Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Lets have a thread for all things related to adapters and legacy lenses.



Currently I have:
Olympus E-510

and adaptors for: Leica R, Nikon F, Minolta MC/MD, m42 screw mount

Prized find: Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f2.8 for $5 at the Henry's JUNK bin.

Leica R and Nikon F i don't use much but only when borrowing other lenses. They don't go to infinity which bugs me.

Share what you have, what you found, and your favourites!

Um... you win!

BTW, ever heard of hyperfocal focusing?

Well, I have adaptors for OM, T-mount, as well as a reverse macro adapter (has a 49mm thread on one half and OM on the other, for mounting a lens on backwards).

As for legacy lenses:
OM 28mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.8, 80-210, 70-300, 1.5x, 2x, & 3x teleconverters.
T-mount 400mm f/5.6, 500mm f/8 (fixed) catadioptric (mirror reflex).

What's your point?

I use the following lenses with the corresponding adapters on my 5D MKII :

Leica APO Elmarit R Macro ROM 100mm 2.8
Leica 50mm 2.0 Summicron R
Contax 100mm 2.0
Oly Zuiko 21mm 3.5
Oly Zuiko 28mm 3.5
Oly Zuiko 50mm 1.8

I do not have problems with focusing to infinity with any of the adapters that I have. But I have heard about low quality adapters that cause problems with infinity focusing. My favorites so far has to be the Leica 100 macro and the Contax 100.

I only have one non electronic adapter ring to go between my old Nikon macro bellows with a 135mm Hansa lens and my canon DSLR. I have no idea if it focuses to infinity but it is good to look up close at hairs on a fly's arse

Why are you so hostile? You can focus to infinty with an adapter that doesn't focus to infinity. I didn't want to waste my time typing an explanation on my iPhone when he mightve known about it already or could google it.

regardless of that, the adapters i have are thick therefore causing the issue and still a limitation whereas my other lenses and adapters


but anyways back on topic.

I thought it was on topic. Useful info for those that might want to purchase adapters that don't focus to infinity but you still can via hyperfocal techniques.

Which adapter do you have for the Leica?

I'm using the cheaper fotodiox one, figured for $15 its good enough for a few snaps with borrowed leica lenses.

its well made but pretty thick compared to my screw mount and minolta adapter.

If the adapter has the wrong thickness and causing infinity focusing problems then using hyperfocusing techniques is not going to get infinity focused for you.

How am I hostile? I am trying to understand your rude comment. Asking someone if they have ever heard of something is quite rude.
BTW, I have never heard of using hyperfocal focusing to correct an adapter problem to focus to infinity . Could you explain how that would work? I am familiar with hyperfocal distance so you don't need to explain that.

For the Leica 100mm macro, I have the Novoflex adapter which is very well built but pricey. For the 50mm, I bought it with an AF confirm chipped adapter and I am not sure what brand it is.

Because of the flange-to-focal-plane distance differences, those cameras with flange-to-focal-plane distance longer than Canon EOS (44mm) can achieve infinity focus by having the adapter thickness precisely equal to the difference. E.g. Leica R has a flange-to-focal-plane distance of 47.0mm, therefore the adapter needs to at 3mm thick to work. Low quality adapter vendors often produce adapters with slight variation in thickness therefore affecting focusing. If the adapter is too thick then you will have problems focusing to infinite.

the only thing i read from that is he has an iphone and typing out the definition is too much work for the fingers.

urine in the coffee this morning?

I have a hobbit of collecting adatpers. I have a huge collection of Sigma YS, T-Mount, T2-Mount, Vivitar TX mount, Tamron Adaptall mounts, various M42 to FD, Contax, MD, and adapters I have no idea what they are. Of course, the EOS-M42, EOS-Leica-R, EOS-Contax, EOS-OM, EOS-AI for my Canon cameras.

Not all can be used with my cameras, but it's interesting to see what manufacturers went through with all sort of adapter systems.

I've never heard of nikon to canon mount...

For Canon EOS, I have M42, OM, T-mount adapters... would probably get the N/AI and Adaptall2 adapters at some point in time.

In OM mount, I've have the OM55/1.2, 28/3.5, 35/2.8, 50/1.8, 50/1.4 and a Viv24/2 that I've been using on the EOS DSLR.

In M42 mount, there's the SMC50/1.4, 28/3.5, Zenitar 16 fisheye, MIR24 35/2, Jupiter 9 85/2 and a 500/8 mirror that I use with adapters on EOS, MD, FD and C/Y bodies.

I have a MD adapter for my 300D body that will let me use MC/MD glass, but I can't get the mount off my camera yet to convert it.

I've been using manual focus lenses with EOS cameras for quite a few years and was among the early adopters when the whole manual focus scene first started with the likes of pioneers like Guy Mancuso, Son and Cinstance first introducing photographers to the use of these lenses on fredmiranda.com.

Over time I completely eliminated all Canon AF and L glass from my bag and have been exclusively using manual focus lenses for about three years now. Almost all of the pictures on my online portfolio have been shot with manual focus lenses. I've used lenses from most of the makes including Leica, Contax, Nikon, Olympus, M42 and Rollei. Now that Zeiss has finally started to produce lenses in the EOS mount, it's going to be great to use top quality manual focus glass without the hassles of stop down metering.

