Hi fellow 365ers,
I have a set of Canon lenses for my film camera. Do you know where I can find an adaptor such as I could use the lenses on my Canon Rebel Digital Camera?
Thanks
James Tan
I would give B&H a call (or any of the large camera shops). From what I understand though, success with those things is limited, because the camera can't "talk to" the lens. I know people who have made their own adaptors, but I've never seen anyone using a manufactured one. That said, I'm fairly sure some were made when Canon went to the EF mount. How old is your film camera? What mount system does it have?
@jinximages thanks for taking time to reply. I have a Canon FD135mm 1:3.5; Vivitar 80-200mm 1:4.5 MC zoom no.28109965; Vivitar 28mm 1:2.8 MC wide angle & a Hoya auto teleconverter. They are mount by lining with the dots and turn. What is EF mount? My camera is about 15 to 18 yrs old. How do you make you own adaptor?
James let me take a look next week I might be able to give you some ideas... or talk with Nathan Hall at church or his work at McBains he would also be able to point you in a good direction
I'm with Jinx. I'm not sure just how easy this will be, but talking to B&H or Adorama should point you in the right direction at least. Bummer that Canon changed their mount about 15 years ago (bad Canon, bad!) :-/
I just did some digging around, and what you probably need is the FD-EOS adaptor.
From Wikipedia, of all places:
The earlier FD mount is not usable for general photography unless adapters with optical elements are used because its flange focal distance was only 42.0 mm; infinity focus would be lost with an adapter which lacks optical elements. The Canon FD-EOS adapter is rare and is only usable with certain FD telephoto lenses. With a manual connection, the aperture and focus controls of the lens cannot be controlled or read from the camera; the lens must be focused manually. Since the only possible metering is through-the-lens, the lens must be manually stopped down to accurately meter at anything less than full aperture. (This is called stop-down metering.)
So in a nutshell - hard to find, won't work with all FD mount lenses, and you'll lose functionality as well as quality (the last thing you want with digital cameras where new lenses don't resolve well enough for the sensors as it is).
I'd say it's time to get all-new kit, otherwise your image quality is going to suffer so much you'll wish you'd not gone to the trouble of trying to make your old lenses work. And anyway - you can still have fun with film! :D
The home-made versions I saw were all made from old teleconverters. Far from ideal, and they didn't work particularly well even with EOS film cameras. It's mostly hard-core DIY types I know who messed around with that stuff. For a bit of fun, you could always try freelensing your old lenses (handholding them to your digital SLR).
Sorry I don't have much good news for you. Maybe you could track down an old FD converter on eBay or something, but if you do, I suggest not spending too much to get it.
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P.S. the EF mount is with dots too
From Wikipedia, of all places:
The earlier FD mount is not usable for general photography unless adapters with optical elements are used because its flange focal distance was only 42.0 mm; infinity focus would be lost with an adapter which lacks optical elements. The Canon FD-EOS adapter is rare and is only usable with certain FD telephoto lenses. With a manual connection, the aperture and focus controls of the lens cannot be controlled or read from the camera; the lens must be focused manually. Since the only possible metering is through-the-lens, the lens must be manually stopped down to accurately meter at anything less than full aperture. (This is called stop-down metering.)
So in a nutshell - hard to find, won't work with all FD mount lenses, and you'll lose functionality as well as quality (the last thing you want with digital cameras where new lenses don't resolve well enough for the sensors as it is).
I'd say it's time to get all-new kit, otherwise your image quality is going to suffer so much you'll wish you'd not gone to the trouble of trying to make your old lenses work. And anyway - you can still have fun with film! :D
The home-made versions I saw were all made from old teleconverters. Far from ideal, and they didn't work particularly well even with EOS film cameras. It's mostly hard-core DIY types I know who messed around with that stuff. For a bit of fun, you could always try freelensing your old lenses (handholding them to your digital SLR).
Sorry I don't have much good news for you. Maybe you could track down an old FD converter on eBay or something, but if you do, I suggest not spending too much to get it.