nikon lenses on canon

[leonard_forte1]

<p>I am considering getting a canon 5D MkII for its resolution and full-frame and reasonable price. Nikon doesnt have anything comparable in price. However I have a bunch of nikon lenses,. Can I use them all easily on the canon without any loss in IQ?</p>

[lookitsanthony87]

<p>you cant use any nikon lenses on a cannon camera, and vice versa, like you cant use any sony lenses on a pentax. some secret backdoor company somewhere out their may make a converter to do this but you can almost be sure it will decrease film quality if not hurt or completely ruin your camera, its not worth the chance</p>

[SCL]

<p>I routinely use current Nikon D lenses on my older Canon FD fine, but the flange distance is different for the EOS mounts...so you might have to restrict yourself to non-infinity focus or loss of IQ with a converter. G series lenses don't work because there is no aperture control ring. You will see a range of cheap to expensive converters on the big auction site...if you have specific questions, best to ask the sellers before buying.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>There are a number of adapters to mount Nikon lenses onto Canon EOS cameras. There will be no electronic communications between camera and lens, no AF, and you will only have stop-down metering. There are a small number of people who are happy with such an arrangement; personally, I think it is the wrong way to do.<br>

I would take the Nikon D700 over the Canon 5D Mark II any day, but that is just me. If having 20MP right now is important to you, I would suggest buying Canon lenses for Canon cameras.</p>

[YS2]

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[dan park]

<p>I'm using all of my ai and af-d lenses on a 5D. Everything works surprisingly well. Set the camera to aperture priority, set the aperture, focus and go. (same thing I used to do on my D200 but without focus confirmation or lens information in exif). <br /> Adapter was 7.99 on ebay. Now if you want to use the new g type lenses on a non chipped adapter the lenses default to f22 or whatever the smallest aperture is. On my tokina 12-24 I just wedge a piece of paper between the aperture arm to force it to F4 (or thereabouts).</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Anthony has it wrong in relation to Nikon>EOS. There are a few mounts that because of their lens to mount distances are only capable of mounting on an EOS camera with optics in the adapter, but ordinary <strong><em>manual</em> </strong> Nikon and Nikkor lenses work fine with only a thin metal adapter with no optics. Almost all Nikkors will work on the 15x22mm "crop" bodies like the 50D or Rebel series. Only few lenses that have longer back projections will foul the mirror on 5Ds and up, 24x36mm sensor, cameras.<br /> Of course, you have to focus manually and stop down to meter. No automatic-focus lenses of non-EOS types will work as such on a Canon. If your lenses are older, manual Nikon lenses they will work fine. Although modern AF lenses can be mounted on a Canon, you will lose all non-manual functions, so it doesn't make sense to buy a Canon body for them.<br /> The smaller sensor Canon EOS cameras are almost universal recipients, in that there is room for a non-optical adapter between the mount and the lens. Thus Pentax, M-42, C/Y, Exakta, and many other lenses will mount with infinity focus on them. The full-frame sensors work except for the mirror problem in a few cases. Ironically, the one lens family that is difficult to adapt to EOS is the Canon FD and earlier lenses.</p>

[tommyinca]

<p>You won't see IQ lost but you will loss auto aperture so f8, f11, and f16 can be a pain indoor and when the sun is going down.</p>

[leonard_forte1]

<p>Thanks for the responses. From what I read above I should stick with a nikon body for nikon lenses. Unfortunately I'm heavily invested in nikon lenses so I cant afford to start buying canon lenses and I don't really want to sell my nikon lenses since I will take a loss. So it looks like the eos 5D MII will have to wait. Maybe nikon will make a comparable body at around 20 MP at a comparable price.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Sticking with Nikon certainly makes sense if your lenses are AF lenses.</p>

[seismiccwave]

<p>Anthony, with all due respect please give some thoughts before answering a question on the forum. Please don't be so fast to say the negative on something when it is simply untrue.<br>

1) In order to adapt another brand's lens to a different brand camera body we have to take into consideration the lens mounting flange to sensor distance. The Nikon lens uses a 46.5 mm distance which is farther than the Canon which is 44 mm. As long as the lens employs a farther distance then the camera body you can easily use an adapter to make up the space. Therefore it is very simple to use a adapter to mount a Nikon lens on a Canon EOS body.<br>

2) Once the lens is mounted there are other factors to consider. One is the focusing situation. Most of the time different lens and camera body brands will not support the autofocus feature electronically nor mechanically. So can we still focus? Yes! You can use the manual focus ring on the lens or in the case of a specialty lens you can move the distance of the camera to subject to achieve focus. Manual focus takes practice and the modern DSLR design are not concentrating on manual focus. So the focusing screen are generally not very helpful. Changing to a split prism focus screen help tremendously in manual focus.<br>

