Believe it or Not, M42 Screw Mount is Still Alive and Well with 3 NEW Lenses

If you travel back along the photography timeline to the late 1960s, you’ll discover a very strange lens mounting technique. Well, “strange” by today’s standards. These lenses were attached to camera bodies via a threaded mount.

Known as M42 or universal mount or Pentax screw mount, these threaded lenses were a delight to spin on or off a camera body. Yes, this supple wrist action is difficult to imagine in an era of “stab-and-twist” bayonet mounting.

Even wilder than threaded lenses and camera bodies, however, is that a prominent lens manufacturer is producing brand new M42 lenses 60+ years after their ‘lens-spinning’ heyday. Enter TTartisan (“The Thinking Artisan”) and their M42 lineup of lenses.

OK, these M42 lenses might not actually be made for reviving the 1964 Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic (SP) camera. Rather they are generally aimed at digital single lens reflex (DSLR) and mirrorless cameras via an adapter. That doesn’t mean that you can’t use these modern M42 lenses on your vintage Pentax Spotmatic cameras. You can and should buy these lenses for adding a modern look to your older photographic equipment.

Now Where Did I Put that Pentax?

This isn’t to suggest that these TTartisan lenses must be paired with a Pentax Spotmatic camera. By using some clever lens/camera adapters you can easily bring M42 mount into the 2020s. Here’s how:

For example, take a Leica Camera AG L Mount Alliance camera as an intended target for using a modern M42 lens. In this context, you will need two adapters: an M42 to Nikon F adapter for $41 and a Nikon F/G to L Mount adapter priced at $95. Beware of other adapter choices, whichever product you choose, it must be able to achieve infinity focus, like these two adapters. Once all of this metal has been attached to the camera body, any of the three TTartisan M42 lenses can be used for modern, manual mayhem.

As a demonstration of these new lenses, the following photographs were taken with the TTartisan 100mm f/2.8 M42 lens. Amplifying this demonstration with a little bit of fun, a vintage Asahi Super-Takumar 135mm/f3.5 lens was also used on the same Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic (SP) camera:

Ironically, those inventive folks at TTartisan just can’t leave the good ol’ days alone. In addition to the M42 lineup, they also have several Nikon F mount lenses. Granted, these Nikon mount lenses are made for modern cameras like a Nikon D850, but in a bit of whimsical wishing they are equally at home on a 1968 Nikon F Photomic FTn. Long live vintage film cameras.

Enjoy.

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