FAQ Adapters: What Lens Is This? What Adapter Do I Need?Updated a month ago

A question we get often is ‘What lens is this?’, and the answer is not always easy to find. There are many third party lens makers (such as Zeiss, Sigma, Tokina and Tamron to name just a few) who make the same lens for a multitude of different camera systems, as well as some more obscure camera systems that time has forgotten (such as Nikon Rangefinder, Pentax 110, Leica Visoflex, Hasselblad XPAN, Kodak Retina and Exakta/Topcon). So figuring out what mount the lens is designed for can involve a little bit of detective work. Here are some things to look for to try to figure out what mount best fits your lens:

• The easiest way is if you still have the camera the lens is originally designed to work with, letting us know what the camera model is allows us to look up the mount with more certainty.
• If you don’t have the camera, sometimes the lens manufacturer will put a mark of some sort on the mount area of the lens indicating what system it is for, usually it is a 2 or 3 letter code such as: CN, FD, OM, MAF, NK, N/AIS or F/AX for instance.

• If the lens still has the rear lens cap, look inside the cap, more often then not the lens cap will be marked with the mount code even if the lens is not!

• You can also take it to a local camera shop or camera swap meet and try the lens out on a few different camera bodies and see which system it fits.
• Our friends over at KEH put together this great Lens Mount Guide with reference images that we have found to be very helpful in identifying various lens mounts:
• https://www.robertallenkautzphoto.com/lens-mount-identification
• And lastly if you get stuck and this is a lens that just doesn’t have any identifiable markings and doesn’t match anything in the guides above; take three pictures of the lens (as shown and detailed below), open a new support ticket and send those images in to us. Our tech support guys have seen just about every lens out there and should be able to identify the lens for you and be able to match an adapter for it to suit your needs!

* Please make sure that all photos are sharp and in focus, well lit and easily readable for best results.