3) What about aperture control and exposure? Depending on the lens. If the lens has an aperture ring then the aperture control may be manipulated by the user. Since the camera will not likely to close the aperture automatically when you push the shutter you will have to focus at wide aperture setting and manually turn the aperture ring down for proper focus before taking the picture.<br>

If you think that it is a lot of work to take a picture having to do all these features manually. Let me assure you that many a wonderful image was capture by photographer using fully manual camera for many years before the manufacturers collectively made us lazy.<br>

I cannot help the OP in deciding whether to buy a Canon camera or not. However I can at least give some truthful insight into the situation without using a negative comment. </p>

[John Crowe]

<p>I too would take the 5DII over the D700 any day! If you are a casual photographer used to autofocus and auto everyting I'd wait another year for Nikon to catch up. Nikon has taken huge strides in the past year and I am sure that will continue. They have apparently surpassed Canon in high ISO performance, now they just have to come up with affordable high resolution.</p>

<p>I have intentionally put myself in a position to go with Nikon or Canon bodies, by switching completely to Nikon lenses from Canon manual focus lenses. I started with a Canon DSLR and now have a D2X and Kodak SLRn. I love the fact that the D2X identifies the aperture set on my AIS lenses but I would switch back to Canon in a heartbeat if I thought it would be beneficial. My lenses from 14/2.8 to 400/2.8 work perfectly on Canon digital and film SLRs. </p>

[jamesdak]

<p>Sure you can in most cases. It just requires an adapter so that you can do the physical mounting. You will loose autofocus and aperture control. There are additional issues with the G lenses also. <br>

By coincidence I just recently adapted a Nikkor 800/5.6 to my Canon 5D and it works great. Manually focus wide open, set aperture to desired setting, and shoot. <br>

This was taken with the 800/5.6 on my 5D:<br>

<img src="http://www.pbase.com/jhuddle/image/108239670.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[JDMvW]

<p>My bird pictures were too pedestrian to follow that hawk ;), but here is a picture taken with a 500mm f/8 Reflex-Nikkor on a Canon 20D.</p>

<p>Good glass will tell. I also use a 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor P (non-AI manual, of course). As a Nikon user for more than 30 years, I still love Nikon and its lenses.</p><div></div>

[funkag]

<p>Wow - what are some of the earlier posters talking about? The Canon EOS system is one of the most adaptable out there - with the right (glassless - no loss in quality at all)) adapter you can use Nikon F (non-Ai, Ai, Ais, D), Olympus Zuiko, Leica R, Pentax M42, Contax/Yashica, and I'm sure a few others. Canon landscape shooters regularly adapt Nikon's 17-35mm lens, since it utterly destroys Canon's 16-35 in the corners. </p>

<p>There are only two limitations: NO Autofocus, and Stop-Down metering. There are even adapters out there now that work with Canon's focus confirmation lights to let you know when correct focus has been reached. You'll also only be able to aperture priority and manual exposure modes - P and shutter priority can get a little wonky on you.</p>

<p>I have (and successfully use with no optical degradation) an old Nikkor 55mm macro lens that I got from KEH on sale for $25, a Nikkor 200mm f4, and a host of Super Takumars. </p>

[jamesdak]

<p>Greg is dead on about how easy it is to adapt lenses to the EOS mount. Here's what I currently use on my two EOS bodies.<br>

Contax Zeiss - 28/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.4, 85/2.8, 100/2.0, 135/2.8<br>

Leica R - 50/2.0, 60/2.8 macro, 90/2.8, 135/2.8, 180/3.4 APO, 560/6.8<br>

Pentax M42 - 50/1.4, 135/3.5<br>

Olympus OM - 24/2.8, 35/2.8 PC<br>

Vivitar Series 1 90/2.5 with C/Y and M42 mount<br>

Nikkor - 800/5.6 ED<br>

Mamiya 645 - 200/2.8 APO<br>

So, as you can see, the Canon EOS mount is quite easy to use alternative lenses on. I have focus confirm adapters for the Contax Zeiss, Leica R, M42, and Nikon systems and they do work.</p>

[macwise]

<p>Still sure you want to go 5d over the d700?<br>

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=nikon/d3/vs-5d-180mm.htm&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8<br>

Less MP doesn't mean lower quality or even lower output resolution. Trust me, I'm the first to bash Ken. But there are plenty of examples out there that show the D700 performing very tidily against the 5D.</p>