adaptable lens primer?

440roadrunner · Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 52

I'm now fairly aware of the MF lenses in dedicated mounts that can be adapted to my Canon EOS, I.E. Nikon, M42, etc, as well as the Tamron Adaptall/ adaptall-2, and I even have a few of the old Adapt-a-matic lenses now, with an M42 adapter.

NOW

How do you "find" and search for (on eFray) some of the other adaptable lenses such as the Vivitars, Sologar, etc?

What are these adapters called, how do you recognise them? (Often the seller has no idea. I recently got into a pissing contest with a seller who had an Adaptall wide angle. First he got pissy and gave me a smart answer, then "apologized" but still did not know that what he actually had was an adaptall mount!!!

My point is, that I know some manufacturers had their own systems, like T4 and Tx, and of course the Adaptall's

Is there someplace that has some good pictures, some hints on identifying these?

rick_oleson · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:00 am Post subject:

I have pictures of the T4 and TX mounts in my Lens Mount Identification Guide at http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-99.html - it's way down at the bottom.

T4 was marketed only by Soligor and Vivitar, and TX only by Vivitar, if I recall correctly.

Another interchangeable mount was the YS mount, which I think was made by Sigma and sold under a couple of names (Sigma and Upsilon, and some private labels like Spiratone). This was a T mount interface, but with auto diaphragm connections added... some of these were pretty Byzantine, and in some cases the lens mount wasn't really quite interchangeable as you had to bolt stuff on between the mount and the lens. Very interesting, though, because you can (in some cases at least) use a YS lens with a T mount flange and vice versa.

And of course the T mount itself: no auto diaphragm, but you don't have that when adapting a MF lens to a DSLR anyway. Focal lengths in T mount went, I think, from about a 12mm fisheye through 500mm teles to astronomical telescopes with astronomical focal lengths. You don't need to get a T mount to fit the EOS... just get one in M42 or Nikon or whatever and use it with your adapter.