Got a Canon EOS 600D and looking for simple advice.

skida

Is it easy to use MF lenses with suitable adapters or should I persevere with the Sony Alpha A3000 for MF?

I still love the quality of the Sony, but I have hankered after a DSLR for some time.

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

Canon EOS EF is a versatile mount for mf lenses!!!

M42, Nikkor, OM, & more -- adapters are inexpensive too...

Weak point might be focus screen -- lenses brighter than f/2.8 are near impossible to focus accurate except by accident. Live view? works okay...

SonicScot · Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 12:54 pm Post subject:

It's a good camera for mf lens use. Some people will have problems with the focus screen, some won't. I suspect it's quite similar to my 7D and I've never had a problem with that.

You can also use Magic Lantern on this camera Cool

http://www.magiclantern.fm/

PhantomLord · Joined: 08 Apr 2013 Posts: 476 Location: Szczecin, Poland

Hello Skida,

I've 600d and I'm very happy that I bought that particular DLSR.
For MF lenses you could easily go for: M42, OM, Nikon, PK, C/Y, Exakta and Leica R.
However other, like FD, MD, K/AR mounts are impossible to mount without some tinkering with lens or using adapter with glass (which are useless in terms of quality).

As for focusing on Canon 600d:
I cannot properly focus with native focusing screen. It's just too small and not optimised for manual focusing. Although I know that people use it with success, you may want to change it to proper focusing screen with split-prism or similar. I haven't tried it however. Here are a few links: http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/item--Canon-550D-600D-650D-700D-T2i-T3i-T4i-T5i-Focusing-Screen--prod_550D.html and http://www.focusingscreen.com/index.php?cPath=21_120&osCsid=2599ab402e43241e1239492ac7f6f070

I use LiveView for focusing manual lenses. Together with LCD Loupe (just like this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Portable-V3-LCD-Viewfinder-Loupe-for-Canon-600D-/380642644321?pt=UK_Photography_Viewfinders_Eyecups&hash=item58a011d161) and MagicLantern it works great.

MagicLantern - as Scot had mentioned - it's absolutely fantastic tool for focusing manual lenses. You could use focus peaking (which is not most reliable) or focus zoom (which is). I have set it up like this: I set the point I want to set focus at, then I half-press shutter button and the image from chosen focus point is automatically enlarged to the whole screen with 5x or 10x magnification, I focus the lens and depress the shutter button even further. It's great, simple and quick solution and as long as you don't shoot sport - it's fast enough. MagicLantern also has the option to boost the contrast while the image is enlarged after halfpressing shutter button which helps focusing a lot as well.

However if you're going to shoot some quick/sport action I recommend buying and adapter with EMF chip (it's the chip you could program from the camera - especially important feature is focus micro regulation, which 600d body itself is lacking). With perfectly calibrated adapter with EMF chip you could shoot by the viewfinder and have focus confirmation almost spot on. I used it on a few tele-lenses and was shooting some car races at f/4-f/8 with very high rate of success.
Word of warning, however, is that I was unable to calibrate the chip for really wide apertures like f/1.4 or f/1.8. Shooting portraits with only focus confirmation was ending with about 30%-50% chances of good focus, while using LiveView with LCD Loupe and MagicLantern zoom feature I was able to nail the focus almost every time.

If you would have any questions, please send me PM and I'll be glad to help.

Mateusz

skida · Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:34 pm Post subject:

This is all very encouraging, so thanks.

Once I feel confident using MF lenses of the Sony I will start acquiring adapters for the Canon.