Lets talk Canon glass... 5d markii kit lens or not???

N

Nicky

Well-known member
Ok... I know canon glass in general is being discussed to death in the 35 adapter section,
BUT... what about the 5d markii kit lens (24-105 f4 IS USM)??? Its a variable that changes a whole lot.

Im thinking its a useful lens because even though its f4, it takes care of most shots - the DOF is decent and is stabilized... occasionally in super low-light/ Xtreme DOF needs one could use a contax zeiss 1.4 or whatever... and of-coarse its effectively HALF price as a bundled lens!!!

Any thoughts???...

I know this is pushing it, but there isnt a dedicated Canon 5d forum to post... and honestly wouldnt be appropriate anywhere else.
 
I think if I get the 5DM2 I wouldn't get the kit lens, but rather I'd use my manual Nikon lenses with adapters. Not only would that glass be faster but I also have manual control over the iris while exposure is otherwise locked, this has been really nice while shooting with my D90, and since I declick the aperture ring I can change exposure quite smoothly while shooting.

I suppose if the money weren't any sort of issue I might get the kit lens for the IS. It is slow, but the IS might be helpful handheld... I didn't find the VR on the D90's kit lens to be "all that" though. I'd hope at the cost of the Canon lens it would have a better focus ring than my Nikon's kit lens, but I'd want to check that out in person before buying it if I could. A lot of good AF lenses have cheap focus rings which makes pulling focus more difficult.
 
NO, don't get the kit lens! get the WAY FASTER ef 24-70 F/2.8L! It's F/2.8 all the way through and costs only a little bit more. believe me bro, it's worth the premium!

that's just my recommendation based on personal experience. i've been using the ef 24-70 for professional purposes many times and was ALWAYS 150% SATISFIED with its operation and the results.
 
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Hmmm... choices, choices... what I said earlier makes sense to me obviously cos I wrote it :)

3 things to consider :

(1) I have a full set of fast AIS Nikon primes :) ... they are excellent but not for sharp 21MP stills (not to matter too much actually cos Im mostly for 1080P anyways) but I still wonder if those cheap Japanese Ebay adapters (canon - nikon) are full-proof???... Ill still keep them no matter what in case Nikon pulls thru somehow!!!

(2) The faster zooms are tempting but with BLAZING FAST primes hanging around I couldn't really care. UNLESS of-coarse the faster zooms have better manual focus rings with longer focus throw... this is something that SERIOUSLY needs to be looked at!!!... Please could someone inform us.

(3) Something we never thought about is how the ALL-AUTO lenses could be really fun to shoot video with???... focus especially... anyone?
 
Keep in mind that zooms are typically less sharp and slower than prime lenses because of all the glass. I myself prefer to work with all primes except the 70-200mm zoom.
 
Thebes said:
I think if I get the 5DM2 I wouldn't get the kit lens, but rather I'd use my manual Nikon lenses with adapters. Not only would that glass be faster but I also have manual control over the iris while exposure is otherwise locked, this has been really nice while shooting with my D90, and since I declick the aperture ring I can change exposure quite smoothly while shooting.

I suppose if the money weren't any sort of issue I might get the kit lens for the IS. It is slow, but the IS might be helpful handheld... I didn't find the VR on the D90's kit lens to be "all that" though. I'd hope at the cost of the Canon lens it would have a better focus ring than my Nikon's kit lens, but I'd want to check that out in person before buying it if I could. A lot of good AF lenses have cheap focus rings which makes pulling focus more difficult.
Click to expand...


Thebes, how doe you 'de-click' the aperture ring ?
 
I totally love the Zeiss look. I'm expanding my set of Contax primes. They work great with Canon, they are manual and not too expensive.
 
Lee Wilson said:
Thebes, how doe you 'de-click' the aperture ring ?
Click to expand...

I have declicked 5 AI/s/'d lenses now. They differ a bit between them. I am in NO WAY going to take responsibility for someone messing up their glass... but the biggest risk would probably be gouging it with a screwdriver and thats not likely. You need jeweler's screwdrivers and steady hands- the parts are very small.

For 3 of my lenses, they were pre-ai, also called nai. These are not safe to mount on the D90, although they fit. They are easy to identify because the aperture ring is flat on the side towards the camera. Also, the clawfoot near the aperture ring has no holes, just a slot (this could be a home done AI'd conversion though too).

For these Pre-AI lenses I had to take off the focus ring anyway to convert them, so I figured I would try to declick them too. There are 5 flat tip screws on the lens, looking at the camera side. In some of the lenses I was able to leave the screw opposite the clawfoot on, on others I had to pull it out... don't pull it unless you have to because it might be retaining the aperture opening mechanism. There is also a very tiny screw going through the aperture ring from the side of the lens- this one engages a hole on a ring inside of a slot that it slides through as you turn the aperture ring... take this out. Pull out the silver piece of the lens that the screws held on, then pull out the aperture ring.

If converting the ring, google for images of the AI version of the lens (same f-stop range etc), and file the appropriate parts down... there are several articles that can be googled on the procedure up to this point, they have pics and stuff that is very helpful!

On the lens there is a now exposed spring that engaged small slots in the aperture ring. It is held in place with 2 very tiny screws... just remove that. I also tried grinding the slots in the aperture ring down, but this wasn't as smooth and was a lot more work.

On two AI lenses... one I could not remove the aperture ring completely, but I did get to the click spring anyway. The other was very different - my F mount Kiron 28mm f2.0 AIs- this had a tiny ball bearing pushed by a spring, I removed the ball. Both of these had phillips head screws btw.

Putting it back togather, you need to line up the hole in the aperture ring with the machanism ring, through the slot in the lens body- put the screw back in. Then line up the aperture opening mechanism and twist it until the screw holes match up... put 1 in, and test that the aperture is working and that the opening lever, which is the moving tab that fits into the camera, actually opens the aperture when stopped down... one time I had trouble with this, but I eventually got stuff in the right place. Once all the screws are in, thats it, enjoy... you might consider trying to cement in (no super glue!) a bit of felt to dampen the action, I keep meaning to try that but haven't.

I hope this made sense, the next one I do I'll see if I can video part of it. Taking it apart isn't too hard, and will be much easier if you look at some tutorials for converting a Pre-AI lens to AI. It takes about 5 minutes if you aren't needing to file the ridge down to convert your lens for safe use on the D90 too.
 
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Lee Wilson said:
Thebes, how doe you 'de-click' the aperture ring ?
Click to expand...

There are people on the net that offer such services.

however, most camera stores can refer you to a private repair guru that can dismantle and reassemble any peice of 60 year old mechanical gear blindfolded.

i was about to send my lenses out to aiconversions.com till my camera store refered me to a technician who could install the tricky focusing screen on my d200, and wow.. this guy could do anything. so now i'm not worried about lens or camera modifications.
 
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