E-Mount (NEX) adapters

Perversely, one of my main reasons for getting a NEX 7 was to use non-native lenses on it via adapters. In the brief time I've owned the camera I've acquired a number of adapters and thought it might be worth posting some information here about them, with the thought that others may also be considering experimenting.

A lot of these adapters are available on Ebay – I've included pictures below that should enable people to identify if a particular adapter is the same as one they are considering buying...

This is a work in progress - If other members have also used adapters and would like to write up their experience (good or bad) of these adapters or others, please post them in on this thread – that way we pass on our knowledge.

ALPHA-NEX adapters

LA EA1


This adapter is the original official Sony adapter to allow A-mount lenses to be used on NEX bodies. It seems to now be discontinued in the UK. It will allow the camera to recognise Minolta and Sony A-mount lenses and populate EXIF appropriately, but it will only AF with lenses that include their own motor (ie there is no slot-drive). SSM works better than SAM, but both are a little 'jittery' (although as it does not rely on phase-detection, it will still AF at very small maxium apertures – for instance a 70-300G with a x2 converter will still AF despite a max aperture of f11.0). Focus peaking is available with all lenses (SAM, SSM & Slot-drive).

As the adapter closes down the aperture as part of the exposure, you view at full aperture. This means you lose out on DoF preview (which cannot be assigned to a button) and that exposures at anything other than full aperture gain a slight extra delay.

Lenses and adapters that are not 'official' may not be recognized – My chipped m42 adapter does not get recognized in EXIF at all – but this is no great loss as there is no phase detect AF assist or Steady-shot inside to need the chip.

The adapter is very well made with no exposed workings and with the interior lined with a flock non-reflecting surface. The lens release button is high quality and the adapter is supplied with a detachable tripod mount – this add-on is quite neat and gets left on with my set-up.

pegelli wrote: ...where I use it most is to for M42 lenses by including a M42 to A-mount adapter. Only strange thing is that even if the M42 adapter is chipped it doesn't pass on any of the chip info to the NEX. It just shows the same as "no lens attached", i.e no focal length info and f 1,0. For the rest no complaints, works like a charm this way.

Minolta (AF) - NEX


This is an adapter which allows you to mechanically stop down an Alpha-mount lens mounted to a NEX body. As it has no electrical connections, no AF is possible and no EXIF is recorded, but true DoF is previewed and manual focus is possible using focus peaking.

The adapter body is well machined, the tab to release the Alpha-mount lens is not the greatest bit of engineering ever, but is simple enough to perform the function without leading to problems. The ring to control the aperture is broad and knurled with 7 positive click-stops to allow intermediate aperture settings plus the ability to set the ring to the extremes to get wide open and fully closed. Note that the adapter is not calibrated and you can only guess at the approximate f-stop by setting a number and looking at the width of the aperture – however, for whatever value you set, the NEX will work out a suitable shutter speed.

Issues with this adapter start with the pin which actuates the aperture in the lens: the pin is formed by a long screw which is painted black over the threads; after a little use, this screw shows signs of the paint rubbing off in places – in effect this means that small particles of flaked-off paint will be roaming free in the space between the back of the lens and the (exposed) sensor.

Another problem with the actuator pin is that it is long enough to foul m42 adapters – this may mean that it won't work with lenses that don't need external aperture control (and so don't have a deep channel in that part of the mount).

The biggest problem is with the bayonet that fits onto the camera – while it looks well-contructed, it is phenomenally tight on the NEX 7 – so much so that I'm not planning on putting it on again for fear of creating undue wear on the camera mount.

All of which is a shame, because otherwise it might be a good (and cheaper) alternative to the official LA-EA1.

AF-NEX


This is another adapter which allows you to mechanically stop down an Alpha-mount lens mounted to a NEX body. As it has no electrical connections, no AF is possible and no EXIF is recorded, but true DoF is previewed and manual focus is possible using focus peaking.

