John Crowe

I had the diaphragm adapter for reverse mounting my lens for macro. Now I use a piece of plastic to hold it when I use certain adapters to mount to my 5DSR. However, the easiest way I always used to open the aperture was to insert the rear cap, as if you are going to put it on, but rotate only about 1mm. This pushes all the release pins, so while holding the mount in its slightly rotated position gently slide the cap back out of the groove without rotating the mount back. It is tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it will work everytime.

I enjoy ultrawide angle photography with objects in the foreground within inches of the lens. Through 35mm, 6x6, 4x5, and DSLRs I have been using the smallest apertures for maximum depth of field out to infinity. Trading loss in resolution for sharpness throughout the frame is definitely worth it. More recently I have started using medium apertures with focus stacking when I can. Many of my images also have the sun in them and depending on the lens I get much better sunstars and reduced flare at the tiniest apertures. I like to think that Ansel Adams has influenced my photography and I have always strived to achieve the results of the f64 group, and will continue to do so.

I have been using a 1980's style shoulder bag for 40 years and just this year I started using a front opening back pack because the old bag was just too small. It completely broke the day after I got the backpack! It is a lot to carry but was definitely the right decision. I used to design and manufacture bags so years ago I made individual lens bags that I still often use and I made some small and medium sized purposeful bags that I use when I only want to take out the camera and one or two lenses. Then I have a big old backpack, that I still want to replace, that I use for my 800/5.6 lens. There are a few options available for this one. When I switch from landscape/architecture to motor racing I am going to have to reconfigure my carrying plans to include the 300/2.8. I will never have too many lenses, just got to figure out how I want to carry them! I don't have to deal with jungle humidity but I have been going out this week in -30 Celcius so when I get in the house I leave the bag closed and sitting in a cool place then after an hour or so, move it to a warm area and then after a few more hours open the zippers on the bag until after half a day everything reaches room temperature! I have a huge front opening shoulder bag that I can make foam inserts for, that I made 20 years ago. I should dig it out and give it a try!

Just for future reference, using a digital camera, one can shift and stitch images of non-moving subjects together to create much larger image files at a much wider effective focal length and with no additional distortion.

The 17 TS-E and likely the 24 TS-E will be good beyond 100 MP FF. My Nikon 8mm f2.8 is not in the same league as the TS-E lenses but everytime I increase my MP it gets better. First used it on 14 MP FF, then 21MP FF, and now on 5DSR at 50 MP. I tested it against the EF 8-15mm briefly and while the EF had better micro contrast the 40 year old Nikon still resolved the same detail and had less distortion. Won't be switching. I doubt the EF 800/5.6 L would be worth the value of all my equipment combined over the FD 800/5.6 L, and it is superb on the 5DSR even with teleconverters. I have yet to properly test the FD 55/1.2 Aspherical but results are outstanding. I may never have a reference lens to test it against though. Considering it's reputation back then it may in fact be superior to the EF and RF. The FD 50/3.5 Macro is much sharper, so it to will go to 100 MP no problem.

Seems to consistent for just dust or even fungus. Could be coating, or "schneideritis", or separation. If it is mostly to the perimeter of the lens it will have little to no effect. It could take many years to spread across the lens and even then it may only reduce contrast slightly.

I opted for the 5DSR two years ago. I shoot primarily landscapes and architecture but motor racing a few times a year. I have never seen moire, even in fine branches, and never some of the discoloration in those that I have had before. Canon 17 TS-E is my most used lens. I have done some family gatherings too, and no problems with clothing so far. Don't worry about lenses, it is truly amazing what the 5DSR can pull out of them. I have used 5 lenses from the 70's and they absolutely shine. In my opinion 50 MP finally equates to Kodachrome 25 and Velvia 50, providing much better depth of colour and fine detail over the 21 MP body I used for 7 years. Shifting and stitching makes it easily compete with my 6x6 images of the 90's. Grab a new one if you still can.

I meant manufacturer's teleconverters, sorry. Nikon for Nikon, Canon for Canon etc. I have used Canon FD 2X-A, 2X-B, 1.4X-A, Nikon TC-300, TC-14B, TC-14E, TC-16A, Canon FD-EOS 1.26X, Canon EF 2X, EF 1.4X, Kenko FD-EOS 2X, and the Kenko 1.4x is on the way. Never tried the TC-17E since the 16A was extremely good and cheap.

