Note: this page hasn't been updated for a long time!
Consequently, the information is badly out of date!
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Quite many lenses designed for other SLR camera systems can be used on EOS
bodies with the help of a suitable adapter.
- In some cases, the optical performance isn't degraded at all,
i.e. when the registration distance of the lens is long enough and the lens
mount diameter small enough so that a simple, fully mechanical adapter can
be used to mount the lens at the correct registration distance to achieve
infinity focus.
- However, functional compromises may have to be made as one has to give up
auto-focus and auto-aperture -- unless, of course, one is mainly interested
in fully manual prime lenses.
There are two groups of foreign lenses which are especially interesting in
this context:
- Contax/Yashica mount Carl Zeiss lenses for the ultimate in quality,
sometimes even at a reasonable price when bought second-hand.
- various old lenses for the M42 screw mount (Praktica/Pentax/Zenith mount)
for a quite respectable performance at a sometimes very much lower price level.
Some of the better M42 lenses are quite competitive quality-wise even to-day.
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Contax/Yashica Mount to EOS Adapter
These adapters aren't quite as handy as the M42 ones as these are locked
to the lens so they must be unmounted from the EOS body in order to mount
another Contax lens - the M42 adapters can be left on the body and just
the lens unmounted. For me, it isn't a major problem as I usually carry
with me only one lens in addition to a 1915 vintage
Vest Pocket Kodak Meniscus Achromat lens,
which has become to be my primary and in my opinion quite indispensable
walkaround lens, remounted in a surplus M42 lens body.
Links
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M42 Screw Mount to EOS Adapters
There are many makes of M42-to-EOS available -- some of them good, some
not so.
I've acquired two types of adapters, the first type made of chromed bronze,
the second type made of elox aluminium.
- my chromed bronze adapters are heavy and have two serious
faults:
- lenses without an auto/manual switch do not work with these adapters
as the adapters don't push the aperture pin in - the aluminium
ones have an inner flange to catch the aperture pin, c.f. the photo.
- the registration distance is slightly too short which means that
the distance scale on the lenses doesn't indicate a correct distance
and cannot be used to accurately set the focus, and the
lens can be focused past infinity, which is quite nasty if one is
absent-minded or in a hurry and just turns the focusing ring until
the infinity stop. BTW, this feature can be used to produce
soft photos where everything is guaranteed to be at least slightly out
of focus.
- these elox aluminium adapters are light and work as expected.
However, there are also other makes on the market, and some of them don't
have the flange and some are either too thin or too thick.
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Links
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