This simple and cheap lens mount adapter has me excited to use my old lenses again
(Image credit: Future)
This Black Friday I finally bought a mount adapter for my collection of vintage film lenses, and it has given them a whole new lease on life!
I have been collecting vintage film lenses for my Pentax ME camera for years, but with the price of film and development skyrocketing and my free time recently doing the opposite, I haven't been out shooting much, leaving all my beautiful vintage glass to gather dust on a shelf.
A lens mount adapter is something that has been lingering on my Amazon wishlist for months on end but I never found the drive to actually go ahead and make the purchase. This Black Friday however I saw that it had some money off, which was enough for me to get over my inertia and finally add it to my basket!
Urth Lens Mount Adapter | was £39 | now £31.20 Save £8.80 at Amazon This Urth mount adapter is perfect for connecting a range of older lenses to modern bodies. The adapter is suitable for manual and aperture priority photography only, and autofocus won't work. If you have lots of vintage glass though then you can now give it a new purpose.
The mount adapter I chose is made by Urth, and it is specifically made to connect Pentax K lenses to a Fujifilm X-mount camera (in my case a Fujifilm X-T5). There are plenty of other options available for most SLR, DSLR, and MFT lenses to be mounted to most modern camera bodies including Fujifilm, Sony, Nikon, and Canon.
I really appreciate Urth’s minimal design and environmentally friendly credentials. And when it arrived, I certainly wasn't disappointed as it looks absolutely superb sat between my X-T5 and Pentax-M lenses.
These are manual adapters so the aperture and focus have to be dialed in by hand, no adapter is going to magically give a 40-year-old lens autofocus! But on my Fuji, auto exposure worked flawlessly through the adapter and vintage glass, and the images are still stunning (with a little vintage flair to them).
For around £30-40 (depending on the mount) I have opened my photography up to far more possibilities, and thinking more about manual settings, I'm actually having more fun with photography than I have in a while!
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If you have a burgeoning collection of old lenses and you're looking for a cheap thrill this Black Friday, then I can't recommend a mount adapter more.
Gareth is a photographer based in London, working as a freelance photographer and videographer for the past several years, having the privilege to shoot for some household names. With work focusing on fashion, portrait and lifestyle content creation, he has developed a range of skills covering everything from editorial shoots to social media videos. Outside of work, he has a personal passion for travel and nature photography, with a devotion to sustainability and environmental causes.