The adapter body is well machined, the lens release is a bit strange looking but works fine in practice. The ring to control the aperture is knurled with two click-stop positions at either end of travel for closed and open (or as the engraving has it, 'Lock' and 'Open'); the open setting actually closes the aperture down very slightly, but not even as much as 1/3 of a stop – if you want fully open, the ring will sit at a position just after the click-stop. The diaphragm ring is smooth and dampened enough to stay in any intermediate position between open and fully closed. As with the other adapter I reviewed above you have to guess at the approximate f-stop by looking at the width of the aperture – however, for whatever value you set, the NEX will work out a suitable shutter speed.

Like the other third-party NEX adapter, the aperture actuator is slightly too long to fit either of my m42 adapters, but the pin itself is smooth and does not suffer from paint rubs.

Both the lens and camera bayonets fit well with no excess play. Quality is good, the only finish issues being the top of the bayonet latch pin and the red dot to orient the lens when mounting (see photo below). Neither of these causes any major issue.

All in all, this adapter was well worth 17GBP, particularly as even the cheapest LA-EA1, only seems to be available for around 5 times the price (if you can find it now that it has discontinued). This adapter doesn't give you EXIF, AF with SAM/SSM lenses, or the excellent add-on tripod mount of the LA-EA1, but is a very practical alternative for slot-drive AF lenses, particularly macros (where manual focus is more usual and on-screen DoF is a boon).

MiPr wrote: 3) Minolta AF (fourth photo on the main post) - borrowed from Bob (thanks!) just to see how it works and whether I would be comfy with it. It's solid, it's smart, it works perfectly. The aperture "ring" works very well - it's pleasure to use, although without any f-stops marked so the aperture is a guess. I think that this solution is better to "step down when taking a shot" approach. The aperture lever, opposite to how it is done on the camera body and on the lens, is not "flat" but just a small rod. This makes problems when trying to use some non-alpha stuff on this adapter, e.g. Alpha-M42 adapter does not work. I think this could be worked around by using a file on it (I mean - not on your adapter Bob ). …one observation about using Minolta AF lenses: manual focusing is really cumbersome on some of them. I mean: the focus ring is not smooth - if you need to move it a tiny bit it becomes "jumpy", i.e. you have to apply some more force to move it and it jumps further than intended. This especially concerns second-gen Minolta lenses, e.g. 70-210/3.5-4.5 or 75-300/4.5-5.6. Comparing those lenses to their first-gen counterparts, e.g. beercan and big beercan there is a huge difference: first-gens are smooth and nice to operate ... The other disadvantage is that it is not chipped. Not a huge problem but you will not know what lens was in use. Oh well, nothing is perfect.

Contax G - E mount adapters

Contax G Zeiss lenses have the complication of requiring an adapter to supply a means of focusing the lenses, which do not have a manual focus ring – all focusing on Contax G cameras was controlled by the camera body via the same sort of slot-type physical connection as found in the original A-mount. Note that diaphragm control is not a feature of these adapters as the Contax G Zeiss lenses all feature manual diaphragms.

KIPON C/G-NEX adapter and cheap look-alike CONTAX(G)-NEX



Kipon produce an adapter complete with a narrow in-built focusing ring, there are a number of copies/knock-offs that copy the design. The Kipon is shown left in the pictures, with the look-alike (at 1/3 of the price) on the right.



Note that the Kipon has a silver lens release button and that it also has a less coarse grip.

Both adapters work, allowing focus throughout the range and both fit quite well on both lenses and camera body. Each features a sprung driver blade which will be pushed back into the adapter if the slot on the lens does not line-up exactly on mounting. Both allow the adapter to be kept on the body while a different Contax G lens is fitted.

