As I have been asked for advice, here are some hints for Braun Paxette lenses which have a problem similar to the Russian Zenit lenses. They are M39
screw mount, but their FFD is said to be 44mm, on top of this,
uneven calibration seems to introduce further variation, so that you might need
a general adapter plus some fine-tuning (shims) for each lens. There
are three main producers for these lenses, Steinheil, Staeble and
Roeschlein, + some nice Enna lenses, if you come across these names, pay attention. There are
unscrupulous and greedy sellers, who "forget" to mention these problems
and try to sell theses lenses as ordinary M39 or even branded "for Leica" for a lot of money. They were fine lenses
indeed, but quite some of the lenses for sale have mecanical problems
and/or fungus. Anyway, if you happen to have one, here is what to do:
The first two things you need are a tiny M42 to
M39 adapter ring and an ordinary M42 to E-mount adapter.
An M42 to M39 adapting ring next to a Helios-44.
Screw the tiny ring onto the thread of your lens.This is what it
looks like:
Ring screwed on Jupiter-9 lens.
Unscrew
the threaded ring from the adapter and take it out.
Threaded ring unscrewed. The shims are not part of this adaption.
Put
sandpaper on
flat surface and
move the back of the ring on it in circular movements. Most of the
rings are made of aluminium, so it's possible to do it without
machining it, but if you have access to a lathe, this would be easier.
You need to
sand down about 1.5mm, that's quite some way to go, but check with a
caliper. Clean, clean and clean
again, you don't want filing dust on your sensor. Put the ring back,
fasten it and check again with camera and lens. Should be fine now.
Good luck. As the ring will recess about 1.5mm, check, whether the
diameter of the ring is bigger than the basis of your Paxette lens.
Mine are all smaller, so there was no problem.
There is an easy solution, but it was hard to find: there was an adapter from Paxette M39 to ordinary M39.
I found one recently. Its hight is about 14mm, if you add the M39 to
Sony E mount adapter, you'll have a "package" of 25mm. Fortunately
there is now an U.S. American seller on the big auction site who makes
new ones. They are silver, not black as the original, and they fit a
tad better. They are about 0.5mm thinner. In my opinion they could be
even another 0.5mm thinner to fit all Paxette lenses.
The adapters and 12 Paxette lenses.
I
bought nearly all my Paxette lenses attached to a camera via ads and on
flea markets, sometime even in a bag with spare lenses and loads of
accessories. Most of the cameras have slow shutters, but they are still
fun to use and they were really cheap. This is how you will end up,
when you are looking for Paxettes for a month or 2 (bags, cases, light
meters and loads of filters are not on the photo):
