EOS D Bodies and Non Canon Lenses.

I do not own an EOS body but know to some extent that they take lenses from different manufacturers. My lenses, bare as they are, are in Nikon MF, AF, and

Pentax K and screw mount besides 1 Canon 39mm screwmount. If I can use any or all on an EOS D body without adapters with a lens, I would like to upgrade

to a minimum 16mp used body for nature photography eventually hopeing to one day get a longer telephoto on a budget allowance. I'm sure that I will probably

have to suffer either stop down or meterless photography till i get the right lenses. Suggestions?

<p>See http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/manual_focus_EOS.html</p>

<p>You'll need adapters for any non Canon EF(s) compatible lens. You're OK with Nikon, Pentax K and screw mount lenses. Adapters are cheap.</p>

<p>You won't be able to use the 39mm screw mount lens much because with any non-optical adapter (and I think they are all just mechanical adapters) you won't be able to get infinity focus. The lens <em> might</em> still be usable for macro (very close focus) though.</p>

<p>I'd probably suggest a used 7D if you can find one in your price range. They're going for as little as $600 these days. If thats too much you can get a new EOS Rebel T5 for under $300.</p>

<p>If your heart is set on using all those old lenses I would suggest you take a look at a mirrorless camera made by Olympus. All your lenses will work using cheap adapters and you will also get a very good image stabilisation system thrown in. In addition, you will find manually focusing those lenses will be far easier using the Olympus electronic viewfinder. Manually focusing on a Canon EOS DSLR is a bit hit and miss, especially in low light. All Olympus camera bodies are 16 megapixel and some even offer focus peaking which is a godsend for manual focus. The only possible "downside" is that the focal length of your lenses will be doubled i.e. a 50mm lens effectively becomes a 100mm lens etc.</p>

I do have a 4/3rd's in a G1. It gave me a lot of nice pic's, but am over the format. If i can find a decent 7D for $600 I'd go that way and use my

current crop of lenses which will cover most of my needs except short a FL.

<p>You could also try looking for an APS-C Sony NEX body. The newer ones have focus peaking. For example<br>

https://www.keh.com/354426/sony-nex-7-black-digital-camera-body-24-3-m-p<br>

They also have substantially less back-focus than DSLR's because they have no mirror.<br /> Best of all there's the full frame A7, A7S, A7R which are a poor man's Leica M9. Still not cheap though.<br>

I have a Canon 40D with a 3rd-party split-image viewfinder which I use for manual focus. It got old pretty fast. I realized that I was only using those manual-focus lenses because I couldn't afford the Canon L glass equivalents, but since getting the L glass, I never use the MF lenses anymore.<br>

The 3-digit Canon bodies have a rather dim and low-magnification pentamirror, so very undesirable for manual focus.</p>

<p>Manual focus is best done in Live View rather then via the viewfinder.</p>

<p>Given the lenses you have, I think you're headed down the wrong path to be looking at a Canon body.<br /><br />Since you have Nikon lenses, the logical step would be to get a Nikon body. That way you can use the Nikon lenses you arleady have without any adaptors and not lose any of their functions. (My D200 and D7000 will meter with even manual focus Nikon lenses.) I would then sell the Pentax and Canon lenses and use the money to replace them with something in Nikon mount.<br /><br />Some people love trying to do use lenses with adaptors, but IMHO the limits of metering, focusing, etc. aren't worth the trouble.</p>

"That way you can use the Nikon lenses you already have without any adapters and not lose any of their functions."

 

Unless their manual focus such as my AI & AIS.

 

Bob, thanks for that link. Insightful.

<blockquote>

<p>I do have a 4/3rd's in a G1. It gave me a lot of nice pic's, but am over the format.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>? ? ?</p>

<p>"Unless their manual focus such as my AI & AIS."<br /><br />I use manual focus AI and AIS lenses all the time. They obviously don't autofocus but aperture priority metering works perfectly fine. </p>

<p>I have both a Canon and most recently an Olympus OM-D e-M5 (first edition) and both work very well with adapted lenses. With the Canon I get inexpensive adapters with AF confirmation and get great results. With the OM-D, I use the art mode to help with manual focus (cheap cheat for lack of focus peaking on the e-m5 Mark I). </p>