New m42 Zeiss primes

there's something wrong with this...

M42 is a praktica screw lens mount with a 42mm throat and a 45.46mm focal flange distance; as nikon F mount has a focal flange distance of 46.5mm, that means M42 lenses won't have infinity focus if adapted for nikon cameras; that's the case with my carl zeiss jena pancolar 50mm f/1.8 and my carl zeiss jena sonnar 135mm f/4, both with M42 screw mount

if that's the M42 they're talking about, I'd rather get the nikon ones, which can be used on anything you'd find today except for arri PL

but maybe when they say M42 they actually mean Tamron T-mount, which is another screw mount with a 42mm throat (so sometimes some people call it M42, which I think is a very unfortunate way to call it), but in this case it has a 55mm focal flange distance, which means you can adapt it to anything, including nikon F and even arri PL

doesn't look like that on the pictures on bhphoto: the nikon-F lens seems to be actually a bit shorter than the M42 lens, and both seem much shorter than the canon one; if M42 actually meant T-mount, the lens should be around 1cm shorter than the nikon or canon ones, which doesn't seem to be the case

more on lens mounts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_mount
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-mount


edit: yes, there are M42 to nikon adapters out there, but they either include a glass element that kills the lens, or won't focus to infinity; for example:
http://cgi.ebay.es/Screw-Mount-Zeis...427?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item518c44a70b
"Limited focusing distance provided. You can use the lens for portrait or macro lens."
 
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Nikon F mount has a slightly larger flange focal distance than M42 which actually makes them more compatible. Plus they have a better mount (screw vs bayonet).

But at the end of the day the Nikon mounts flange focal distance is only 1mm greater than M42 and seems it extra use is for adapting to OM mount which M42 cannot.

I guess it's just down to personal preference.
 
Nowadays Nikon mount is certainly more adaptable than M42, if for no other reason than you can't put M42 lenses on a Nikon body.
 
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