There are key quality differences between the two adapters, with the more expensive Kipon being far smoother in operation and having a far more comfortable grip. The comfortable grip is key with this style of adapter as it does take a fair amount of effort to turn the gearing of the the Contax lenses and the design of the lenses and the adapter means that the focusing ring must be narrow and close to the body of the camera. I think the smoothness of operation probably justifies the extra cost of the better-made Kipon version – however, the cheaper version might well provide a good platform for modification or enhancement.

Metabones CONTAX G - E mount



The Metabones Contax G adapters (seen above, back and front) take an alternative route to the Kipon-type adapters around the design constraints of the G lenses: their main feature is a much wider focusing ring which also extends much further forward than the one found on the Kipon. This provides far greater purchase for fingers.





There are however, disadvantages that go with this alternative design – one is that the lens lock switch is on the back of the mount, so the adapter would need to be removed from the camera before another lens can be mounted. The driver blade is not sprung, so a little more care needs to be taken to ensure that the coupling goes together properly when mounting: altogether not a quick-change adapter for those with more than one Contax G lens.   Another disadvantage is that the Metabones adapter is a bit more expensive than a genuine Kipon (so 4 times the price of the Kipon look-alike).

Build is impressive although fit of the lens onto the adapter onto my 28mm Biogon is tight (the 90 Sonnar is a very good fit). Metabones make much of the smoothness of the action of this adapter, I found mine a little too stiff so removed some of the helicoid grease which left it a little more free-running. The width and repositioning of the grip really helps with the perception of smoothness and all-in all I’d say it was worth the price to make those lovely G Zeiss lenses a little more usable on a digital body.

KONICA AR adapters
Konica - NEX


This is an adapter designed to allow the fitting of manual focus Konica Hexanon and other brand lenses using the Konica AR (Autoreflex) bayonet mount. As it has no electrical connections, no EXIF is recorded. The Konica AR bayonet used an unusually small film-to-flange distance for full frame meaning that these lenses were impossible to attach to any conventional APS-C (or full-frame) dSLR – hence they have been an 'untapped' resource.

The adapter itself is a black-anodized tube with a knurled ring. The lens release button is a reasonable size with a positive action. The adapter fits well on the NEX body, but the Hexanon lenses tend to fit with a bit of play: this does not make much of a practical difference in use, but does affect the esthetics of using the adapter a little.


LEICA 'M' adapters

Pixoo L(M)-NEX

pegelli wrote: ...well made and both the male and female mount are nice and smooth, and absolutely no play when locked in place. Since rangefinder lenses have a much shorter registration distance this adapter is much smaller. So my little Leica M 35/2.8 Summaron remains still small on a NEX. Not quite a pancake but very pocketable

M42 & M39 screw thread adapters

MiPr wrote: M42 and M39 adapters - noname brand (some Chinese production), ...both adapters are very similar: black-coloured aluminum with an "inset" where you screw-in your lens. This inset is mounted to the adapter using three screws and after getting them a bit loose you can turn the inset around. This allows you to position the lens correctly (usually not a problem unless you want to use e.g. Zenitar 16/2.8 which has integrated lens hood). Everything is solid, mounts easily and generally I'm quite happy with them. Or better to say - I was happy because after today's walk I found a big surprise: namely the M42 adapter is way too short Previously I have not noticed it because I was shooting close-up scenes with macro ext rings. But for today's walk I took Mir 1W (37/2.8) and I immediately noticed that the lens focuses at infinity when the scale shows ... 1.7m! So it was clear that the adapter is too short. At least good that this is this way and not opposite. After returning home I took my caliper and performed some measurements. The flange for E-mount is 18mm so we have following:            Alpha   M42   M39 Flange     44.5   45.46 28.8 Adapter    26.5   27.46 10.8 Measured   26.3   26.70 10.6 Difference 0.2    0.76   0.2 As you can see all three adapters are too short comparing to what they should be. In case of Bob's adapter and M39 it is not disastrous - only 0.2mm - but still there should be no difference. In case of my M42 the difference is quite pronounced and quite noticeable when focusing (remember - infinity at 1.7m!). Hopefully the construction of the M42 and M39 adapters allow to fix the issue quite easily by removing the inset and putting some separator under it. Still, I believe that this is not a rocket science to produce a piece of metal pipe with the tolerance of 0.1mm so I'm astonished with such inaccuracy Please note: the M42 adapter for my A700 is done as it should be ...

