Pixco M42 to M4/3 Speed Booster adapter

I needed a lense adapter to use the Russian TAIR 3S 300mm lense on my Fotonaiper system but just didn't want a standard M42 adapter that would have given me a cropped image on my M4/3 (Micro Four Thirds) sensor. The solution was a Pixco M42 to M4/3 adapter come speed booster/focal reducer. What is M42?

The M42 mount was first developed by Carl Zeiss at their Jena plant in 1938 at the request of the KW camera company for their Praktica line, which had previously used M40 (40 mm by 1 mm DIN). It is a screw thread mounting standard for attaching lenses to 35 mm cameras, primarily single-lens reflex models. It is also known as the Praktika and Pentax mount. What does it do? The Speed Booster is an adapter that allows for a full frame lens to be mounted on APS-C or Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras. The fact that the focal reducer compresses more light onto a smaller surface means that there will be more available light. In effect, this will give you an extra stop of light with your lenses. Being boosted also means I'm probably getting a stopped down aperture of about f3.5 which is a welcome benefit to just using a regular M42 to M4/3 adapter with no focusing lense built into it... and sans the speed boost.. Because the light of the subject is compressed, the light beams are now packed more closely together - resulting in a sharper image. There's one condition to this, of course, the optical elements of the focal reducer have to be good. And from the pciture samples I've taken with it it appears to be of good qiuality.

Without speed booster / Focal reducer

With Speed Booster / Focal Reducer

To use it I had to switch to "use without lense option" that Panasonic and Olympus cameras come with. It automatically asked me for the focal length I wanted, so I set it to 300mm and Bob's your uncle.... that was it.... Its amazing how much we take auto focus for granted cos in a manual lense everything has to be set by the user.... ie aperture and focus adjustments... I set the lense to its largest aperture of f4.5 and was impressed by the quality of this cold war era lense....To help me out in finding the best focus I turned on focus peaking to highlight the areas in focus when I manually focus the lense...

What this also means is abundantly available M42 mount lenses can be used with such an adapter, so its a great inexpensive way to find good old school lenses and give them a new lease of life...

Features

Increase exposure to 1 stop, and you can use faster shutter speed to shoot an image. Works fine, closely combined with the bayonet smooth, like the original lens. Full manual operation, manual focus, manual iris adjustment can be achieved with body manual exposure, aperture priority exposure, combined infinite focus.

Specification:

Max. f-stop pass through: 1.4

Optical design (lenses / groups): 4/3

Focal length extension: 0.7xImage diameter (mm): 28.5

Bayonet front: 135 full frame lens

Bayonet back: Sony NEX / Fuji X / Micro 4/3

Note: You must set the camera to "Shooting without lens" mode to ON before use. Avoid direct shooting to light sources, or otherwise blue spot occurs.

Compatible with: M42 LensMicro Four Thirds 4/3 Camera

Panasonic LUMIX GX8 G7 GF7 GH4 GM1 GX7 GF6 GH3 G5 GF5 GX1 GF3 G3 GH2 G2 GF2 G1 GF1 G10

Olympus OM-D E-M10 II E-M5 II E-M1 E-M5 E-M10Pen PEN-F E-PL7 E-PL6 E-P5 E-PL5 E-PM2 E-P3 E-PL3 E-PM1 E-PL2 E-PL1 E-P2 E-P1

Package Include:

1 X speed booster/focal reducer lens adapter

1 X rear cap

1 X body cap

Pricing (Ebay): RM 318.73 inclusive shipping Other options: Metabones Speedbooster

Reducing factor: 0.71x

Price: from $399 to $599,

Available mounts (body-side): Sony NEX E-mount, Fuji X, Micro Four Thirds Fotodiox Vizelex Light Cannon (Mk. I)

Reducing factor: 0.7xPrice: $50,