I've been asked not to say who the manufacturer is: Frank Doorhof referred this guy to me who quite independently of my efforts was trying to get a FA35 and other Pentax glass adapted for his ZD. He bumped into the MD of a certain far eastern manufacturer of after-market photographic goods in his local Mamiya dealer and struck up a conversation about his adaptor project.
Said MD took a genuine interest, and it appears that they are looking into official development of an adaptor. Needless to say, this is all – quite literally – Chinese whispers at present, and my 'contact' has asked me not to divulge any specifics at this stage of the process.
I am somewhat skeptical that an auto adaptor can be made at all, but he doesn't share my pessimism on this point! In a few days – postman willing – I should have the bits to put together a prototype. If it works, I would be prepared to put together another one for board members. If there was sufficient demand, I'd be quite happy to look into subcontracting small scale production to a specialist, or publishing instructions on my site (
http://www.16-9.net/fa35.html is interesting!) to enable others to make their own.
All I want – all I really, really want – is to get my ZD together with my FA35! I have always considered this lens to be the exact MF equivalent of the Zeiss 21mm. Remember about four years ago when it too was undervalued and underappreciated, but worked like nothing else on the 1Ds Mark I?