casualcollector
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In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
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Post by casualcollector on Aug 3, 2013 16:36:33 GMT -5
I have many old lenses in many mounts. Contax/Yashica, Exakta, Leicaflex, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax adapt fairly easily to the Canon EOS bodies (I have a 5D mk II). I would like to know what adapters you have had good and bad experience with and where you sourced them. Thanks.
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Post by Peltigera on Aug 3, 2013 17:18:00 GMT -5
I have an Olympus to EOS converter which works well. I have not kept the paperwork and there is no name on the adapter but it came from China. I also have a M42 to EOS adapter which is not so good - infinity focus is off. That one came from a British firm but I suspect is also Chinese. Both came from Ebay.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2013 22:34:48 GMT -5
I don't think I have any lenses now that have a changeable lens mount so I can't be much help. I thinks it's easier to adapt lenses to the Canon bodies because the mount is larger (bigger hole).
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Post by olroy2044 on Aug 4, 2013 22:27:33 GMT -5
Bill: I use three different adapters for nearly all my shooting. The first is a chipped M-42 adapter from, I believe, a seller named "bigis." It works very well, focusing to infinity and keeping the "M42" pin depressed so the lenses become true stop-down metering lenses, without worrying about the A and M switch. The focus confirm chip has been a bit of a disappointment to me, functioning properly only in good light, and with the lens opened well up. Adjusting the chip to provide the correct EXIF data is a pain, to say the least. It is not hard, but is very time consuming. It is not practical to reset each time you change lenses, so I wind up setting it for my widest and fastest lens, and leaving it there, correcting the EXIF data when I load the shots into the computer. The obvious solution is a dedicated adapter for each lens, but I'm too frugal (CHEAP!)for that! I have learned to focus the Canon 20D, so the focus confirmation function has become a non-issue for me. I probably won't spend the extra money for it again, opting for the simple non-chipped ring instead. With the adapter in place on the camera, I happily switch lenses back and forth as if I were using my old Spottie and having a ball!
The second adapter is a K-mount to EOS ring. This one is a non-chipped ring, and also works perfectly. Infinity focus, easy metering, and solid latch-up. Both of these adapters came from Amazon. So far, every K-mount lens I have tried on my Canon has worked perfectly. Some are better than others, but all worked without problems mechanically. The drawback to this adapter is that it is fiddly to change from one lens to another. This is one that I will definitely purchase more examples of to make it more convenient to put a K-mount kit together. As it is now, I choose one K-mount lens to include among my M-42's in my kit, simply switching from K to M-42 just as if I were changing EF lenses.
The third one is a direct adapter from Tamron Adapt-all II to EOS. This is also a chipped ring and it is, to put it bluntly, a piece of CRAP! Poor machine work (loose lock-up) Poor placement of the chip (frequently locking up the camera forcing a restart) and just a low quality piece in general. I never use it. When I shoot with the Adapt-all glass, I put the Tamron to K adapter on the lens, then the K to EOS adapter on. This works perfectly. The 103A is usually the "K-mount" in my kit. The recent pix of the humming birds were taken with this set-up.
I plan to buy more unchipped adapters in K-mount, and an unchipped Adapt-all ring from a different seller.
A lot of experimental work was done to learn the quirks, but I have become quite happy with the results, especially with the M-42 adapter. Digital Spottie!
Hope this helps
Roy
P.S. It should be noted that the Adapt-all to Eos adapter is NOT of Tamron manufacture, but rather a third party. I have also heard of problems arising with the use of K-mount lenses on full frame Canons due to interference with the mirror swing. Exercise due caution!
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casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
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Post by casualcollector on Aug 5, 2013 7:07:10 GMT -5
Roy, Thank you very much for an informative reply. I have been considering the Big-Is adapters. Others have had reasonable luck with them and the cost is attractive.
I have been focusing my auto-focus lenses manually when using a tripod so I'll probably skip the chip.
Peltigera and Wayne, Thanks for your thoughts.
PS: Roy. A conversion project my former employer had been working on has finally flown. A DeltaHawk diesel engine has been fitted to a Cirrus SR-20. It has a distinctive sound and trails a noticeable exhaust plume. I am told the plane was completed by the owner and Deltahawk people after the project stalled in the hands my former employer.
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Post by philbirch on Jul 6, 2014 16:38:22 GMT -5
I have several big_is adapters for my NEX but the Minolta SR is a bit of a pain. The catch doesnt always work and its easy for the lens to start coming off. I use FOTGA for the MD.
But overall big_is is my first stop for adapters, cheap, well made and reasonably fast delivery. I have bought over 20 items off them in the last couple of years. I have had a couple of things gone wrong but a refund AND a replacement has made me happy.