I thoroughly enjoyed my C330 with 55/4.5, and 80/2.8 for over 15 years. Lots of Velvia transparencies that I have since digitized. Enjoy shooting with it!

When excellent prime lenses are mounted to a matched teleconverter the advantage over cropping is always worthwhile even if it means stopping down one additional stop and upping the ISO one or two stops. This is something I have learned since moving to digital photography 14 years ago, and across 8 cameras.

My primary focal length for 25 of 35 years of photography has been 17mm. It was displaced for 5 years with a Nìkon 14/2.8. I owned the 20/3.5 UD for a time as well. I still use the 8/2.8 on occasion. While Bjorn Rorslett certainly seems to like the 20/2.8 more than the 18/3.5 the extra 2mm is extremely significant. It certainly will be challenging to compose with an 18mm, but when you do it effectively it is extremely satisfying. Be sure to post some comparisons when you get a chance. Now I am off to find a case for the 13/5.6, to give me a good excuse...though that will be all that I could afford!

Yes, I suppose a little unfair of me. I wish DSLRs had interchangeable parts like desktops. The only "pro" bodies that I have owned were the Kodak SLRn, Nikon D2x, and Canon 1Ds. The Nikon was by far and away the nicest DSLR, maybe camera, that I have owned. Just wish I could take all the guts and the mount from the 5DSR and put them in it! I digress.

JDMvW, I always look forward to your posts and I greatly appreciate your knowledge and love of everything Canon! As I mentioned I skipped the EF film era though I did use my wife's Elan IIe for a year, so I am a naysayer. Remember that I would have been entirely ticked off with Canon for dropping the FD mount after I just bought my T-90! Eye control focus was cute and did not work all the time, though I am a little surprised Canon has never updated it and put it in a DSLR. So, for me, scrub the A2E and Elan IIe from the list, 10S..yuck, EF-M... what a silly idea, now if I could have mounted my FD lenses on it, maybe. For collecting, one of the 600 series since they were new, the EOS-3 because I recall it being the next best thing to a 1, and then one of the EOS-1 bodies likely the 1V HS because it was the pinnacle of the EF film camera era and it could do 10 fps, which is still not common among DSLRs. Though I sure would not have wanted to fly through a roll of K25 or RVP50, in 3.6 seconds at a motor race! As for the race with Nikon, well that was likely decided by the Canon lenses. Canon chose to put the motor in the lens, which took Nikon what, 15 years, to finally do. Yes Canon aficionados will put that technological breakthrough down to the EF mount design allowing more room for those motors, but Nikon did eventually do it without changing the mount, and the film plane distance. Too bad they eventually copied Canon and went with electronic apertures with the G series. I so wish my 17 TS-E had an aperture ring! Of course even after I went digital it was about three years before I bought an AF lens, and it was Nikon! Now out of 9 lenses two are AF and they are EF. Looking forward to getting out of Covid and putting them to good use.

I have seen some very compelling testing at the site below and his further comments on another forum site. So compelling that if I did not already have the 17 TS-E, I would have to strongly consider the Laowa. Review of the Laowa 15mm f4.5 Zero-D Shift lens for full frame cameras

Yes, finally after 34 years Canon has accidentally released a body mount for the FD lenses! I got very lucky with the 55/1.2 in that it already had an Ed Mika EF mount. I use the FD 800/5.6 L with the Canon 1.26x FD-EOS Converter, Kenko FD-EOS 2x Converter, and superslim FD-EOS glassless adapter. I am astonished how good the Canon FD 50mm f3.5 Macro is and picked it up for a song. At the moment it is relegated to macro only, but that is fine. There is a possibility Ed Mika is getting back into production otherwise I will have to wait to get an RF mount body before considering any other FD lenses. Have not done canvases yet, all LightJet prints on Fuji Crystal Archive. Good to hear you are enjoying your artwork too!