MINOLTA SR (a.k.a MC or MD) adapters
MD - NEX


This is an adapter designed to allow the fitting of manual focus Minolta/Rokkor SR mount lenses (aka MC/MD). As it has no electrical connections, no EXIF is recorded. As SR mount lenses have a smaller film-to-flange distance than the Alpha mount, it was impossible to fit these lenses to previous dSLR bodies without use of an adapter containing a glass element which acted as a mild tele-converter.

The adapter itself is a black-anodized tube with a knurled ring. The lens release button is rather small and a little uncomfortable to use, but works with a positive action. The adapter fits well on the NEX body, and fit for SR-mount lenses is also good, but it is unacceptably tight on the a7 Mk 2 (which has an all metal bayonet).

K&F Concept 'Copper' MD - NEX


This adapter is designed to allow the fitting of manual focus Minolta Rokkor SR mount lenses (also known as MC mount or MD mount) to e-mount bodies. I got this adapter after buying the a7M2 and finding that the older MD-NEX adapter I had for the NEX-7 was rather uncomfortably tight on the a7 bayonet. This is K&F’s ‘Copper’ quality adapter, which has a separate chromed brass e-mount bayonet screwed into the back of the (substantial) anodised aluminium tube. The push button for lens release is nice and broad and the adapter is weighty enough to make you realise you have spent the extra £2 reasonably wisely. The SR bayonet on the front is only held on by three screws (similar to other ‘MD-NEX adapters), but the whole bayonet seems very secure. A nice step up on the quality of the unbranded MD-NEX adapter I was using before (see above).


Zhongyi Lens Turbo MD-NEX

gregk wrote: Hi all, there's been a lot of buzz about the Speedbooster and now the Chinese copy's offered in some new mounts. I recently acquired the Lens Turbo MD-NEX. Haven't had much time to play with it yet, but I am hoping this weekend I can get some sample images posted. My initial impression is that similar to a normal teleconverter, it will emphasize any defects in the lens, so if you saw a slight halo at f/1.4 with the lens normally, it will be worse when used with this adapter. Most of the lenses I've tried that are below f/2.8 need to be stopped down and are almost unusable wide open. Most of my MD lenses have a slight noticeable haloing with a non-optical adapter on my NEX's, so I don't know that its the adapters fault necessarily. Anyhow, you'll see what I mean when I get some samples posted. Not to say its a bad adapter - it actually is quite interesting to use, but will have to work within its limits. In the meantime, here's a teaser pic on my 5n: ...I've been working on some sample shots with the Lens Turbo that I hope to have posted soon. Its raining, so they are boring indoor shots, I am not taking my old Rokkor glass out in the rain As far as CA correction, I'm not seeing any difference with my Rokkor lenses between the RAW and JPG, perhaps it only activates in JPG only mode if it works at all with adapted lenses? If so, its not something I would use since I typically prefer shooting RAW. I would be interested in seeing some sample comparisons if you've been able to make this work woodrim. Also, Tim asked about the length of the Lens Turbo adapter that I forgot to answer - yes it is significantly shorter. It looks like my standard adapter adds a hair over 25mm between the lens and camera, where the Lens Turbo adds only 20mm. It really is nice, especially when with the smaller Rokkors like the 45/2. After spending several hours going back and forth between my adapters, the Lens Turbo is actually quite impressive. Here's a few observations: -The adapter does give a slight green shift to the color tone, easily corrected with WB. -I've also noticed it changes the lens distortion a bit, but this is mainly noticeable when shooting straight lines and comparing shots with or without the adapter. -It does emphasize haloing as I had said before, but I think this is more a side effect of the extra stop you gain, it decreased DOF even more and on 1.4 or 1.2 lenses, this is enough to make the images too soft. Stop down to f/2 and its about the same as it would be with a normal adapter. So really the main thing you gain is the extra field of view. This could be handy especially with wider lenses. -The adapter has a really nice fit and finish, it fits very snug to the lens and camera, unlike a lot of the regular adapters I've tried which tend to be a bit loose. It's an all metal body and looks sharp when installed on the camera.

