Yashica M42 Camera Lenses

How to Mount M42 Lenses

The world of cameras might better be known as the world of camera lenses. Most serious hobby photographers have only a few camera bodies, but they have a wide range of lens mounts.

How Do You Make Sure a Lens Fits Your Camera?

Before choosing a lens, you have to make sure that it fits your camera body and that means double checking the mount. For example, a Yashica M42 lens has a 42 mm threaded connector with a 1 mm pitch. What makes it difficult is that, while you can often use a lens adapter to adapt different physical connectors, you won't always have access to features like aperture control. Once you know that the lens will physically fit on the camera, there are two basic factors to consider:

• Register: The register or flange focal distance refers to the distance between the back of the lens and the film or sensor. Each lens is designed so that it will focus to infinity only at that particular position, which is why it's such an important factor when selecting lenses. For the M42 it's 45.46 mm.
• Mechanism: Most mounts are either threaded or bayonet designs. For threaded mounts like the M42, you not only have to consider the diameter of 42 mm, but also the thread pitch as this determines whether it's going to mount smoothly or possibly misthread.

What Kinds of M42 Lenses Are There?

Yashica originally used the M42 mount for rangefinder cameras like the Electro-X, but it can also work on SLR cameras just as easily. This means that there are a large number of lenses available, such as the Yashinon DS and Yashinon DX which use the same mount. One thing to remember is that, despite the great number of variations, they all fall into one of two basic categories, both of which can use the M42 mount:

• M42 Prime Lens: In photography, prime simply means a fixed focal length. It essentially trades flexibility for performance. You can get anything from a telephoto to ultra wide angle in prime, but when you change the nature of the shot, you have to change the lens.
• M42 Zoom Lens: A zoom lets you vary the focal length as you shoot so you can use the same lens up close and at a distance. They require more care due to the greater number of moving parts but are great for taking advantage of things as they come up.

Using a Camera

While features like auto focus are always useful, the most important thing to do regardless of your camera is to take lots of pictures. The more you take, the stronger an eye for composition you can develop.