Kipon vs Voitlander leica/sony adaptor and focus question

[karlfoto]

Hi Forum

I need to purchase one of these in the next couple of days.

Any advantages of one over the other, apart from the price of the kipon.

I borrowed a friends vm ii and used my leica 24 3.8 on an a7. I noticed that setting the focus to 5m was slightly sharper than setting it to infinity.

Please could someone explain what this means.

Does it mean that it focuses past infinity?
Is it better for it to focus past infinity or at infinity?

Jim Kasson says that the kipon will focus correctly at the infinity marking because the adaptor is slightly longer than the novoflex NEX adapters that are the right length | The Last Word

Thanx
Karl

 

[padam]

It is obviously not optimal as it focuses beyond infinity and limits your close focusing distance.

Some of the adapters with built-in helicoids have an adjustable infinity setting which is good as it means that the distance settings can be lined up correctly.

 

[pegelli]

Agree it's not optimal if an adapter focuses past infinity, but it's not as disturbing as not being able to reach infinity (have had that with some M42 adapters in the past).
I think adapter manufacturers want to be more safe then sorry and allow for small inaccuracies. For instance my Kipon OM to E-mount focuses just right for infinity on 4 of my 5 OM lenses. The fifth needs to be turned just loose (~1 mm) from the infinity stop to have peak sharpness far away. Good thing is that for manual focus it doesn't matter that much, other than missing the convenience of knowing that "at the stop" is really focused correctly at infinity.

 

[karlfoto]

Thanks guys.

I ended up getting the vmii as i am running out of time before my trip. I will be using mf and the magnifier, so it pretty wysiwyg. Rather focus past than not at all!

I might get a kipon later and see if it makes a huge difference.

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks guys.

I ended up getting the vmii as i am running out of time before my trip. I will be using mf and the magnifier, so it pretty wysiwyg. Rather focus past than not at all!

I might get a kipon later and see if it makes a huge difference.

The two adapters with the most accurate infinity registration, in my experience, are the ones from Rayqual and Novoflex. Kipon is no better than Voigtländer from what I've seen.

G

 

[hiepphotog]

I believe Rayqual is even better than Novoflex in term of nailing the exact infinity. I have had 3 Rayqual adapters so far together with their Novoflex counterparts. The novoflex ended up being shorter in all three. The Novoflex seems to be more sleek. Personally, I would just get the Hawk's adapters. You can correct your infinity setting and lock it there. It's not much more expensive than the plain Rayqual but much more versatile.

 

[thomas]

Novoflex and Kipon can produce internal reflections (novoflex since it doesn't cover the whole surface of the - in some cases polished - metal-bajonett of the lens and the Kipon due to it's less than good matted internal surface). The Voigtländer features a real light trap and covers the whole lens bajonett. It's the only decent adpater I've seen yet. Don't know the Rayqual, though.
An adapter focussing past infinity is not uncommon (in fact many lenses do focus past infinity BY DESIGN). With Live View on a Sony A7 series camera this is a non-issue... IMHO.