton Sonnar 50mm F1.5 in LTM- might do one of those...

[Trius]

Brian: Damn, I was going to order one ... :D

Nice work ... whenever I browse eekbay for Kievs, I am always drawn to the bodies with Helios or Menopta lenses. I don't know why, except I guess that I have a Helios 44M in M42, and I like that lens.

[lkgroup]

Brian, nice work.

A Zeiss Opton Sonnar 50mm F1.5 in LTM would be really nice. A good project for one of your next ones. I have that lens but it is almost mint and has been CLA along with my Contax IIa by Henry Scheerer so it would be to nice to hack. If I used it with my LTM gear I would look to getting a Contax to LTM adapter.

If you want to make one of those I'm in.

Leo

[Brian]

I have a Contax to LTM adapter. I had to shim the lens to that adapter, to take care of some residual error. The adapters work, but my "hacked" Sonnars in LTM using the J-3 mount are smoother. That works for the CZJ Sonnars. The West German Zeiss Opton and "Just Zeiss" are different. BUT: The variable stand off ring fits in this hacked helical, and you can acheive infinity focus.

[raid]

Not having a Contax-LTM adapter is actually not a bad thing; it lets me use the Contax IIa and IIIa. If I had an adapter, I may favor using a Leica or Canon body over a Contax body for a clearer VF.

[Brian]

I know how that is. So when i convert the Sonnar 5cm F1.5's, I make a J-3 into a COntax or Nikon mount lens. My Contax II has one of the best J-3's that I've seen on it.

http://www.ziforums.com/album.php?albumid=89

I'm testing some of the converted lenses now, will probably put a 1956 KMZ J-3 up for sell that is collimated for Nikon.

[januaryman]

I know it's just a matter of time before you do another Helios, so mark it down, Brian. I am interested.

Hope I'm not third in line this time... Last time was pure luck.

[Brian]

Well, next time I am going right to the grinding wheel. I spent about two hours with a dremel on this one!

Next lens hack special is going to be a Nikon RF mount uncoated 5cm F3.5 Leitz lens.

[januaryman]

I'll wait! I have plenty of lenses to play with and too little cash... just jot down my name, please.

[lkgroup]

Here are some pictures I did with the Helios 103 lens that Brain changed from a Kiev (Contax) mount to a LTM mount.

The pictures were taken with my Panasonic G1 Digital so the lens is effectively a 100mm 1.8 lens.

The pictures were taken at F5.6 except for the Toy Truck which was in my garage and was at 1.8.

Leo

[Brian]

Digital pictures look good- of course they do not check the "Rf Calibration" that I did.

I'll have to de-res and upload the test Shots using the RF coupling. Up-close and wide-open, it "actually worked!"

[lkgroup]

Brian, you are right, these pictures don't show if the RF is on. I'm going to do a roll of BW in the next few days and will post results.

I found that the lens worked well on my M6, Bessa R2a and Russian rangefinders but doesn't make connection with my Leica M2. All other lenses work on the M2 so it must just miss making connection with the rangefinder coupling. I think I will use my Bessa when doing my next test.

Leo

[Brian]

It's close on the RF wheel. I had one Canon P that was perfect with it, a second that was not.

The Canon IVSB headed your way was fine with it.