Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Shoten R50 Pentax K to Leica M adapter

Inasmuch as I love music and retrotech high fidelity music reproduction, I think it's healthy to take periodic breaks from hifi. Frequent visitors know that I also enjoy photography, especially using black and white film loaded in old school manual focus cameras. 

So today's blog is about the Shoten R50 lens adapter that's designed to take a 50mm (Note: a 35mm, 45mm, 55mm or 58mm, etc. won't focus accurately) Pentax K bayonet mount lens and fully couple to the rangefinder focus cam of a Leica M body from 0.7 meters to infinity. 

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Japanese Idler-Driven Turntable Part 5: Lafayette PK300

I bought this Lafayette PK300 idler-driven turntable because it looked like an improved Shield MO-19 (aka NEAT P58H) with the added feature of an eddy current pitch control as found in the Garrard 301/401 and Thorens TD124.

Shield MO-19 vs. Lafayette PK300

Comparing them side by side, the PK300 turned out to be proportionately smaller in all dimensions and lighter in weight. Hmmm🤔…let's travel back to the late 50s.