M42 Takumar to Eos 50D

[ltrainer]

Hello Group,

I found your forum while searching for information about a purchase I will be making in the near future. I will be purchasing a S-M-C or SMC Takumar 50 1.4 very soon. This will be used on my EOS 50D body. I am confused as to which adapter to buy and would like clarification before I purchase the adapter.

I see there are two basic types, one with a flange that hits the aperture pin that extendes out the back of the lens and one that doesn't have this flange. My guess is that I want the one that doesn't have the flange. Is that correct?

I see there are adapters that have focus confirmation. Are these AF confirmation adapters useful? I'll be using the lens for low light work, portraiture and general photography when I want shallow DOF and I hope a wonderful bokeh as my research tells me this lens is one of the best for that effect.

I'm looking on Ebay at adapters and is there anything I should stay away from?

My only foray into this type of work is adapting a MF Tamron 90 f2.5 to my Eos body. I lost infinity focus but being a macro lens I didnt care. Works great and saved me a lot of money.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated regarding this lens, adapters, etc.

Great forum!

Thanks,

Laurin

[kuuan]

Hi Laurin and welcome to the forum.

I am on Pentax so I can't help you much, but have you seen the thread about using MF lenses on Canon dSLR?
Maybe you will find the answers there: http://forum.mflenses.com/canon-eos-and-manual-focus-lenses-t3361.html

Focus confirmation on my Pentax is not precise enough for f1.4 lens near to or wide open, and I guess that also holds true for the focus confirmation on the Canon.
Hopefully somebody with personal experience will add better info on that.
Focusing IMO is the main issue with MF lenses, specially fast lenses, on dSLR. A split focus screen and / or a viewfinder magnification eyepiece do help, I use both.

go for it, I love my S-M-C 1.4/50 Takumar:
http://forum.mflenses.com/s-m-c-and-super-takumar-50mm-f1-4-t7191.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuuan/sets/72157605746644529/

cheers,
Andreas

[ManualFocus-G]

I purchased an AF confirm adapter on ebay from seller JinFinance. You can ask for a programmable chip version which will allow you to fine tune the AF confirm, as well as set the focal length and max aperture.

The adapter allows focusing beyond infinity, hence the need for the AF confirm to tell you where infinity really is. The AF confirm is by no means perfect, but it's not bad

BTW, I'm using this (and a Contax adapter from the same seller) with my EOS 30D.

[OWSIU]

You will want one without the flange, it'll bind the aperature lever. I had to grind out the flange on my adapter to use it on my 50D. The chip is nice to have, but sometimes I find myself taking a lot longer to focus because I'm trying to get the camera to beep.

Keep an eye for my SMC 50/1.4 Taks. I have two that I will be listing soon on ebay.

[ltrainer]

I just purchased a mint Takumar smc 50 1.4 on Ebay. I paid $70 which includes shipping. I'll buy the adapter without the flange as per your advise. My fastest regular lens right now is a 2.8 so I am looking forward to using this lens wide open or close to wide open. When I get it I'll try to post some photos and my impression of the lens with the EOS 50D. Many thanks to all for your help.