Expensive vs cheap adapters, differences?

[bruzzo]

I am not sure if this has been discussed here but seeing the release of the A7 A7r I thought maybe we can have an update on this topic?

I am a 5N user thinking of going for the A7 but besides the redshift problem on edges, I am also concern about the costs on buying adapters. I am a pretty rough user and I buy cheap Big-IS and Fotga adapters for my 5N. I wonder what are the differences between these Big-IS and Fotga adapters to more expensive ones such as KIPON, Novoflex, Fotodiox, etc? More accurate register distance? better build? Cheap ones could go for a little more than 10 bucks but more expensive ones could go for over hundreds (like the Novoflex).

Will investing on some new more expensive adapters be worth it if I am going for the A7 or will the cheap ones be good enough?

Thanks!

[eeec]

I'm all for the cheap ones. They're generally made pretty well these days and are as good as the expensive adapters. While 1 in 30 might arrive flawed, I just throw it out and grab another for $12 which is still a huge money savings. As it's just a milled chunk of metal, the notion that it could be worth hundreds of dollars is absurd. Pixco has been my favourite economy brand in recent times; I've yet to have one in any mount that's not worked perfectly.

[Grev]

I probably have 50 or so of the cheap adapters, trying out LOTS of the Ai-EOS adapters, while all are functional, there are some that are plain loose, not all of them are created equal and I have tried the other mount adapters too like OM-EOS, m42-EOS, contax-EOS etc, most are loose if they're bad but a few are too tight.

I find the cheap adapters that connects an SLR to mirrorless mount (therefore long tubey ones) are much better made, for those ones I have again all of the various SLR mounts to Sony NEX mount.

Funnily enough, since I'm in Australia, I got to redeem a Metabones EOS-NEX version3 adapter and even though it is suppose to be good, that thing will not accept my other contax-EOS or Ai-EOS cheap adapters where as the cheap ones work with the other cheap ones without a problem...

[ForenSeil]

I've bought at least 20 dirt cheap chinese adapters for E-Mount
Most of them do or did work fine but there were several failures:

-Sereral of my adapter have lost their "lens locking pins" and/or the buttons to unlock lenses after some time of usage.
-One Sony A adapter with aperture control arrived fully unusable, it didn't hold the lens thight enough so that it could very easily fall of the camera while focusing or walking around etc.. PayPal didn't help there - they said I had to send this 17€ adapter back to China with tracking number to get my money back(which would cost 16€ ). Another adapter for Exakta was also very wobbly but it does hold at least leightweight Exakta lenses safely enough to use it.
-Another Sony A adapter and an Canon FD(?) both with aperture control/lock had very loose aperture control/aperture lock rings, which was much more nasty than it sounds. Especially pn plastic lenses aperture mechanism could get easily damaged because force from the aperture control ring is undamped.
-One of my cheap Leica M macro focusing helicoid adapters was wobbly when it arrived and then felt into pieces a few weeks later, not worth the 45€ it did cost. Now I've found a better one for the same price though.
-One of my cheap adapters (also for Sony A with aperture control) did visibly decrease IQ of the Samyang 8/3.5 fisheye. Later I bought a different cheap Sony A adapter without aperture control which was perfectly fine. When using ulta wide angle lenses on NEX precision of the adapter is very important.

Also I had several cheap M42-Sony A adapters. Several of them did not focus to infinity.

Conclusion: For fully manual lenses cheap adapters are perfectly fine in very most cases but when you want to buy an adapter with aperture control or any other complex mechanics you should consider to buy an more expensive adapter.

[kido]

[pd1987]

Many years ago, when I didn't have eBay account I used to buy any cheapest adapter available locally and all of those worked perfectly. Even those homemade or not by "professional" manufacturers.
I guess cheap ones are just fine. What I can recommend you is buying from "Top Rated Plus" sellers on eBay. They care about their opinion a lot, so if you get a useless one (damaged, no inf. focus, etc.) they should give you your money back or send another piece. IMO that's the safest way to go.

[Attila]

I never had expensive adapter, some cheap is not good, not lock well with some lenses, but lock well with others. Adapter always a bit lens dependent too, some is past infinity well, to give infinity wit all misaligned lenses , some spot on. Due low price these failures are acceptable to me, if some of them not good I simple buy a different one. I have 50+ adapter I think for different lenses cameras, I remember for a a few with quality problem. If you not like them you can buy expensive one after.

[Basilisk]

It is probably more important that the lens mount face is parallel to the sensor than that the registration distance is spot on (except where the mount is too long and you need to achieve infinity). Obviously wobble will suggest that it is sometimes not parallel

[Dogtag]

Not so long ago I posted why I liked the prost adapters, still love them and are dirt cheap. Think that there better then fotga for example. Seems strange to use a a7 with these cheap adapters but they work great.

http://forum.mflenses.com/konica-ar-to-nex-adapters-t62609.html

[Grev]

[aoleg]

I used some cheap, and some expensive adapters. There *is* a difference, but it generally depends on the type of adapter. Here's my experience.

1. C/Y to EOS. The majority of cheap adapters (about $12-17 apiece) is cut too thin, making all lenses reach actual infinity focusing slightly before they reach the hard infinity stop. This messes up the use of lenses with "floating" elements. This is also an inconvenience when using lenses such as Yashica ML 28/2.8 and Yashica ML 24/2.8 which will hit the 5D mirror if focused past infinity (but will clear the mirror fine if focused *exactly* at infinity). Of the two expensive adapters I had (about $49 apiece), one had precise thickness but loose in the camera mount (and, unlike being loose in the lens mount, there's nothing that could fix it). The other one is properly tight but again too thin. So you see, there are differences between cheap and expensive here, but I can't say that expensive adapters were exactly "better".

