Adaptor recommendations for 7D using Nikon Lenses

J

j1clark@ucsd.edu

Veteran
I'm looking at the 7D, and because this would be the first Canon I would buy, need to know what is a good adaptor for using my Nikon lenses. I didn't see a sticky on this topic.

Now, what I'd also like to ask, is why Nikon seems to be an 'industry standard', for using the Canons as 'video/digital' moviemaking. I thought Canon lenses where pretty good. Or is there some other reason beyond optics?



(as a note I did a search and this is what I got...
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 262144 bytes) in /home/dvxuser/public_html/V6/search.php on line 1012
)
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
I'm looking at the 7D, and because this would be the first Canon I would buy, need to know what is a good adaptor for using my Nikon lenses. I didn't see a sticky on this topic.
Click to expand...

It's something that has been discussed many a time on here.

I use the Fotodiox adapters. $19.99 on Amazon right now. Good build quality, nice and sturdy, slips right on the lens. Very utilitarian.

I recommend buying one for each lens, and getting an extra Canon rear lens cap as well. Just makes life easier.


j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Now, what I'd also like to ask, is why Nikon seems to be an 'industry standard', for using the Canons as 'video/digital' moviemaking. I thought Canon lenses where pretty good. Or is there some other reason beyond optics?
Click to expand...

Nikon lenses, in general, are optically equal to Canon lenses, in my opinion and for the purposes of video production on the Canon 7D. My point in saying this is that I don't think there's a reason to doubt either Canon or Nikon (or Zeiss, Leica, Tokina, Cooke, or Sigma) in general optical quality. Either is definitely good enough, in general, for use on the 7D for video purposes. I keep saying in general because thorough testing can prove certain lenses from different manufacturers to be empirically "better". But given the limitations of the 7D, slight MTF differences and so forth will likely wash out.

Modern Nikon and Canon lenses feature a great deal of engineering catering to photographers. After all, that's their target audience. Autofocus motors, for instance, have led to creation of a focus ring without hard stops (it just spins and spins forever). Similarly, adjustments for aperture are done on the camera body using modern lenses, rather than on the lens itself. These are good advances for photography, but are not really "cinema" standard.

So we turn to older lenses like the Canon FD mount and the Nikon F mount (there are certainly others, as well) which have manual focus rings with hard stops and manual aperture rings. Problematically, the Canon FD mount requires an optical adapter which introduces unacceptable* image artifacts such as decreased contrast, soft focus, etc.

Leaving the Nikon F mount as the (seemingly) most largely produced and most widely available manual focus and manual aperture lenses around. There is one big issue with Nikon lenses - the focus ring rotates in the opposite direction from Canon lenses and standard Cinema lenses, requiring some retrofitting of the follow focus.

*unacceptable in terms of producing a "normal" pristine image.
 
mcvideo said:
is there any loss in quality by using this adapter w/Nikon lens on a canon 7D?
Click to expand...

There shouldn't be. All the adapter does is provide the proper mechanical connection and flange focal distance. There is no optical element to degrade picture quality.

It's possible for an adapter to leak light, I suppose, or to be of an incorrect thickness resulting in slightly off focus.
 
noticed that the link for the adapter does not say 7D ready. pple her show it is and use it with no issues. anyone confirm this will fit the 7D? thanks /mc
 
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