M
midtones
Guest
Howdy chaps,
For something different I fancied using the older lenses on my 30d.
The EOS mount appears to be very flexible, you can pretty much get an adapter for any type of lens.
I did some reading and decided on a M42 adapter.
You can find out more about that here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M42_lens_mount
A huge number of lenses were made with M42 fitment, from Pentax to Carl Zeiss and a whole host of Russian stuff.
Here is one of the main sites with lots of lenses listed:
http://m42.povlab.org/
Manual Focus forum, excellent stuff here too:
http://oomz.net/mf/
The common adapters can be bought on e-bay for a few quid (you can get M42 to Nikon too). The obvious issue is no auto-focus, and full manual control. This does mean you can't just snap away, but take a minute and think about the shot
The EOS cameras (not sure bout Nikon) will meter for exposure, so you just put the camera in Av or M mode (the aperature will stay 00) and turn the aperature ring like normal and the camera will set the shutter speed.
At F/8 or so the VF is pretty dark to focus with, (the AF confirmation adapter comes in handy here or a split-prism replacement VF screen) but it's not impossible. You can stop down to say F/2, focus with a bright VF then change to whatever you want.
As most of the lenses are primes you get a lot of ranges upto around 200mm and F/1.4 to F/4.
The newer adapters for EOS have some electronics which will give you focus confirmation when you manually focus, which is brilliant and they don't cost too much on e-bay.
It's definately something worth getting if you have or plan to get a lot of these golden oldies.
Price wise you can pick up a bargain on the M42's on e-bay or camera shops in the used section.
I bought a Pentax Super Takumar 55mm F/2 with EOS adapter for 30quid locally. It's really surprising how good these oldies can be! It's from the 1960s.
There is a F/1.4 version which is meant to be one of the best around, I have my eye on that one on e-bay and it's about 30quid.
Another lens with a good reputation is the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar MC S 135mm F/3.5 (what a mouthful). Search around those above links and it gets highly praised. Mint condition ones on e-bay go for about £40-60quid.
Below are some test shots I did with the Takumar. Just a resize or crop, but with no post-processing. All shots were standard picture style and jpeg in camera setting.
Nice background blur at F2:
Crop of the chair:
Fabric at F2.8:
DoF at F2:
As you can see, it's very sharp. I reckon it's better than my Canon 50mm 1.8. So if you can pick up a bargain, or there's a bunch of old lenses up in the loft, get them out!
K.
For something different I fancied using the older lenses on my 30d.
The EOS mount appears to be very flexible, you can pretty much get an adapter for any type of lens.
I did some reading and decided on a M42 adapter.
You can find out more about that here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M42_lens_mount
A huge number of lenses were made with M42 fitment, from Pentax to Carl Zeiss and a whole host of Russian stuff.
Here is one of the main sites with lots of lenses listed:
http://m42.povlab.org/
Manual Focus forum, excellent stuff here too:
http://oomz.net/mf/
The common adapters can be bought on e-bay for a few quid (you can get M42 to Nikon too). The obvious issue is no auto-focus, and full manual control. This does mean you can't just snap away, but take a minute and think about the shot
The EOS cameras (not sure bout Nikon) will meter for exposure, so you just put the camera in Av or M mode (the aperature will stay 00) and turn the aperature ring like normal and the camera will set the shutter speed.
At F/8 or so the VF is pretty dark to focus with, (the AF confirmation adapter comes in handy here or a split-prism replacement VF screen) but it's not impossible. You can stop down to say F/2, focus with a bright VF then change to whatever you want.
As most of the lenses are primes you get a lot of ranges upto around 200mm and F/1.4 to F/4.
The newer adapters for EOS have some electronics which will give you focus confirmation when you manually focus, which is brilliant and they don't cost too much on e-bay.
It's definately something worth getting if you have or plan to get a lot of these golden oldies.
Price wise you can pick up a bargain on the M42's on e-bay or camera shops in the used section.
I bought a Pentax Super Takumar 55mm F/2 with EOS adapter for 30quid locally. It's really surprising how good these oldies can be! It's from the 1960s.
There is a F/1.4 version which is meant to be one of the best around, I have my eye on that one on e-bay and it's about 30quid.
Another lens with a good reputation is the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar MC S 135mm F/3.5 (what a mouthful). Search around those above links and it gets highly praised. Mint condition ones on e-bay go for about £40-60quid.
Below are some test shots I did with the Takumar. Just a resize or crop, but with no post-processing. All shots were standard picture style and jpeg in camera setting.
Nice background blur at F2:
Crop of the chair:
Fabric at F2.8:
DoF at F2:
As you can see, it's very sharp. I reckon it's better than my Canon 50mm 1.8. So if you can pick up a bargain, or there's a bunch of old lenses up in the loft, get them out!
K.
