manual lens adapter to digital camera

[david_galvin]

just wondering if anyone has tried the lens adapters advertised on

ebay made in china, they claim you can use just about any manual

mount film lens to about any digital EF focus bodies. for us poor

boys who can't afford the big prices for the digital lenses, what

is the quality, is it worth buying one for about $40, or would it

be better to just rent a lens for a week for about the same price?

any opinions out there?

here is a link;

http://cgi.ebay.com/Adapter-for-Minolta-MD-MC-Lens-to-Canon-EOS-40D-1DS-

AC9_W0QQitemZ190163971798QQihZ009QQcategoryZ15215QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZVi

ewItem

 

thanks David G

[Charles_Webster]

Remember that using any such adapter generally causes you to have to use manual focus and stop-down (match needle) exposure metering. Thus obviating two of the most useful features of your new digital camera.

 

There are some very sharp manual focus, manual diaphragm lenses out there that can be purchased for little money. Often the difficulty of use completely offsets any monetary savings.

 

The best lens is the one you'll take pictures with every day, not necessarily the cheapest.

 

<Chas>

[ilkka]

I would not suggest someone to get an adapter and then go ahead and buy a bagful of old manual focus lenses to use with his new digital SLR. But for someone who already has that bagful of lenses, and has been using them for years, he does not really 'lose' manual focus because that is what he has been using all the time. He does lose automatic aperture, which can be a problem occasionally.

 

The Chinese adapters are fine. I have several of them. Would be best to try before buying but obviously that is not possible unless you are in China or buy in person from someone. They cost less than USD20 in China.

[godfrey]

<center>

<img src="http://homepage.mac.com/ramarren/photo/PAW7/large/42e-dpr.jpg"><br>

Great Egret - Guadalupe River Park 2007<br>

<i>Panasonic L1 + Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI<br>

<br></i>

</center><br>

Canon EOS and 4/3 System (Olympus, Panasonic/Leica) are the most adaptable lens

mounts available due to their short register. I have a selection of adapters for 4/3 System

mount (Nikon, Pentax K and Pentax M42) which allow me to use some of my favorite old

Nikkor and Pentax lenses on my L1 body. Yes, they are manual focus, manual iris

operation, but they work beautifully and produce superb photos. I bought the Nikkor

20/3.5 AI specifically for use with the L1 ... It's one of my all-time favorite lenses.

<br><br>

Godfrey

[ilkka]

Godfrey,

 

How is the corner resolution of that 3.5/20 wide open on the 4/3 body? At 5.6? I have an E-500 and my Zuiko 3.5/21 is very soft in corners wide open and not too good at 5.6. I was hoping this to be a perfect walk-about camera and lens but I am a bit disappointed. Longer lenses seem to do much better.

[godfrey]

<center>

<a href="http://homepage.mac.com/godders/cafe-photo-1030340.jpg" target=new1>

<img src="http://homepage.mac.com/godders/cafe-photo-1030340-dpr.jpg"

border=0>

</a><br>

Cafe Scene - Mountain View 2007<br>

<i>©2007 by Godfrey DiGiorgi<br>

Panasonic L1 + Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI<br>

ISO 400 @ f/3.5 @ 1/5 sec, M<br>

<br>

Click on image above for full size rendering.</i><br>

</center><br>

The Nikkor 20/3.5 AI is a stunning performer all across the board. The Egret photo is a

crop drawn from less than 1/4 of the whole frame: the rest of it was uninteresting but

quite sharp everywhere; it was taken at f/5.6. The Cafe Scene above is the full frame, just

snapping around the first afternoon I had the lens, wide open at a slow shutter speed,

hand held. I think it demonstrates brilliant performance.

<br><br>

One of the things that I find annoying with all the inexpensive adapters I've tried is that

they don't set the lens to a well registered infinity point so you can't rely upon the

focusing ring marks. I'm not sure why this is so, but for each lens I've had to calibrate a

new infinity index on the lens so that I could focus it by scale accurately. I don't know

whether the more expensive ones do a better job of this, but you have to work at getting

the focus on the money.

<br><br>

This is much easier to do with longer lenses; they are less affected by a couple of

thousandths of an inch mis-registration and it's easier to see the in/out of focus

transition. Short focal lengths, on the other hand, are much more affected. The L1's Live

View with MF Assist magnificaiton makes getting critical focus much much easier.