2. Nikon to EOS. I have a lot of cheap adapters ($12-14), both old (with a flap) and new (thicker base) construction. All of them work fine; most are too thin, but that matters little in Nikon land as no lens hits the mirror. For those few having floating elements I bought an expensive adapter ($35), and it's too thin as well.

3. M42 to EOS. I have a ton of cheap adapters ($3-12)and exactly two expensive ones. The cheap ones are all too thin (one so thin that it allows M39 SLR lenses reach infinity with an M39-M42 ring mounted). Lens alignment varies between them; most are off by some 14-20 degrees. Both expensive adapters ($25) came from Russia and Ukraine. They are made of aluminum (blah), but have precise thickness, tight tolerances and perfect alignment.

4. M42 to Pentax K. There are two types; one is a Pentax knock-off and allows reaching infinity; the other one is thicker and macro only. I'll be talking about Type I here. Cheap adapters ($12): while generally OK, they are a pain to get off the camera. All of them are just too tight. They are supplied with a special key to help taking them off, and even that key not always helps. Expensive (I have a couple original Pentax-made ones; $25): perfect all the way. No wobble, but easy to install and remove.

I have and use many other adapter types (OM/EOS, PK/EOS, MD/EOS - the one that almost allows reaching infinity; QBM/EOS), but all of these are cheap, so I can't make a meaningful comparison.

[buerokratiehasser]

You can buy the hama "Mi/7000" passive M42->MAF/Sony cheap, or for significant price, but that doesn't change the fact that it is said to be some µ too thick or the thread not carefully enough mined enough. My copy at least is. It does infinity without glass but it's not quite infinity more like 20 m. Most C41 users probably never noticed, but you will on digital. Need a lens with overinfinity, F11 does help a bit but not very good.

[ManualFocus-G]

[Analog lex]

I don't ever tried adapters more than 40$, just because most of my lenses are comes in close to that price. )
Have bad experience with "Canon FD - EF" adapter, that just cant lock on lens side(locking rings moves freely), and kinda same with "big_is" "Exakta - EF" adapter, it cant lock normally on lens side, but very tight on lens mount, and still pretty usable with just "comfort limitations".
Really bad with couple of M42 adapters, because they have horrible Eos mount design, that can broke the DSLR electric contacts. And after that adapters i have problems using modern Canon 50mm 1.8 II lens, it cant focusing right some time after mounting.

[RAART]

[Dogtag]

[hifisapi]

the differences between cheap and expensive adapters is just like lenses. better build quality, precision, durability,
pride of ownership, etc.

[bruzzo]

Thanks for all the comments and replies, the adjustment kido wrote is actually very helpful I'll definitely give it a try.
Guess I'll just keep on using the cheaper ones even for the A7 that I might plan on getting.
So far I've only had one cheap adapter from Big_is that failed (metal part fall off or separated from the black plastic part), I had one Nikon-NEX adapter that doesn't click and lock the lens. And there are a few old M42 to NEX adapters that doesn't push the A/M pin all the way in and so I was having trouble using Fujinon and Mamiya M42 lenses. The newer ones are a lot better from Big_is.

But for the price, I think it's worth the risk unless you are getting one that has aperture control (eg. Nikon AF-S, Pentax, Sony, Canon) or as Dogtag mentioned, the ones that have optical elements in them.

[zanxion72]

One good thing with cheap adapters is that they are mostly made of a generally soft aluminum alloy that will not scratch/damage your camera/lens mount (providing they are not plastic).

[lensfan1]

I only had cheap adapters so far and was quite happy with them.
But I got a real expensive one in lot I bought on ebay and must say there is a huge difference.
The adapter costs new about 20 times the price of the cheap ones but it is worth considering.

It fits so much better, klicks perfect and releases even nicer.

So maybe for the important lenses or often used adapters it is worth spending a lot more.

[philslizzy]

[nainsurvolte]

I bought all kind of adapters and can confirm this

You generally get what you pay for...

I have one M42, 3 F-Mount, one Leica and one C/Y Zeiss adapters.

The M42 would be difficult to miss. Cheap or not the mount design for the M42 (not the EOS portion of the adapter) is trivial enough to justify buying cheap ones.

The Leica and Zeiss were not cheap (80$ each) but fit and works perfectly. For those I simply went with the price of the lenses...

My biggest experience with cheap to not so cheap is with my F-mount to EOS adapter. I tried 3 different brands at 3 different prices.
20$ at B&H: was loose as hell and did not provide infinity focus. I only kept it because returning it costed me the price of the adapter (I am not in the US)
40$ at B&H: tried a more reputable brand, Cinevate, lots of good reviews. good infinity, still loose but acceptable. Fits a small prime.
13$ on ebay: not loose, provide infinity. In the end it was better than the other 2.

So yes, cheap can be indeed the best choice. Only point to consider, I used the last one with a 100 f2.8 Macro made by Kiron (1.5 lbs) and it got loose with time and usage (I will look at the post on adjusting the tightness). So my experience would be to get a good one if it is for a heavy lens.

Also, depending on your collection of lens and the design of the adapters, you may decide it is a good move to invest or on the contrary, to get cheap ones. For example, for Canon EOS adapters, I can say that M42 and Leica R (at least the one I have) can be reused for several lenses as you can remove the lens while leaving the adapter on the camera body. On the other hand, F-Mount and C/Y mount adapter for EOS would be pretty much dedicated to a lens unless you really like to make your life miserable (IMHO).

My 2 cents on the topic

[lensfan1]