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FD lens to EOS camera body adapter query ....


matt_t_butler

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Tried search box with nil results.

Perhaps a moderator could assist if there is an earlier thread on another forum?

My question is : what would be a good brand of adapter?

I am aware of the specialist Canon branded adapter made for their FD telephotos

but was wondering which contemporary Chinese/other brand FD to EOS with the glass element for infinity focus is the best?

Matt B
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Well, in the absence of someone who has actually had experience, I'll chip in a few random thoughts.

 

You are already aware that an additional lens element is necessary to make an FD lens focus to infinity on an EOS body. That's good, since the problem with the adapters is the accuracy and quality of the design and construction of the correcting lens(es). It would be nice to think that more expensive adapters would be better, but I sure wouldn't bet on it.

You might expect the Canon-made (is it really?) adapter to be better, but they were made a long time at the birth of the EOS EF mount in the late 80s. Would older more expensive adapters be better than more recent designs that are cheaper? Your guess is as good as mine.

 

Maybe this impertinent post will stir up more informed discussion. Sometime it does kick start an answerless thread.

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I've been using an adapter from Ed Mika. It's an older polymer adapter, rather than a changed mount that he currently offers. I got it primarily to use with my 300/2.8L and 500/4.5L, along with a 1.4xA teleconverter, with a 40D. It works pretty well, but infinity focus is lost with both lenses. The 300 will focus out to about 400', and the 500 will go to about 1200'. If I add the teleconverter, the 300 goes to about 600', and the 500 will focus past the moon. I used the 300 extensively to shoot my daughters college soccer, both with the converter and without, and had enough reach from the grandstands. Since her graduation, I don't get much use from the 300. For my wildlife use, the 500, with the crop, (now using an 80D), and the 800mm field of view it gives, getting close enough is still the key to best results. Focusing to infinity would make little difference, if the subject is too far. The 80D gives the same focus range that the 40D did, so it seems consistent.

 

Ed Mika is now offering a lens mount conversion. I thought about giving them a try, but I wound up going with Sony bodies that let me use the lenses, as well as all my other FD lenses without infinity focus issues. The Ed Mika adapter allowed very limited use of my other FD lenses. They also work well adapted to my EF lenses.

 

Ed Mika site; EDMIKA incorporated – Connecting vintage to EOS

 

with the 40D and the 500:

 

35805300354_ed7009ef68_o.thumb.jpg.490c2d9c6008a729dd388431fbd745e1.jpg

with the 80D and 500mm:

 

23527794068_2d30dcc2c6_o.thumb.jpg.11d63d8e8be05056bef7eff38862d2c7.jpg

Edited by tom_kessler
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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a couple of FD to EOS adapters. The first one I bought was a fairly cheap one, a Bower, but the second one wasn't. It's a Fotodiox and I paid a premium for it because it was specifically advertised to deal with problems others exhibit. But it ended up being only slightly better than the Bower.

 

Here's the problem when using these adapters. They produce a huge amount of flare at apertures wider than about f/2.8. So a normal f/1.4 or f/1.8 lens is useless unless stopped down a couple or three stops. Once the lens is stopped down to about f/2.8 -- or if it's a slower lens to begin with -- then this flare problem is minimized. Actually, once the lens has been stopped down sufficiently, these adapters work ok. Image degradation becomes almost insignificant. But I consider the lack of usability at wider apertures with these devices to be a fatal flaw.

 

One other thing to keep in mind about these adapters is they are actually mild teleconverters. They operate as about a 1.2x or 1.25x teleconverter. Which got me to thinking. Why not convert a 1.4x or 1.5x TC from FD to EOS? These TCs don't have this flare problem and the difference between 1.25x and 1.4x or 1.5x isn't all that much. The Canon 1.4x-A TC won't work because of a protruding element. I looked long and hard for an FD TC of the proper type on eBay and finally found a Vivitar 1.5x TC. I planned to convert it to EOS, but never did. By the time I finally found a 1.5x FD TC, I had bought a Sony NEX 7, and once I had it, I bought an FD adapter and lost the reasons for doing the conversion.

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  • 2 months later...

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