Hawk's Factory Adapter - the painful reality

My Hawk's factory adapter is really starting to drive me bananas.  I like the idea of this adapter (the ability to focus closer than the far off minimum focus distance of rangefinder lenses is awesome), and it can generate some good images, but it is now becoming a pain in the butt.  There are three things that are now driving me up the wall.

Firstly, as I mentioned in a previous post, the helicoid has a bit of play.

Secondly, there is no lock on the standard position, so when focusing with a lens that has slightly stiffer focus than normal, it starts to adjust the helicoid.  Very annoying.

Thirdly, and by far the most annoying is that the tolerances on the M mount are a little off, and now my LTM to M adapter is jammed on.  As it is a thin adapter, it is very difficult to move.  No matter what I did, it wouldn't budge (and yes I released the lens lock first).

Given I paid $140 used for it, I am pretty ticked off about this purchase.

Sony NEX 5n with Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 Super Wide Heliar and Hawks Factory NEX to M mount adapter

Hawk's Factory adapter - more shots

Here's another shot with the NEX using the Hawk's Factory Leica M to Sony NEX adapter, this time with the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 shot at f2.  I do like this shot, of flowers outside a Starbucks, and it shows what this adapter is really capable with.

Actually there's a reason I had this lens on the NEX.  I was finishing off a roll of film on my Leica M3 with the Leica 50mm Summicron attached.  This meant that with a 35mm lens on the NEX, the field of view was very close to 50mm.  Having it set on f2 and ISO 400, the same as the film inside the M3 and wide open on the Summicron, meant that I could get accurate meter readings when I took the shot. 

Hawk's Factory adapter - results

I've been using the Hawk's factory adapter on the NEX a little more, and here's a shot I really like.  I've used the Voigtlander 21mm f4 at minimum, a very sharp lens, with the Hawk's factory adapter about half way in and shot at f8.  I've noticed some looseness in the helicoid, which I am not particularly pleased with, and for the price had hoped for better.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Hawk's Factory Leica M to Sony NEX adapter

Today I got my hands on a Hawk's Factory Leica M to Sony NEX adapter.  The key thing about these adapters is that they have a built in helicoid that enables much close focusing on rangefinder lens.  So far I have just tried it out using the Leica 50mm Summicron and NEX 5n, but the improvement in close focusing is dramatic, enabling shots down to about 25cm instead of 70cm.

The Hawk's adapter seems reasonably well made, but probably not as nice as the non-helicoid ones from Voigtlander and Novoflex, though there are twice the price.

I get the feeling that as rangefinder lenses are not designed to be focused close, they will lose their edge in optical performance in this range, however I do look forward to trying it out.

Sony NEX 5n with Sigma 30mm f2.8          Serena Gundy Park, Toronto