EzFoto Tilt Minolta MD MC Lens

twm47099 wrote: I recently purchased a used NEX-7 body for use with my legacy lenses (primarily Minolta MF lenses), microscope, etc. While I was shopping for adapters, I found this: "EzFoto Tilt Minolta MD MC Lens to Sony Alpha Nex E-mount Camera Adapter" Since it sold for less than $60 on Amazon, and I have long wanted a tilt lens or adapter for my a-mount system, I felt that it was worth a shot. I bought it. My primary goal was to use it with my close-up/macro equipment to increase the plane of focus to increase the apparent DOF. I'll show some results below. The way it works is that you focus on the subject of interest. Then you rotate the tilt ring to change the plane of focus. Then you adjust focus if necessary, set the aperture, and make the photo. The amount of tilt needed is actually smaller than I had expected. One of the basic issues with the method is that it can be very difficult to see when the tilt is correct when using a 35mm and smaller format due to the small VF/LCD. However, by using focus peaking on the NEX it is simple to see when you have the tilt the way you want. For example in the first image below (grass) <check the dpreview link above for the images>, with no tilt you can see that the DOF was very small. (all shots were made using a Tokina 90mm macro lens with aperture wide open (f/2.5). The total DOF calculated to about 18 inches (9 in front, 9 in back). In the VF using peaking, I could easily see a band of yellow moving across the field as I changed focus. The focus point was on the leaf near the center of the image. Since I wanted the entire grassy area in sharp focus, I adjusted the tilt until the yellow band expanded to cover the entire image. Then I took the shot (image 2). If you examine the image using the loupe you can see that the grass is sharp from top to bottom of the frame (All photos are not cropped, and are in-camera jpgs, rotated and resized to be acceptable to dpreview gallery. No sharpening was done after resizing.) The 3rd image is a close-up with no tilt. I hand held the camera in a kneeing position. The shallow DOF is obvious. The 4th image is the same shot but with tilt. The sharp area extends almost over the entire frame. However, there is a soft area in the lower right corner that is due to an issue I'll mention below. I forgot to correct for it. As with anything there are pros and cons. Pro: Inexpensive It works Con: It is not a shift lens (but that's not a con for what I wanted). It has only 8 degrees of tilt, but I believe that the very expensive canon TS lens also has 8 degrees of tilt. From my tests so far that seems sufficient for me, but maybe as I use it more I will see some limitations. The instructions are not all that clear and the operation is not all that straight forward. The adapter rotates, but the spring loaded detents are stiff, and it is not obvious that the adapter can be rotated. In fact one reviewer on Amazon thought that it couldn't be rotated. It's not the highest quality piece of kit I've found. Some examples: The detents are not properly lined up with the horizontal or vertical axes of the image. That causes the plane of focus not to be parallel to the edges of the frame. With tilt so the peaking band is narrow you can see the band align obliquely to the image. That is what caused the soft corner in shot 4. My normal technique to compensate is to adjust every thing (focus, tilt, aperture) with the adapter in the detent. Then I rotate the adapter slightly (out of the detent) to properly align it, and shoot. Unfortunately, I was in a rush and forgot in shot 4. I would prefer no detents, but a thumb screw to lock it where desired. The adapter is over greased. I don't keep it mounted to either lens or camera since I am concerned the grease will migrate on them. As I've used it more (and after keeping in wrapped in a cloth, I haven't found any new grease on it. There is a tilt scale, but there is no index and the scale is backwards. No matter where you make an index, as you add tilt, the scale rotates in the direction of the highest number (8), so the scale would indicate lower values as you increase the angle. I also doubt it is calibrated which would prevent the user from setting things mathematically. But with focus peaking, I have not found that important. It's obviously not perfect, but it works, and for the specialized applications where I'll use it, it's ok.

