Adapting An Industar 69 28mm f2.8 'Pancake' Lens For Micro Four-thirds (And A Huge Stroke Of Luck)

Adapting An Industar 69 28mm f2.8 'Pancake' Lens For Micro Four-thirds (And A Huge Stroke Of Luck)

Back in the early part of the year (2025), I picked up a 'Seagull', the Chaika II 35mm half-frame camera (https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/2025/03/31/another-contender-for-the-crappy-commie-camera-challenge-the-chaika-ii-half-frame-camera/). The Chaika II is an interchangeable lens camera, with a 28mm f2.8 lens on a M39 mount and I really wanted to try this lens on my micro four-thirds mirrorless cameras. I quickly discovered two things: the lens is not 'interchangeable', there never was a range of lenses that could be used with this camera. The lens was just 'removable', as it was intended to be used with a dedicated enlarger that never appeared on the market. The second thing was that the lens distance to the focal plane was 1.3mm different to that of a micro four-thirds camera, so the camera will never focus to infinity.

I did dicover one method of hacking the lens (http://tunnel13.com/blog/industar-69-easy-infinity-focus-fix/) so that it would focus to infinity, but that involved altering the lens semi-permanently (it can be reversed), and that meant after the hack it would not behave properly when used with the Chaika II. So I abandoned the idea of hacking the Industar, since the Chaika II is a lovely little camera and I really didn't want to lose the opportunity of not being able to use it again. 

And then, one day I was perusing the Cano Ameralo website, a little shop in Porto that occasionally has some real gems, and I came across this entry (translated from Portuguese): 'A less common edition of the Industar 69M clone Zeiss Tessar wide-angle fixed lens, produced by MMZ (BeloMO from 1971) for Soviet Chaika rangefinders in half-frame format with a 39mm (L39) thread'. Ooh, what? A standalone lens? Presumably taken from a non functioning Chaika II. What made it more appealing was that it was described  as: 'Fully functional but has some interior dirt and the exterior shows evident signs of use'. The lens was sold as a part of Cano Amerelo's 'Outlet', which are, 'products [that] are sold for parts or decoration without warranty or return', so a bit like the 'Not Passed' items on the Kamerastore website.

When it arrived, the Industar 69M was certainly well used. Much of the surface was worn away, and it was in quite beat up condition. But the lens was sound, if a little grubby. The first thing I tried was to see how it worked on my micro four-thirds mirrorless cameras without any adjustments, and you can see that at infinity the image is quite blurred. So I decided that I would follow the suggestions in the focus hack article and adjust infinity focus for micro four-thirds. Unfortunately, the small screwdrivers that I have were not small enough to loosen the screws on the Industar-69, so I had to put a hold on that until I got some more.

A few days later, I was on the Kamerastore website, when I came across an entry for an 'Industar 28mm f2.8 Industar-69 Leica Thread Mount (LTM / M39)' lens. Of course, it was in the Not Passed category, with 'flaws that will affect typical use'. In this case, 'major dust inside that will affect image quality', but it was, 'otherwise okay', and looked in nice condition from the images on the site. In the entry, the lens was described as using 'the M39 screw mount but [it] will not work properly on LTM rangefinder cameras', which I knew. But I felt this would be a useful back-up in case I screwed up the adjustment of the lens from Cano Ameralo.

After a few days, the lens arrived, and after a cursory inspection I put it to one side. It looked really nice compared to my beat-up version, but there was no rush with this lens as I'm still looking for a nice set of watchmakers tools. Then, on a spur of the moment decision one rainy day (we've had a lot of these just lately) I decided to gt it out and take another look. The first thing I noticed was that it was in really nice condition. I couldn't see much dust compared to the beat up copy, and the lens body was in lovely condition.

The other thing I noticed was that the little red dot on the aperture wheel was nowhere near the aperture markers. Looking closely at the silver band on the aperture wheel, I spotted a small scratch mark opposite the red dot, and when this was lined up with the aperture numbers, it seemed to coincide with the aperture size. I mulled over this for a few minutes, and then began to wonder: had someone already opened this lens and adjusted the focus for mirrorless cameras?

I took the two Industar-69 lenses and an Olympus Pen E-PL1 mirrorless camera across the road to my favourite tree and well. I mounted the original lens on the camera with a micro four-thirds to M39 mount adaptor, set the aperture to f5,6, the camera to aperture priority, and the lens to infinity and made an exposure. I then set the focus to about 2m and took an image of a signpost. I repeated this exercise with the possibly adjusted Kamerastore lens. 

Immediately, even on the LCD display, I could see there was a difference. The images from the original Industar-69 were blurred and glowing from the haze inside. This is the result I had expected from the description of the condition of the lens, and I was fully prepared for that. However, the images from the Kamerastore Industar-69 just took my breath away. They were pin sharp. When I zoomed in on the text, the letters were crisp and clear. It was quite amazing. There was one odd thing, though, which took me a moment to spot. All the details in the background of the infinity shot were lost, and there was a distinct yellow cast to the images. There's a plastic greenhouse behind my favourite trees, but this was just ... gone. 

I wondered if this was something to do with the E-PL1, so I repeated the exercise with another camera, an Olympus Pen E-PL3 that I had picked up for full-spectrum conversion (before I realised that the E-PL3 was going to be impossible for me to disassemble). Sure enough, the images from the Kamerastore lens were pin sharp, and in the background was the greenhouse, as expected. Clearly, there's something wrong with the sensor on the E-PL1, though I love the blown-out effect. 

In conclusion, though, I think I've had a real stroke of luck here. The Kamerastore Industar-69 has definitely already been calibrated for mirrorless cameras, and very well, too. I think this has definitely saved me a job, and there's little point in me taking apart the beat-up lens. Mind you, now I've seen how wonderful and clear the Industar-69 lens can be, I might actually see If I can take the elements out so I can clean the lenses and use this lens in the Chaika II, as it was intended. 

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