FD lens for EOS

It's well known that we can get adaptors for using FD lenses on your EOS body.

There are two types of adapters: one with a lens in it so you can focus on

infinity but you get an additional crop factor.

The other adaptor type, You can use it only for clos-ups and macro becouse it

is impossible to get the lens close enough to the sensor.

 

So what I did:

I bought an old FD 1,4 SSC ( 35 Euro's) and removed all the useless tails from

the bottum.

After that I glued a thin(2mm) metal tube(10mm length) inside, so, that there

became a connection with the outside diafragm ring to the thin pin at the

inside to lead the diafragm.

This tube is necessary becouse when you will focus with your lens, the

distance in the inside of the lens is changing.

After it was fixed and worked I glued (with MS-polymer glue) a metal EOS

fitting (I used an EOS-M42 converter) on the bottum of the lens.

Be sure that the distance will be ok to get real sharpness on infinity!!!

 

Well, If you like to do such a job with your old FD lenses, the result can be

great and the total costs for me was: 50 Euro's (about 60$) for a CANON manual

focus 1.4 lens.

 

Succes with your new hobby!

 

Wim Ipenburg, Netherlands.

(sorry for my bad English.....)<div></div>

I think I'd rather stick with FD bodies than have to hack up my good lenses.

Hey, I think this is an interesting post. I hope Wim can provide more details, or maybe set up a website with detailed photographs of the conversion process step by step.

 

Right now I have no interest in digital, but five or ten years from now I may go over to EOS. When that happens, I won't be able to justify replacing all my lenses if it means paying full retail. It may be nice to have the option of using the FD lenses on an EOS body, even if it means stop-down metering and so on.

I would have loved trying to do something like this so I could have used my FD lenses for both film and digital. Unfortunately I sold them all to switch to Nikon lenses for use on my 10D.

 

 

Considering that the SSC Aspherical lenses are still some of the best at much better prices than Leica versions I should still have a look at these reconfiguration methods.

 

 

What has always stopped me is the darn complicated manual aperture system in the FD lenses.

This is cool. Could you show more detail (pictures) on how this is done. I wonder how is the FD50/1.4 compared to the EF50/1.4? Does the internal flare get worst at f1.4?

Hi, dear friend. Your job it's fine, indeed, but i prefer still the use of dechactable lens adapter, for save the utilization of the FD lenses on F bodies. The FD - EOS adapter can find in the Hama catalogue (cod. 30845) and Adorama shop.

Ciao

 

Vincenzo Maielli Italy

Wim,

 

Yes, I agree that perhaps you could work up a step-by-step intructional with pictures for this conversion. Thank you for your post.

 

Roger

 

In general...I wish a simple digital camera body would be made that would be specifically for FD lenses. No bells and whistles, but the bare essentials: ISO settings, RAW and just a few JPEG modes, to name a few ( and I mean just a few). Those of you familiar with RAW know that you can take this capture-mode into an Adobe program and have virtually unlimited adjustment control; and it doesn't have to be PS CS2 (expensive), but PS Elements 4 at about $80 which in quite adequate.

 

Yeas, nays, comments?

Instructional, not intructional. Sorry.

Given the prices of used FD lenses, there's really no need to make your existing FD lenses inoperable on your FD bodies to do this. FD lenses are plentiful on the used market, and extremely cheap. So if you want to put together a set of lenses cheaply for an EOS digital body, it's easy and cheap enough to do.

 

However, given that there is also a large supply of used Takumers and Nikkors used, and given that there are commercially available adapters which preserve infinity focus, you'll save a great deal of time and effort by using those instead.

Interesting post. Though I have to admit disassembling my 50mm 1:1.2L kinda makes me cringe. Especially considering the results I get with my EF 50mm 1:1.4 on my 20D. I think Canon had it right when they only made an adapter for their long lenses. Their EF primes sell for a reasonable price and give rather decent results on both film and digital.

 

Converting my 2xb extender to EF mount so I could use my FD 300 2.8 L on my 20d would seem to make much more sense. The EF version of this lens sells for thousands more than both the FD version and the extender combined.

 

Wow, imagine that, a 960mm f5.6!!!

 

I wonder what a converted 2x or 1.4x extender might sell for on Ebay. I've seen the Canon adapter hit 1000.00 U.S. in the past.

 

Chris

What a waste of lenses and time. $50 later I have an AE1 body and a couple rolls of good film. Oh yeah, and an unbroken lens as well as lots of time to shoot.