Nikon F adapters

Roxen Nikon F

bieomax wrote: Well I've just picked up a Nikon F (is it?) to nex adaptor (non booster) from Roxsen off an auction site. it also has an helicoid focusing section built into it. Quality is quite good and the mounts feel solid, the helicoid is smooth, it also has an extra ring for aperture adjustment. overall I'm happy with the adaptor and the price (£24) the extra helicoid seems handy too as I'd guess it gives you an extra 10mm to play with which I think on the lens I have takes the min focus distance from about 50cm down to 20ish cm the only slight thing is that the castellated ring which moves the helicoid section slightly interferes with the oem flash when mounted, but not much really at all, you get a small noise of it turning against the flash body.

OLYMPUS OM adapters

OM-NEX adapter


This is an adapter designed to allow the fitting of manual focus Olympus OM mount lenses. As it has no electrical connections, no EXIF is recorded. OM mount lenses have a larger film-to-flange distance than the Alpha mount, but not by much, so no commercial OM/Alpha adapters were widely available.

The adapter itself is a black-anodized tube with a knurled ring. There is no lens release button, as this is incorporated into the OM lenses themselves. A small tab inside the adapter holds the aperture acuator against its spring (OM mount lenses are open at rest and only normally close to the set f-stop when the actuator is triggered by the OM system camera during exposure). The adapter fits well on the NEX body, and fit for OM-mount lenses is also good.

KIPON OM-NEX

pegelli wrote: ...Slightly more expensive than the normal ones (~60 $) but it is very well made and has a tripod mount (which is why I chose it)

E-Mount extension tubes

pegelli wrote: I found them for 7$ from a Chinese ebay seller and by adding 2$ shipping cost I had them in house 8 days after ordering. They have no electrical contacts, so don't work with native E-mount lenses, because the aperture stays at the smallest/closed value. However for all the manual lenses one might use this is of no concequence. The different pieces fit together with a screw mount. The shortest set-up is 15,5 mm when you screw together the male and female E-mounts. Then you can fit other pieces inbetween that have screw mount on both sides. The three that come with the set are 7, 14 and 28 mm. Mechanically they're OK, all metal (aluminum I think) but probably you want to be careful with the screw mounts between the pieces. A grain of sand or not mounting them exactly straight can probably ruin the threads quickly. However for this price I have no complaints. Both the male and female E-mounts are smooth and fit without any play. One last thing to mention is that the manufacturing of all the screw threads is not with tight tolerances with regard to ensuring your aperture notch and focus scale is at the top of the lens. Expect them to be all around at different places depending on which pieces you actually fit together.

Adapters on the camera
Below is a picture of the first 4 of the above adapters on the NEX 7 with a 'standard' lens. These are from L-R, Sony 50/f1.4, Minolta Rokkor 45/f2.0, Olympus Zuiko 50/f1.8 and Konica Hexanon 40/f1.8.


The Rokkor 45 and the Hexanon 40 are quite shallow lenses, although as you can see, nothing is very shallow when perched atop an adapter :-)

Edited by Bob J - 05 May 2018 at 12:57

Hi Bob,
very interesting article I will probably add my experience with one adapter for the LTM/M-39 mount and Minolta SR mount.

FYI the Minolta MD 45/2 Rokkor is not a pancake lens even if people try to call it that. Minolta made the Minolta SR 45/2.8 Rokkor-TD that is a true pancake.

