Leica Yeenon Adapters for LTM to M-Mount, high-quality and reasonable cost.

Brian

Product of the Fifties
A friend asked me for a recommendation for LTM to M-Mount adapters. Voigtlander no longer makes their adapters, which I have always found to be top-quality. The original Leica made adapters are also highest quality, but are decades old now. I have bought more than one to find some dents that prevented proper operation. I have a LOT of Chinese made adapters, most are good enough for use on a 50mm lens. These vary in quality, I have polished some down. As cheap as $6 each, I'm good with polishing sheets.

One Chinese manufacturer, Yeenon, looked better than the rest. These adapters use a back-side "shim" to get the correct thickness, as do the Leica and Voigtlander adapters. I suggested these, then realized I'd better put my money where my mouth is- so I bought Two 50/75 Yeenon adapters. Total cost with shipping was $66 for the pair. They arrived today, in a small box. In the box, the adapters with their rear lens cap were individually boxed in what could have been a presentation box for a watch. I was impressed with the packaging. Took them out, "Q-Tip" test, the equivalent of the white glove test for cleanliness: perfect.

I used the Canon 85/1.5 to test performance. The adapters match my Voigtlander 50/75 adapter exactly with respect to focus and positioning. I use a 50/75 with my 85mm focal length lenses, the framelines match at 5ft and beyond on my M9. I use the Voigtlander adapters for my fast/short telephoto lenses because of their precision. Finding these adapters at a reasonable price these days is not easy, I've paid as little as $40 for them in the past. Now- they are double that. Yeenon is worth looking at if you want a high-quality adapter.


I'll post some pictures over the next week- wanted to get this up as people have asked for a source of quality adapters.

My sample size is "2". Anyone else with experience with Yeenon adapters, or other alternatives to buying Leica and Voigtlander, feel free to post here.
 
When I was in Japan, I found a bunch of new-old-stock LTM to M adapters that were branded "Komura", in packaging that appeared to be from the 1960's. They were extremely high quality, maybe even better than the Leica originals. They work perfectly on any lens I have.

I bought six of them, I think it came out to about $12.50 each in USD.

I've got dozens of them. I even have some eBay Chinese ultra-cheapies which feel crummy but do the job OK for the Techart adapter, where the precision of the adapters is not critical.
 
I had one of the Japanese adapters- they also had the backside shim and centered perfectly. Absolute precision for thickness is not as important for a 50mm lens as it is with wide-angle and longer focal length lenses. With many wide-angle lenses, such as the Nikon wide-angles, centering is critical. Nikon used an indexed-cam for these lenses, meaning that focus accuracy depends on the perfect centering of the lens on the adapter. Many of the cheap adapters do not get this right. The Yeenon adapters were spot-on.
 
Here's a couple of photos of one of the Komuras I bought in Japan:
komura1.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
komura2.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
Back
Top