<br><br>

Godfrey

<br>

[jcuknz]

I agree completely with the idea of "if you have the lens get an adaptor .. but not to buy old lens to save money". I had/have the lens but one of the benefits of digital is to work semi-manual, picking the features you want to adjust and letting the camera get on with the rest ... so if you fit old lens to the digital body you miss out on the digital change ... are remaining stationary instead of stepping forward, maybe it is even a step backwards from a wholistic point of view :-)

[godfrey]

LOL ... I don't need to "step forwards", I want to make pictures. I'm happy with making all

the settings myself, got a lot of good pictures that way. ;-)

 

I bought the Nikkor 20 as I wanted a light, small, sharp lens which would give me a

particular FoV for the 4/3 System. I could have bought an Oly ZD 14-42 f/3.5-5.6 instead,

but my gut feeling is that the Nikkor does a better job and I prefer working with a prime

focal length lens. No one's making a 4/3 mount prime in this focal length yet. I hope

Panasonic/Leica do some day.

 

Godfrey

[norris_lam]

I m using canon 5D and canon has a shorter sensor to mount distance and this enable the use of an adoptor to mount lens of Nikon, Leica, etc., lens... Then, everything will slow down due to manual focus, metering.. First you will need to open wide the aperture so that u can focus the subject using your eye sight... Then, stop down the aperture ring to the value you want and shoot. But u may know that with shopped-down aperture, the light metering of some cameras will not be accurate and u will need to adjust EV and shoot again after looking at the result. In old days, photographers like to use slide to take picture because of higher quality and the lens were told to have certain impact to final image color tone, etc. But nowadays, with the very popular of digital camera, we can tune the color , sharpness in software. So, i have asked myself why i still need to use Leica R lens in my Canon DSLR. Just take one or two Canon zoom lens and i will have better success rate ! Also wish to share with you that the quality of such PRC made lens adaptor is not of top quality and it may not be able to lock the lens very tightly.

[godfrey]

Norris,

 

Good lenses always count. Some lenses have unique and beautiful rendering

characteristics that are not easily achieved any other way. That's not to say that every Leica

R lens is automatically a better performer than a Canon or whatever other brand lens, of

course. And if you need speed and responsiveness, a lens which allows all the body's

features is of course a better bet.

 

There are various adapters out there. Some are better quality than others. The ones I'm

using are pretty nice: chrome-plated brass and aluminum, well machined, as secure as the

original lens mount.

 

Godfrey

[david_galvin]

I'm in agreemnet with Ikka, I've been using manual focus for 24 yrs,

so I'm not losing the auto focus(which I find is not accurate much of the time)and so maybe I shoot twice, it;s the digital age, just look at pic and shoot again, why spend money for meter? ther's no doubt the 20mm will be higher quality, but for now I just need few shots of inside of a bldg and don't want to spend $400 for that, next wedding season if i get the bookings I will buy the lens, I have to look at it like a business, you can end up spending more than you make in the new digital photog if not careful,

and YES, I got a big 'ol bag of super hi-res minolta sharp & crisp lenses, from fisheye to 100mm portrait lenses, to commercial 18-80 stabilizing zooms etc.. I got to find a way to convert or I'm OUT 'o business.

and Nice pics Godfrey, I LOVE that Nikkor 20mm

David G

[ilkka]

Godfrey,

 

Thanks. I will make more tests with my 21, and try to focus more carefully. Maybe the lens is not that bad afterall. It works well on the OM-1. I just bought the 1.2 viewfinder magnifier for the E-500 so it should help with manual focusing.

[jcuknz]

>>LOL ... I don't need to "step forwards", I want to make pictures. I'm happy with making all the settings myself, got a lot of good pictures that way. ;-) <<

 

There are masochists all around us :-)

 

>>so I'm not losing the auto focus(which I find is not accurate much of the time<< It does depend how you use the gear ... I don't blame my tools :-)

[godfrey]

I don't blame my tools either. But there are a lot of situations where my eye is a much better

focusing tool than the AF sensor in any camera, and where I can make an estimate of

exposure that the is beyond the metering system of the camera to evaluate..

 

Godfrey

[jcuknz]

That is what I would do too but it is silly to tie one hand behind your back and not have AF for the many occasions when it works efficiently and fast. It is a mistake I made and learnt from.