- Thank you for visiting our Leitax bayonet site. I would
recommend to start
with one of the easy Leica-R models, please browse the
instructions section to check which
ones are easier. After you have convert one lens, you will have
confidence to do any of them. -A good idea is to work on a piece of soft fabric so you will avoid losing any screw or other small parts. Regarding this matter, we received this advice from diglloyd.com: Some suggestions: - tell people to tilt the lens sideways when taking out the tiny black screws, there is a risk of them falling into the interior of the lens. - use a magnet to keep the screws collected. I stuck a small neodymium magnet to the screwdriver to help make sure the screws would stay on the screwdriver until they catch. More suggestions: - work on a soft piece of fabric.
- don't use tweezers for the small ball, it can
fall inside the lens, and you will be in trouble, please take it with the
screwdriver and a bit of grease, like in the instructions.
- don't remove the black R-cam , there is no need,
but many people keep doing it.
- if you have 2 cam lenses, mark each cam and take
a picture of them before removing them, and save the respective shims with each
one.
- use the plastic tool as much as possible, not
the fingers, it is very easy to touch the glass by accident and and leave a
fingerprint.
- tight the screws a bit one after another, in
cross pattern. - put some grease in the hole where the small ball goes, this is
to avoid the small spring to get out, it is very easy to lose it.- Even the best Chrome-Vanadium screwdriver needs to be replaced if it wears away, check regularly yours with a magnifier, this will avoid to damage the screws. When unscrewing, hold the tool at 90 degrees to the surface, apply downward, strong pressure and turn the tool slow with gentle but firm force. - In some Leica-R lenses the black shroud shape allows it to be lifted vertically in horizontal position without being stopped by the Aperture lever "nose", in these cases there is no even necessity to disassemble it from the bayonet. Other lenses allow only the shroud to be removed in vertical position, usually, there is no need to remove the bayonet first in those cases. And , finally, some lenses have a shroud that cannot be removed because its shape until the bayonet is out, and, after this we must move/rotate the shroud looking for a convenient position. - After removing the Leica bayonet, take the small ball and put it in a safe place, please don't use tweezers, this ball likes to jump from that tool and roll under the furniture, but don't worry, I will send you more if you need it. The best way I found is to stick it with grease on the tip of my screwdriver. Pay attention to the small spring inside the ball hole ( look at the instructions ), usually it will not move, because it is kept in place with the original lens grease, if you think it can go out, put some grease inside the hole to stick the spring in. - The grease offered in the Sales List is specially formulated and will not melt and drop. Leave a small amount of this grease on the ball when replace it again, better still, put also a small drop of grease in the hole under the ball so it will remain glued there while we install the Leitax bayonet. - When installing the Leitax bayonet, push it down and feel the ball going inside the hole and the spring pushing back. The bayonet must sit flat on the lens, if not, it means that the small ball is not in its place, and it doesn't enter in the spring hole. - You will notice there are five holes instead of six on the Leitax bayonet, the sixth one would interfere with the locking pin at the camera. This way, is more convenient to use the Leica lenses on our Pentax camera, don't worry, five screws are more than most of lenses have. The Leica-Nikon bayonet have the six holes because the locking pin is at different level on Nikon-F mounts and there is no problem with it. - After screwing the Leitax Bayonet, check if the diaphragm ring clicks properly, if not, remove the bayonet again and check if the small ball is in its place. Notice the diaphragm ring now has no stops at both ends of the scale numbers (on Pentax and Sigma), this is because we removed them with the Leica bayonet, better don't go beyond the diaphragm last figures to avoid stressing the mechanism. - With the new Leitax bayonet, some bright metal parts will show exposed inside the lens, You can paint them easily in matte black with a special marker sold at Micro-Tools, the Instant Touch-up Super Flat Black marker. There is a gloss black version for the external side of the lens too. - Some lenses may show less satisfactory "clicks" when turning the diaphragm ring, also its numbers can appear slightly misaligned. Others will "click" strong and nice, and the numbers will be right in front the dot, This means that the lens internal measures were not machined exactly through decades of manufacturing. Anyway, all the lenses tested worked very well with the new bayonet. - If you have a Pentax camera, make sure that it is set to use manual lenses. I have the K20D, but I think the settings are similar on other models, in the Custom Setting menu, go to "Using aperture ring" and set "permitted" Your camera will work and meter well in Av, and also M mode is good to use manual lenses. For Nikon cameras, please look at the camera instructions. BACK TO LEITAX BACK TO THE NIKON PAGE BACK TO THE SIGMA PAGE BACK TO THE SONY PAGE |