potential Issues using Mf on DSLR

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

Hello mates!

It's a pleasure to ask questions on this forum where , as far as I see, it's full of expert and wise photographers
I got straight to the point: yday I just bought an adapter m42 for my DSLR canon, (eos 350d), and I just wonder now how it will works.
I mean, I have 4 lenses that i like using,but I don't know what will happen with a digital cam. I will have a good result,rendition?
or using those lenses on aDSLR has some issues that i cannot avoid, and I will be disappointed ?(i heard about issues of reflecitons, purple fringing etc)
sorry for this qustions, is just to know a little bit about this new way of taking pics. (for me)

bye Wink

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

You will get better result than with print film and better result than most budget AF lenses.

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

Thanks attila,! great!
So , i will post some pics on t his nice forum , thanks a lot Happy to hear your opinion !
I am looking forward to have my adap.
bye

scsambrook · Expire: 2011-11-18

Hi there, mybike! Looks like you've got some great lenses, so waste no more time - shoot pictures with your MF lenses straightaway! You'll be well pleased with the results.

Digital has the advantage of letting you see the results on demand, but don't forget that the basic techniques of film photography still apply just as much - accurate focus and correct exposure are the keys to success.

PaulC · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 2318

There are quite a lot of manual lenses that can equal or surpass the performance of $1,000+ Canon lenses. There are others that are not so perfect but just have a nice "look" about the pictures they produce.

I have never, for example, seen a manual focus prime lens give the incredible, awful purple fringing you can get from a Canon 17-40/4 zoom used wide open at 17mm, which is a lens that people rave about. A good 1980s Zeiss 20/2.8 makes the Canon zoom look pathetic.

Oh, yeah, there are also plenty of rubbish MF lenses and others that have had too hard a life or have sticky apertures.

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

I think you will be very pleasantly surprised with great results!

Maybe biggest difference will be 350D has smaller sensor than 35mm film; lens angle of view becomes narrower, about same as 1.6x focal length of lens. 50mm lens on 350D has same angle of view as 80mm lens on 35mm camera.

On 350D lens faster than F3.5 can be difficult to focus accurately, due to focus screen limitation and small viewfinder; when got right results can be fantastic! (ref: http://www.jayandwanda.com/photography/dslr_man_focus/man_focus.html )

patrickh · Expire: 2011-11-18

Have fun mybike. It's a long slippery slope you have just started on Smile

patrickh

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

Mates, really I appreciated your suggestions and opinions that gives me more wish to see the results!!! I am craving to start..
Think that I am only using a f****g 18-55 canon ef-s kit lenses...
That's why i want to try this new way. AF lenses costs , often too much, so I got my old father's lenses, and start to use them, why not, on a DSLR.
Thanks for the sensor size advice too, I will bear this crop factor in mind
Very Happy

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Try some nice Russian M42-lenses first, they can be really good and go for little money.
Sooner or later you want to try others then: Carl Zeiss Jena/Pentacon, perhaps Nikkor or Zuikos. And someday you will buy your first Zeiss (Oberkochen) or Leica glass and you will have no chance to ever get rid of this addiction any more.

You have reached the peak of lens construction and you won't want to go down again. Believe me.

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

I agree with ya, Lucis,I wonder why a lot of people does not know about this fact.
e.g. : i come from analogic and mechanical reflex, which accompanied my photography life for 7 years.
This summer a friend lent me a canon eos350d. It's not a fantastic object, really, I mean, the viewfinder it's dark, small, the sensor is not the best one, the colour are twisted, in automathic give me a red dominant colour, and the 18-55 is ...pure shit.
SO i think you're right. Why not using this camera at least with good lenses?

I wonder why a lot of people , I am not talking of professionals, but consumers, or amateurs, like us, does not think about using old lenses onDSLR., that's a good path to save money and take amazing pics , with a non-comparing result to other new AF lenses. Of course, there will be a lot of wonderful af lenses,. canon, nikon, zuiko etc, but really sometimes it's not worth to spend 1000 euro if you've go t in your home good old pieces
OF course this is my honest personal opinion and pov
ciao ciao Wink

thx again!

kansalliskala · Expire: 2016-12-30

OK, you asked for issues and got glorification .. Confused

Issues:
A) EOS does the exposure metering wrong
B) It probably doesn't focus right .. depends on luck with the body

There is around 165 threads on this forum concerning these issues.
But when you get these things right then all the before mentioned good things are there Very Happy

xjjohnno · Expire: 2011-11-18

A lot of folk are good little consumers, great for keeping the economy going and buying the latest toys including over hyped lenses but clueless about the benefits of recycling older technology. Photography is one of those areas.
I'm a relative newcomer to DSLRs and gobsmacked at the results you can get with the old M42 lenses.
Get to know the quirks associated with your M42 lenses and you'll have a lot of fun popping out some occassionally awesome pics.

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

@Kansalliskala Very Happy

That's what I needed to know too, but fortunately the canon is a borrowed camera just to get started with DSLR. I don't think I will keep this for long time, just thinking about other camera or brands, but now it's good to start to enjoy my old lenses

thanks fro your advice. So, if I got a different camera , those issues are not to be taken in account?
Excuse, what you mean depends on the body? about the focus? Rolling Eyes

@xjjohnno Thanks you too for the opinion, think I 'll get sactisfaction from old lenses. Wink

kansalliskala · Expire: 2016-12-30

This is about issue A:
http://forum.mflenses.com/metering-with-mf-stop-down-lenses-on-canon-dslrs-t18126,highlight,focusing+screen.html
look at second answer by Orio.

