WARNING on Focus Confirmation Adapters damage to electronics

[JDMvW]

WARNING When I tried my new Nikon>EOS focus confirmation adapter on my 20D it

fried both the lens mount electronics and other circuits inside the camera for a

repair estimate of over $300 (now underway at a Canon-approved repair facility).

This turns out to be a very dangerous place to experiment.A minor flaw in these

cheaply produced circuits can be deadly to your camera!

 

Has anyone else had this problem?

[tommyinca]

I been using 1 German and 2 Chinese version on a 5D and 300D for the last few months. All work like they should.

[bobatkins]

I've used a Russian M42 adapter with focus confirmation for several months now on a 20D (see http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/m42_eos_focusing_adapter.html). No problems.

 

This is the first report I've seen of any problems with such adapters. Electronically they are very simple. I'd presume it's just a ROM chip which the camera can read. They have no battery and supply no power, though they must presumably use power provided by the camera to run the ROM chip.

 

If you get any feedback from Canon on the exact nature and cause of the damage, I'd be interested to hear what they say.

[JDMvW]

Maybe it just wasn't my week (I feel off a ladder and broke a rib too), but I will certainly post anything I find out about how it happened. The unit was from China and looked much cruder than another one that I got for M42 lenses that at least didn't fry my old EOS 620 film camera (price $28 and worth every penny!), but it doesn't work on that camera either. When the Nikon>EOS adapter caused the 20D to fail it seemed to drain the battery mostly, so something shorted out, I think

 

Do I feel lucky when I get my 20D back? Do I, ....? Will I take the risk and try the M42 adapter then? Anyway thanks for the feedback, I wish I could figure out how to test the units off the camera to avoid this problem in future, since the focus confirmation on the small finder on the 1.6x digital cameras is so helpful.

[bobatkins]

I guess seeing if they work on your old 620 is as good a way as any to test the adapters. It's cheap enough to fry, and if you do fry it you can pretty easily get another one! Maybe it's more resistant to electrical problems too.

 

Canon aren't usually very forthcoming about what they fix and how they fix it. Usually the camera comes back with a note that says something like "circuit board X23464 replaced" and that's all you get.

[andrew robertson]

I just got one last week and it works great.

[JDMvW]

I got a note from someone (in India, I think), that indicated they were going to get a new Nikon system so they could use their old Nikon lenses after seeing this post.

 

Getting a new Nikon system may be a very good idea, but if the lenses are non-AIS lenses it is a BAD idea. Just as the old FD Canon lenses won't work well on EOS Canons, the non-AIS lenses not only don't mount and meter well on Nikon digital bodies, but some of them may actually cause DAMAGE to the camera (see http://www.nikonlinks.com/unklbil/bodylens.htm for a list of Nikon-Nikkor compatibility).

 

It was the idea that I couldn't use my old Nikkors on a Nikon digital camera that made me decide to buy a Canon in the first place-and then I made the discovery that I could use these lenses manually on the Canon EOS systems (film and digital).

[JDMvW]

UPDATE:

I got the repaired camera back from the Canon-approved repair facility. Put a 35mm EF lens on it and inserted a CF card and took a picture in the store and all worked OK. Got home, checked the menu to see that all the settings were still set (they were), and without changing anything tried to take a picture, whereupon the camera LCD announced "err 99" and then died completely. Took the battery out, and when I reinserted it, it fired the shutter (what it had done before the repair) and was still dead. When I got back to the store, tried another lens and CF card, but it would not recognize the card. Would not work at all. Back to the repair, but I'm going on a trip very soon, so may have to buy an XTi as an interim camera just to be sure I have a working camera on the trip?

[JDMvW]

If anyone is still watching, and just for the record, the second repair on my 20D did work, and the 20D and my new XTi both worked jes' fine on the whole trip. And No, I did NOT put the Focus confirm for the M42 lens on my digital cameras. The new, weird cataract replacement lenses I have in my eyes will just have to do the job instead.It's taken time to get used to them, but I can now see better than with the cataracts, anyhow, and don't need to wear glasses at all. As for focus-confirmation adapters: Once bit, twice shy.

[JDMvW]

I have been getting a trickle of continuing e-mails from other people who have had bad luck one way or another with these adapters. No one has had the catastrophic failure mine caused, but a number have had the camera malfunction in one way or another while the adapter is mounted.

 

 

As I have posted elsewhere, think about what this is. Someone has pirated a little piece of Canon code and put it on a small bit of circuit. This is then just glued onto the surface of a metal adapter ring. If it shifts or is off just a little in location I can absolutely testify that it can do really major damage to your camera. Nice as the idea may seem, I recommend that you give it a pass. I personally invested about $10 in an old Spiratone focus magnifier that will fit over the viewer and allow you to considerably magnify the 'ground glass' of the viewer for more accurate focus.

[jx1]

<p>I think what you can do before mounting the focus-comfirm adapter is that put it side by side with a EF lens mount, and use your bare eye to closely inspect the contact pins' position of the adapter against your EF lens'. </p>

<p> </p>

[wolf_rainer_schmalfuss]

<p>I am using on my Canon 5DII now eleven of my excellent Contax/Zeiss lenses, and a couple "foreigners"! On six of my Zeiss lenses, little changes to the rear mechanism had to be made. Furthermore, I've got the mirror trimmed a little shorter.<br>

Now, everything works fine, except the lousy the built-in focusing screen, which I will replace soon with a "Brightscreen" focusing screen on my 5DII !</p>

<p>Cheers</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>error, sorry</p>