Having used the highly regarded Katz-Eye screen as well as Angle Finder C for critical focusing, I've found the advent of Live-View to be a godsend for manual focus usage and have incorporated it into my workflow when shooting - flipping over to a 5x or 10x Live View for critical precise focusing before stopping down and returning my eye to the viewfinder.

In terms of general impressions about the various lens lines:

Leica R lenses have a superbly constructed with the best tactile feel and great colours. I just found them to be too darn heavy for my liking though, especially when you have a few in the camera bag, the weight adds up.

M42 lenses are by far the most fun, especially the superb Takumars with their construction and feel, really the poor mans Leica and very small lenses too. I love early preset lenses especially, great for stop down shooting.

Olympus lenses are great in the camera bag because of their small size and great performance of a few superstars. Also nice to have the aperture ring at the front of the lens for stop down metering and the outstanding rubber focusing collar on these lenses.

Nikon AI and AIS lenses have a solid construction, great feel and quite affordable with a few standout lenses in performance.

Zeiss lenses in Contax & Rollei mounts are lovely as well with a few outstanding superstars. The Rollei mount Zeiss are a pain in the butt to use as the majority of Rollei/EOS adapters don't achieve infinity focus because this is the thinnest EOS adapters manufactured, I've had to bite the bullet and use the $175 Kindai/Cameraquest adapter for infinity focus, ouch!)

My current lens lineup includes:

Zeiss 16mm f2.8 Distagon in Rollei mount
Olympus 24mm f2.8 MC
Olympus 28mm f3.5
Nikon 35mm f2 AIS
Nikon 50mm f1.2 AIS
Nikon 55mm f2.8 Micro AIS
Zeiss 100mm f3.5 Sonnar in Contax mount
Takumar 135mm f3.5 preset in M42 mount
Vivitar 135mm f2.8 Macro
Nikon 180mm f2.8 ED AIS

my body of choice is the tiny and lightweight Rebel XSi.

To learn more about manual focus lenses and to see what folks are doing with them visit the manual focus forum at http://forum.manualfocus.org/

I borrowed a nikon 24-200mm for my side trip to vancouver, mounted to a D30. Worth the hassle as I did not like the Canon 28-200 at all.

For Sony Alpha/Minolta AF one is pretty much limited to M42 for their alt glass dreams. One can buy adapters that have a programmed focal length so that the stabilizer works with the lens. I don't have specific experience with these adapters, but read on:

And that brings me to conversion. When a lens mount cannot be adapted due to flange distance, etc, replace the mount! I have an MC Rokkor 58mm f/1.2, which I like to believe in my own little world is the poor Man's Noct-Nikkor.

Others have converted the lens to fit on Canon EOS, and this little lens has quite the cult following. Heck, this lens is now selling for more that 300 bucks secondhand (pre-conversion!). One look at Fred Miranda's alt lens forum demonstrates the cult following of this piece of glass. Not to mention mine is chipped so the stabilizer does work with the lens.

One semi-lurking tpmg member in fact is singlehandedly the reason why this lens has shot up in value.

mawz?

i would sell a kidney for the 58mm f1.2....but i'm okay with my f1.4

Nope, not mawz, but he knows who I'm talking about.

I wouldn't exactly use the word "lurker" to describe mawz either.

"cogs".... I think he'll chime in eventually.

10 points.

Indeed, I wonder when he will chime in.

cog's been pretty busy with his lens conversion forum over at http://www.cogitech.ca/forum/index.php

Haven't seen him around much elsewhere of late.

And no, I don't even have a Rokkor 58, my 58 is the Voigtlander Nokton f1.4

I use the following legacy lenses on my Canon 40D:

Angenieux R11 28mm f3.5 in Exakta mount
Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 180mm f2.8 in Pentacon Six mount
Vivitar Series 1 35-85mm f2.8 in Nikon mount
Kiron 28mm f2 AI
Kiron 105mm f2.8 Marco AI
Carl Zeiss Jena Vario Sonnar 80-200mm f4 in M42 mount
Angenieux 35-70mm f2.5-3.3 in Leica R mount

All of them except the Exakta one focus to infinity.
Also on my 40D, the metering is not perfect: it seems right in the range of f2-3.5. I need to -1/3EV on f4, -4/3EV on f8 and so on. Using LiveView seems giving you correct exposure every time though. I heard that it could be because of the design of the focusing screen... I don't have such problem in "real" EF lenses (either Canon ones or third-party ones). Any thoughts?

Were you using spot metering? I think that is the only way to go because of stop down metering. As you stop down, the aperture closes up and if you are using anything other than center spot metering then metering will be affected.

On various bodies and lens and adapters, I often need -1 to -2 EV with the faster lenses. I have the Katz-eye on my 300D, Haoda on my 20D but just the regular screens on the 1D series. I should get the matte one tho for the 1D.

I've got a Hasselblad to EOS adapter that I've used with the 80/2.8 Planar and the 150/4 Sonnar. The Hassy lenses are massive, so I wouldn't use them for any extended period of time. It's also fun to mount the extension tube onto them to do some macro type stuff.

I also use a Nikon to EOS adapter for the 20/3.5 UD, 28/2.8 E and 50/1.8 E. I bought a cheapie Chinese split prism focus screen to aid in manual focusing. The 50 E series is a great little lens on the DSLR as it's essentially a pancake design.