Medium format lens adapters?

[akavalun]

This may be a stupid question, but I dont know too much about medium

format photography. I currently shoot 35mm for landscape work and

was wondering if they make adapters to use 35mm lenses(canon in my

case) on medium format or large format cameras?

[john lehman, college alask]

Basically no (35mm lenses do not project a large enough image to cover a larger negative) although it is possible to get or make adapters to use them for large format macro photography. Occasionally you may find an adapter to convert a 35mm telephoto lens to medium format use.

[c4-contemporary-art]

A shift lens should (just about) work. I've often wondered about adapting my

nikkor 35mm/2.8 for use on a hassy body. That'd be PRETTY damn wide,

though.... wouldn't it???

[q.g._de_bakker]

A shift lens will not work either.<br><br>The image circle isn't the only problem. 35 mm format lenses are made to produce inifinity focus when sitting at about 30-40 mm away from the film.<br>It's absolutely impossible to put a lens there in any MF SLR body; the lens would be in the middle of the mirror box, with nothing to attach it to, and obviously very much in the way of things, obstructing camera operation.<br><br>Only some 35 mm lenses with a focal length longer than the flange-to-film distance of your chosen MF camera might be usable. That flange-to-film distance varies per type and make of camera, but lies somehwere in the 60 - 100 mm range. Possible 35 mm format candidates should have focal lengths starting at (roughly) 200 mm.<br>But these lenses were still made to sit at approx. 30-40 mm away from the film; their mounts are designed to put them there. So it would never be just a matter of inserting an adapter. Instead, you will have to remove most of the original mount. That obviously will only work if in the lens there are no optical elements positioned inside the bit that has to go. So most, if not all, telephoto constructions are unusable. Only 'true' long focal length lenses (the ones with the glass bits sitting at a distance from the film plane about equal to the focal length) might be possible to convert.<br>Quite an undertaking. A lens converted will never be usable again on the 35 mm format camera it came from.<br><br>And before beginning surgery on such a lens, the issue about the too small image circle has to addressed. Now some 35 mm format long focal lenses do indeed have image circles large enough to just fill a (small, think 6x4.5 or 6x6. Hoping it would cover 6x9 would be hoping for too much) medium format. So... ;-)

[jeff_drew4]

I agree with all of the above. Technically, answering your question, "yes" there are

some 35mm lens adapters that fit medium format cameras. Ebay has some auctions

featuring Leica, Canon, Nikon adapters etc and some that may fit a medium format

body. Because of all the reasons given above, it is not common or logical to spend

the money & time dealing with the combo, in my opinion. If you want to really jump

into landscape in a bigger format, you owe it to yourself to make the investment. LF

and MF are incredibly reasonable in price compared to a decade ago. The "WOW!"

factor of the results is worth it!