People got all freaked out when the 5DSR, which I have, came out, because they would have to follow Canon's list of approved lenses and throw all their other lenses in the garbage. I use the best lenses of their era on the 5DSR with no issues. Some of the lenses I use started out on my 6 MP 10D 15 years ago, and are now on my 50 MP 5DSR, and the images just keep getting better and better! I recently tested my 40 year old Nikon 8mm f2.8 against the Canon EF 8-15 L and although the Canon had better micro contrast, the Nikon still resolved the same detail, and the Nikon had less distortion. I am keeping the Nikon. I thought my Canon EF 300mm f2.8 L with an EF 2x might come close to my 35 year old Canon FD 800mm f5.6 L...no. My most recent purchase, a 45 year old Canon FD 55mm f1.2 SSC Aspherical is stunning on the 5DSR and I know it will only get better on a 100 MP body, if I ever get one. My point being is that the differences between the best glass across many era is very little. To be honest I have printed 24x36 inch prints from my 21 MP 5D II and shifted/stitched Canon EF 17mm f4 L, and I really doubt I am going to toss any of them in the garbage when I start printing from the 5DSR. That is sort of my personal limit for print size and I doubt I will really see a difference from the 5DSR at that size, although I can clearly see the difference on my laptop. The colours may get richer in the prints. While doubling the pixels, from 25 MP to 50 MP and from 50 MP to 100 MP, one is only able to print at 1.414 times the print size and maintain the same look. So yes for a similar look I could go from printing 5D II photos at 24x36" to printing 100 MP photos at 48x72" but even though I could find wall space for a few of these in my house, it would look odd! I already know as well that I could in fact be printing even larger from my 5D II, therefore even bigger from the 5DSR, and yet even bigger from the next 100 MP body, but then I could no longer mount and frame them myself and I would run into serious wall space problems. I firmly believe that my 50 MP body has achieved the look of my 6x6 and 4x5 Velvia transparencies. While I spent the past 15 years seeking more and more pixels, I am much less excited to gain the next additional 50 MP. If I was a true pro and selling many more images than I am, and had contract work for filling office wall space, then yes having a 100 MP camera and absolutely the best possible lenses would be at the top of my list. If you purchase an RF body within the next year or so, then absolutely purchase RF lenses going forward, and I would go so far to say to put off any lens purchases until you do. The only lens that could push me to an RF body is the rumoured 14 TS-E, but it would be years before I could afford to buy both even used! You will enjoy your high quality EF glass on an RF body. Over the years, if your requirements grow, and your print sizes grow, then you can think about updating your EF glass then, and by then there will be many more RF lenses available too.

I have seen someone, on another site, comparing the EF 50/1.2 L versus the RF 50/1.2 L lens on an R. Now I know it is "only" 30 MP but the differences are negligible. There is a lot of hype about the R mount, but the primary advantage appears to be in the ability to design faster lenses more easily, but so far they have not taken advantage of this. Yes, they do have the 28-70mm f2 but it is 28 instead of 24, so perhaps an EF could have done the same. Comparing the three main RF/EF xx-70mm lenses on the comparison site the EF still stands up well. Now again they are "only" using the R for comparisons, so the difference may show up more on the R5. I doubt Canon will ever stop gouging with the RF lenses, so one also has to accept/justify the, general, 1/3 price increase too. One can take comfort that their top of the line EF lenses will work virtually as well on RF mount bodies as on their EF bodies.

Should not be addictive since there is only one or two that are worthy, and then maybe add the 650 or 620 since they were first. Much more interesting to collect the half dozen or so FD/FL bodies that were quite unique in their day. Of course I have nothing to hold me to the EF film era since I went straight from FD to EF digital. Collecting DSLRs really is nonsensical since the first one's were so limited in image quality.

Nice to see your shots Eric. I am beginning to worry about losing another season here in Canada.

I have gotten extremely good results slide copying with the Canon 5DII, 21 MP camera. For 35mm I stitched 3 frames, 6x6 I stitched 6 frames and 4x5 I stitched 18 frames. I really must try my 5DSR to see if there are any gains, and to see if I can reduce the stitching going forward. I have kept very good care of my slides and negs so dust is rarely a problem. I may be returning to medium format film and have no concerns about digitizing those images my self, and know I will have no trouble printing to my typical sizes of 24x36".

Don't worry about changing the mount since there is no real need. I used lenses of both for years, Many actually say the breech is stronger and from memory I have to agree. The bayonet is likely faster and easier to use, hence I believe most if not all lens mounts are like this now.

Canon FD 55mm f1.2 SSC Aspherical on Canon 5DSR ISO 100 1/30s approx f11 January 2, 2021

Canon FD 50mm f1.2 SSC Aspherical on Canon 5DSR. Taken January 2, 2021

To me it is the Mark IV. I would be getting the 5DSR, which I have, if there are any still available. You could buy one heck of a good lens for the price difference!