You can see the difference between the two lenses in the image bellow.


http://photo.net/sony-minolta-slr-system-forum/00VIyo

Great initiative Bob. For me also the attraction of the NEX is being a digital back for old lenses I have. However I'm also more and more appreciating just taking the NEX and kit zoom as a very small and portable package.

Let me add a few more titbits on adapters and other NEX/E-mount accesories.

First two which you have already covered:

LA-EA1, but where I use it most is to for M42 lenses by including a M42 to A-mount adapter. Only strange thing is that even if the M42 adapter is chipped it doesn't pass on any of the chip info to the NEX. It just shows the same as "no lens attached", i.e no focal length info and f 1,0.
For the rest no complaints, works like a charm this way.



Second a Olympus OM adapter, but mine is made by Kipon, slightly more expensive than the normal ones (~60 $) but it is very well made and has a tripod mount (which is why I chose it)






And now some more stuff:

First a Leica M to E-mount. The brand I have is Pixoo, well made and both the male and female mount are nice and smooth, and absolutely no play when locked in place. Since rangefinder lenses have a much shorter registration distance this adapter is much smaller. So my little Leica M 35/2.8 Summaron remains still small on a NEX. Not quite a pancake but very pocketable









The last contribution is about E-mount extension tubes. I found them for 7$ from a Chinese ebay seller and by adding 2$ shipping cost I had them in house 8 days after ordering. They have no electrical contacts, so don't work with native E-mount lenses, because the aperture stays at the smallest/closed value. However for all the manual lenses one might use this is of no concequence. The different pieces fit together with a screw mount. The shortest set-up is 15,5 mm when you screw together the male and female E-mounts. Then you can fit other pieces inbetween that have screw mount on both sides. The three that come with the set are 7, 14 and 28 mm. Mechanically they're OK, all metal (aluminum I think) but probably you want to be careful with the screw mounts between the pieces. A grain of sand or not mounting them exactly straight can probably ruin the threads quickly. However for this price I have no complaints. Both the male and female E-mounts are smooth and fit without any play. One last thing to mention is that the manufacturing of all the screw threads is not with tight tolerances with regard to ensuring your aperture notch and focus scale is at the top of the lens. Expect them to be all around at different places depending on which pieces you actually fit together.








Edited by pegelli - 03 June 2012 at 15:11

Excellent article!! Thanks for sharing everybody ;)

Jay

pegelli wrote: LA-EA1, but where I use it most is to for M42 lenses by including a M42 to A-mount adapter. Only strange thing is that even if the M42 adapter is chipped it doesn't pass on any of the chip info to the NEX. It just shows the same as "no lens attached", i.e no focal length info and f 1,0.

That hasn’t been an issue for me. Initially, I got an M42-NEX adapter and realized later that I could do without it, go M42-MA to LAEA1. That is how I use my M42 lenses on NEX-3, and get the EXIF. I do have a different issue, and this is with James Lao multi-exif M42-MA adapter (28mm, 85mm, 135mm and 300mm). The adapter works as advertised on A55, where I can toggle thru the focal lengths. However, when put on LA-EA1, I can’t toggle thru and end up with 28mm.

Now only if we got chipped adapters to NEX as well. I also have C-mount (no lens to use right now), and MD-NEX (currently Kiron 70-150/f4.0 which is about to be replaced with Vivitar Series I 70-210/f2.8-4.0 Komine version).

Bob J wrote: Please note that I've updated the original posting to incorporate any specific reviews posted subsequently - snip

Thanks- I'm finding this to be a useful resource.

I've only got two adapters at the moment (LA-EA1 & a MD-NEX) and really have little to add to your descriptions as yet.

While I appreciate that the LA-EA1 isn't as functional as the LA-EA2, it's compact & well-made. I'm now also of the opinion that most adapters do benefit from having a tripod-attachment option.

Thank you for this valuable information. I am considering the purchase of a NEX camera body. However, I require significant PRACTICAL information about details, specifications etc. This thread will be extremely helpful.

Greatly appreciated.

JL