Issue B:
Canon does not calibrate 350D focusing screens?
Correct me someone if I'm wrong.
Here is typical about correcting it oneself:
http://forum.mflenses.com/where-to-find-a-canon-350d-copper-shim-focus-screen-t6305,highlight,focusing+screen.html

I don't know what cameras are calibrated?

martinsmith99 · Expire: 2013-11-18

I keep hearing about metering issues, but I've yet to experience any on a 40D or a 400D. I've tried quite a few lenses so don't be put off when hear some complaints as I find them to be within a stop. If you shoot raw a stop really doesn't matter and you have a histogram to show you how the shot was exposed, or just bracket/take again.

I've found that to truly enjoy my M42 mount lenses, you have to shoot film.

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

About metering issues, until reading this thread, which contains a post with a link to another forum thread in which this is discussed at greater depth, I thought that the problem I was having was a warranty issue. I was getting ready to return my DSLR to Canon, with the complaint that it does not meter in a linear fashion when using T-mount lenses. Or lenses with adapters, which amount to the same thing, really.

But unlike most of you, I do not have a chipped adapter. Mine is also an entry level Canon -- the XS -- so no fancy metering patterns or anything.

Using my CPO 500mm f/5.6 as an example (a T-mount lens) If I start out at a wide-open metered value, say 1/500 @ f/5.6, then by f/16, instead of of the camera selecting (or suggesting, if in manual) 1/60, it will show more like 1/15.

So, now I suppose I'm forced to accept this behavior as normal, and adjust accordingly. Don't know what else I could do.

Sometimes these modern cameras are just too smart for their own good -- they end up outsmarting themselves.

Michael

PaulC · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Posts: 2318

I'm amazed. I've been using these lenses for two years without noticing any problem but I've just run a test on the 5D2 with a Biometar 80, mounted on a tripod, and it under-exposes by about a stop at f2.8, gradually improves until it is accurate at f5.6, over-exposes very slightly at f8 and then is right at f11 and under-exposing by about a stop by the time it gets to f22.

Anyway, I generally check the histogram when shooting outside, and adjust as needed.

I don't understand how the meter, which doesn't know anything about where the light it is measuring comes from, misreads like this. Perhaps the lens is not illuminating the central and peripheral areas equally at different apertures.

I've done some more tests while writing this and different lenses are showing different characteristics - the Leica Summicron-90 performs well from f2 to f5.6 and then tails off to being about two stops underexposed at f22.

The Zeiss Flektogon 20/2.8 is half a stop under at f2.8, improves to about f5.6 goes slightly over at f8 and is then back down to one stop below at f22.

The Biometar 120 is about 1/3 of a stop under at f2.8, and declines steadily to -2.5 stops at f22.

The Zeiss Triotar 135/4 (my only chipped adapter) is about a stop under at f4, improves to correct exposure at f8 and then declines to 2 stops under at f45.

The Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5 is consistently within half a stop from f3.5 to f16, then drops to -2 by f22

With rare exceptions, it seems that the illumination is even enough at around f5.6 to f11 for it not to matter much. The worst under-exposure comes at f14 to f22.

I believe film's latitude makes variations like this less significant than for digital and, of course, these are all film camera lenses.

By comparison with the manual lenses, the Canon 24-70 f2.8 metered correctly at all apertures. Of course, the lens and the meter were designed for each other. I wonder if modern third-party lenses, such as Sigma, have metering issues, too.

... it's just occured to me - the on-board computer could have profiles build in for different Canon lenses, allowing the camera meter to compensate for varying illumination. The 24-70, while always being correct, does have its histogram peaks jiggle to and fro a bit as if some compensation is going on, maybe even at the level of the sensor.

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

Hello EB.

Thanks for everyone's help
Now it's time to leave the words and get in action, letting "talk" the camera with the adapter.
Well, it's not a disaster...but it's close to it.
Here the pics, please if you may take time have a glance and let me know you're impression Wink

bye

1 VIVITAR CLOSE 28 KOMINE
2 INDUSTAR 50MM
3 ZENIT HELIOS 58mm
4 PENTACON 200 MM

LAST PIC : THE ADAPTER
I bought it on ebay and I just sent an email to the seller (power seller) to ask him what the hell happened...cause it's guaranteed the MAF!!!!

Paolo

PAOLO

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

#1 #4 shows trouble these lenses are not crap.

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

It's a problem of the adapter. I tried to make a pics with the pentacon, using my hand, keeping the pentacon clolse to the aperture of the camera , I shot and the results it 's quite good. of course I can't go on like this! tha't's why i bought the adpater. but it seems not to work at oo distance with those 2 lenses!!!
Maybe it's a question to get a better adapter, the one with the chip? i don't know, i keep waiting for your suggestions. thanks !

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

mybike · Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 60

Hello Attila

I made a lot of nice pics with those 2 lenses, They are sharps! like blades,believe me. I sent an email to the ebay-powerseller just keep waitin for a reply., thyey garanteed the correct focus at oo
DOn't know what happened
I only know the reason why I bouight this adapeter is because I wanted to use mostly 28mm and 200mm!!! life is really strange...sometimes Confused

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

some lenses cannot be screwed fully onto adapters with lip to depress aperture pin, because pin bangs against stop in lens; result cannot oo focus. maybe problem here.