GH3 Canon FD lenses on a GH3, which ones and what adapter?

[droid]

There are a ton of cheap Canon FD mount lenses on ebay. As in $20-$100. Does anyone use them on a GH3? If so which ones and what adapter do you use? Just to confirm..if I do use a FD mount lens I have a crop factor of 2x or more?..and lose 1 stop of light from the adapter?

If I am completely wrong and FD lenses don't behave well on a GH3..what about 16mm lenses? Anyone?

Thanks!

 

[bandapart]

Look on eBay for a vendor by the name of ciecio7. His are probably the most popular of those type of adapters that I see on here. I have one and it works great on my GH2. Very solid and very reasonably priced. Going for about $50 right now.

Yes, the crop factor is about 2x on the GH3. There's no light loss, however. I believe you're thinking of a FD to EF adapter, which has to use a lens to focus the image onto the sensor. All the m43 adapter does is extend the mount to the right distance and provide the right connection.

 

[droid]

Which FD lenses do you use? I wonder how they compare to the Panny 12-35 2.8 which I own now. I don't want to go backward with image quality.

 

[jmw]

You're not going to get comparable sharpness from the FD lenses, when looking at footage from your 12-35. So I'd say that's not an optimal pairing, but FDs are great for certain projects like weddings, especially something like a 50mm f/1.4 when you are generally dealing with lower light.

 

[Sol M.]

I shot with only FD lenses for several years on GH1 and GH2. I now use a GH3 and though I now also have some modern glass, the FD's are great lenses.

Here's how I would compare them:

Modern lenses like the Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 are pretty sharp wide open (definite usable) but older lenses will need to closed down a bit to be adequately sharp. For example, my FD 50mm f/1.4 is great @ f/2 (which is fine with me) .

On the other hand, the Panny 25mm has a very clinical look while the FD lenses have great character and flare characteristics.

Whether FD lenses will be a good fit for you, depends what kind of look you're going for.

I mentioned the 50mm 1.4 which is a great lens. I have the chrome nose version but I'd recommend the nFD version because it's smaller/lighter (I think), though the image quality should be the same. I also have a 28mm 2.8 & 85mm 1.8. I like both for different purposes.

As already mentioned, get the cieco7 adapter. It's incredibly well built and affordable.

If you want more examples of how FD lenses perform, you can check out my site. Virtually everything there was shot with a GH2 and an FD lens.

 

[hitmanh]

I have the 28mm F2.8, 100m F2.8, 200mm F4 and 300mm F4, plus a set of FD extension tubes I'm messing about with for close focus and macro. I prefer the SSC lenses, but they are slightly more heavy then the newer FDn lenses (I prefer the slightly more solid feel and the seperate breach lock ring). The modern lenses are great if you use autofocus, but the older lenses are far superior for manual focus, which is what I mainly use. Older lens tend to have character (or at least pleasing flaws) in a way that modern ones often lack. Nice thing is I can use them on my Fuji X-pro1 for stills as well

 

[Sol M.]

Yes very true, in terms of focus control, you get AF on modern lenses which can be nice, but fly-by-wire manual focusing which has zero repeatability.

By contrast, manual lenses have manual focus which generally require a bit more time for shot composition to nail focus, but you get distance scales, hard stops, and 100% repeatability when pulling focus.

I have a couple nice modern lenses (love the Oly 45mm f/1.8), but shudder at the thought of using them for video. If you're shooting video, manual glass is far more sane.

 

[Bruce Foreman]

I don't mean to "bash" or in any way run down those who use FD lenses (Or Nikkors, Olympus legacy, Pentax or any others. But I guess I have a different outlook.

Modern lenses like the Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 are pretty sharp wide open (definite usable) but older lenses will need to closed down a bit to be adequately sharp. For example, my FD 50mm f/1.4 is great @ f/2 (which is fine with me) .

We had this when were using these lenses (when they were state of the art) on film cameras. I've used the f1.4 50mm lenses wide open when I wanted a softer look but was exceedingly careful not to get flare. As a matter of fact we did everything we could to avoid flare and a lot of other things young filmmakers are adding because they think it's "film" like. Grain, burns, scratches; we tried not to even show work that wound up those.

On the other hand, the Panny 25mm has a very clinical look while the FD lenses have great character and flare characteristics.

Depends on point of view. I have this lens, bought it because of it's sharpness. I've always been a "sharpness nut" and even before going professional I moved into medium format for the increased sharpness we could get from 6x7cm negs. This 25mm is one of my favorite lenses because of it's "clinical" (sharp) look. Just the same one of the things I was noted for in my studio days was my way of photographing women "soft". I had assembled a "graduated set" of Cokin diffusion filters (they varied in effect from others in the same supposed strength), 5 of them ranging from so subtle you couldn't see any real softness but skin tones came alive to "don't even TRY focusing through this one" (I used to focus the camera first then pop it on).

So when needed I can do the same thing with these m4/3 lenses.

By contrast, manual lenses have manual focus which generally require a bit more time for shot composition to nail focus, but you get distance scales, hard stops, and 100% repeatability when pulling focus.

I fully understand this and do see where for some folks this would be an overriding factor.

I have a couple nice modern lenses (love the Oly 45mm f/1.8), but shudder at the thought of using them for video. If you're shooting video, manual glass is far more sane.

My choice was to adapt. With all of these lenses I've gotten pretty used to using the magnified focus assist quickly to "nail" focus and getting on with it. The "focus by wire" is often a pain to have to contend with. Yes, I too love that 45mm, so much I just ordered and got in the Oly 75mm.