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Post by genazzano on Aug 10, 2014 4:09:20 GMT -5
I guess I've been lucky. I have a lot of MF lenses as well as the assortment of other old 35mm camera lenses. Since I really dislike the expensive short-lived plastic motorized chipped planned obsolescence crap that is so popular, and I can't routinely shoot film any more, adapters are an important piece of equipment. My Pentax to Nikon is Chinese and very well made though is only marked "PT645" but no manufacturer and that allows me to shoot with my favorite lenses. I cannot recall the seller.
First, I avoid any adapters with optics. Second, I don't expect infinity to be spot on because it isn't a practical obstacle to use for me anyway.
The most important thing about any adapter for me is the quality of construction and machining/plating of the areas that come in contact with my DSLR mount. You can readily tell a bad adapter in your fingertps as you mount it for the first time. You feel that telltale grinding and mushy seating. I then back it off and throw it away and chalk it up to more experience on ebay. I have never found a good Leica screw to Nikon F adapter. The poor ones I have found I use on the Nikon bellows setup usually stacked with 42mm intermediate elements where they can't do much damage to the more important camera mount.
David
David
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Post by Rachel on Aug 10, 2014 5:05:14 GMT -5
I recently had a rather unhappy attempt at using an Exakta lens on a Leica rangefinder body. Unfortunately it involved using 2 adapters together as I had them to hand; a Steinheil Munchen Culmigon 35mm lens in Exakta mount on a Canon Lens Mount Converter E on a Canon FD to Leica M adapter. It's not too easy to check the focus on the RF body and my attempts at zone focusing were a spectacular failure, most pictures being out of focus. Perhaps it's the lens, perhaps the register on the mount adapter is not good, perhaps this lens is just not good on a digital sensor? Need to do some more experimenting with this.
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Post by genazzano on Aug 10, 2014 16:36:59 GMT -5
Rachel, i had the same experience with my Leica bodies where you can't check the focus without spending a lot a time. Instead I bought a Periflex lens focus adapter which is an excellent match for the Leica. They come up frequently on ebay.
Ciao...
David
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daveh
Lifetime Member
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Post by daveh on Aug 10, 2014 22:58:18 GMT -5
I've thought about them, but, other than lenses made to be used with an adapter, I have never bothered with them. It's fun to fiddle, but why would I want to put a lens onto, say, the Canon 7D that is inferior (taking all functions into consideration) to the lens I already have on the camera? The same applies to the Topcon and the Canon Rangefinders (Vt and 7) and the various Pentax k bayonet cameras, both film and digital.
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Post by Rachel on Aug 11, 2014 3:36:03 GMT -5
Rachel, i had the same experience with my Leica bodies where you can't check the focus without spending a lot a time. Instead I bought a Periflex lens focus adapter which is an excellent match for the Leica. They come up frequently on ebay. Ciao... David Thanks David. I do have one of those Periflex focus checkers but it's a LTM fitting so my M mount adapter won't fit that. I do have a good selection of mount adapters for the M4/3 system so I'll see if I can check the lens with that.
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Post by genazzano on Aug 11, 2014 3:55:13 GMT -5
Yes, I realized that you were talking about M mounts after I had posted my hasty reply. I forget that Leica made more than LTM cameras.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 19:11:36 GMT -5
I have an adapter I got from a guy in Macau several years ago that made it possible to use M42 lenses on a thread mount Leica. Works well, especially with WA retrofocus lenses because if I can stop down every thing is in focus from up close to infinity.
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Post by philbirch on Aug 12, 2014 4:16:48 GMT -5
I have an adapter I got from a guy in Macau several years ago that made it possible to use M42 lenses on a thread mount Leica. Works well, especially with WA retrofocus lenses because if I can stop down every thing is in focus from up close to infinity. You can buy them on ebay - not easy to find and very expensive. I made my own.
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Post by paulhofseth on Aug 12, 2014 13:56:42 GMT -5
I use a number of adapters but prefer purely mechanical ones.
I did try one with contacts (both on on a wide-angle zoom where focus was not easy to pinpoint, and on a macro). Occasionally Canon electronics froze up due to it. It unfroze afterwards, but the chip was not all that useful.
The M42 to Canon can be left on the camera body so as to avoid buying several. The same goes for Canon and LM to MFT. This is not the case with the Contax G to MFT I use which is very fiddly to fit, the C\Y to Canon fit easily enough, but is difficult to remove from the lens and the Leica R to Canon cannot be removed while the lens is on the camera. Hence one will need one adapter per lens or spend lots of time fiddling with adapters instead of taking pictures.
p.
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