Ha ha, I told me so... a cautionary tale

MattDavis

MattDavis

Well-known member
In a brief moment of stupidity, I purchased a couple of Tamron to Nikon adaptors to get going with a couple of legacy lenses I have for my FS100. I purchased them from 'one of those Chinese vendors on eBay', and I've ended up with rubbish.

They don't allow the lenses to focus on infinity. They don't 'lock' either to the lens or the body, and focusing the lens makes the whole shebang try to detach from its self.

Furthermore, the tolerance of the mounts are so badly off, it requires a bit of jiggling to get the mounts on, and more (sweaty and tense) jiggling to get them off again.

My Nikon lenses have mated up beautifully. I'm very happy with my MTF adaptor. I'm also very happy with my Novoflex Nikon to Canon adaptor when I wanted them on my 550D. Both are very expensive compared to the Chinese stuff, but they work. They don't 'sort of' work or 'mostly' work, they work when your client is hovering around, they work when your talent is drumming their fingers, they work when you mashed your finger in the tripod...

A pat on the back and a warm hug to all of you with Chinese adaptors. You made it. You beat the system. I'm not going anywhere near them ever again because I didn't get lucky. First time, shame on them. Second time, shame on me.
 
I wish you could go to one place knowing there would be no problems with quality, but my 60 years on this planet says there isn't such a place. Quality is where you find it. I have bought quality stuff from quality suppliers and it broke or didn't work perfectly just like the Chinese stuff. China is in a learning curve just like Japan used to be in a learning curve (Made in Japan used to mean "junk", too).
 
I've never messed with Ebay adapters, and I rarely hear good stuff about them.

The cheap adapters I've used that work, despite my best efforts to find problems, are the Fotodiox adapters sold on Amazon.com. They aren't badly built, they do everything they say they'll do (like infinity), and they haven't damaged anything in any way.
 
I have bought a dozen of different adapters from ebay for testing various lenses on various cameras. I usually go for the cheap ones as I'm very experienced in fitting lenses- it's part of my business of 25 years. I'm yet to get one that won't work. Some of them needed a little tweaking or shimming(for the footage marks to match)- nothing that a screw driver, some shim stock and scissors wouldn't fix. But than again- I have experience and all the tools at my disposal- collimators, projectors, mics, heigth gages, surface plates, depth gages etc.
most of this test equipment is never needed, just some understanding, common sense and basic tools.
All these expensive adapters are way overpriced and overrated as they do not offer any clear USP just some mambo-jumbo of "quality" and "precision" claims- mostly marketing.
and yes of course I have an agenda but it's irrelevant in this respect....
 
Last edited:
It´s sheer luck.

I got cheap Chinese adapters that almost fall of by them self, and other cheap Chinese adapters that work the exactly same way like my Voigtländer, but for a much better price.
The best perfect snug fit to my Nikons ,is an extremely cheap Chinese adapter (like $15) - but I think that´s more an accident, than great engineering.

But I second Optitek, the expensive adapters are way to expensive for what they are.

Frank
 
Postmaster said:
Its sheer luck...the expensive adapters are way too expensive for what they are.
Click to expand...

It depends on your patience. I'd rather buy a $200 adapter that's going to work than buy 10 $20 ones hoping one might.

The way I put it in another thread was that between overcharging for a quality product and producing a worthless product, the former is the lesser evil.
 
I'd rather spend a lot of money on an adapter than experience some of the horror stories I've heard from some people w/ the cheap ones... i.e. adapter getting stuck to camera body - requiring the use tools to get it off...
 
optitek said:
All these expensive adapters are way overpriced and overrated as they do not offer any clear USP just some mambo-jumbo of "quality" and "precision" claims- mostly marketing.
and yes of course I have an agenda but it's irrelevant in this respect....
Click to expand...

I've bought a few $30 ebay cheapies to convert Nikon glass to my EOS DSLR's, and while they all work - there is way to much play (lens jiggling about) for my liking. The Fotodiox I bought on the other hand fits like a glove, has zero play, gives me 100% confidence and most importantly allows me to adjust the aperture on G series lenses. Sure its $120 but I dont want to skimp when attaching lenses worth thousands of dollars.
 
+1 on the fotodiox. I ordered one so I could use my fs100 until my pl mount adapter came in. No play at all. I have the canon fd to sony e-mount. Cost me like 30 bucks. I've only heard good things about fotodiox on dvxuser, so that's why I went with the fotodiox - I was pretty sure I wouldn't have to chisel it off with a screwdriver. As for the pl mount - I went for the expensive MTF adapter. Another user had an issue with lens play... I hope it's not too bad... I don't wanna be eating my words about these expensive adapters...
 
I'm having good luck with Fotodiox pro adapters, and the Nipon Nikon and Canon to NEX adapters. That's $110 and $80 each respectively, though. Not cheap, more like mid grade. The cheapie ones I tried either fell apart, or didn't fit and one nearly made me kill the sensor (there's a deep scratch in the plastic a few mm above the sensor... lesson: don't force things).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top