Nikkor Lenses on a T2i

M

Metrolens

Well-known member
Hi all, I'm considering purchasing a T2i. I've currently got the following vintage prime lenses:

1. Nikkor 28mm f2.8
2. Nikkor 50mm f1.4

The lenses are currently being used on a Nikon FM2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_FM2

My question is, how will these lenses perform with a T2i? Any difference on a 7d?

Also, what kind of adapter would I need? I know Cinevate makes one, as does Fotodiox, which is better? Are my Nikkor lenses F Mounts? If not, how can I tell?
 
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These lenses will perform perfectly with a T2i. They will perform just the same on the 7D. Their FOV will be different though. It will be 1.6x more narrow. So you're 50mm will have the field of view of an 80mm lens. And 28 will look like a 45mm.

If your lenses are newer than say the late 1950s (and they are), they are F-Mount. I use a Kawa adapter for my Nikon glass. It costs $15 and works perfectly. Buy one for each lens, buy a Canon cap for the back end of each lens, and your conversion is done.

Couldn't be any simpler.
 
Awesome, thanks. That is just what I want to hear!

So if I were to get 2 more lenses, I should probably go with something wider (how about the Tokina 11-16 f2.8), and a zoom in the 100mm+ range for videography work. I realize there are a million lens options at different pricepoints, but what 2 lenses would people recommend for say a $1000 total budget?
 
Yep, that's the adapter.

I can't tell you what lenses to get. Since a lot of my work requires a follow focus, Zoom lenses, especially, auto focus zoom lenses, are the opposite of where I want to go. Which is sad, because I also have a Nikon body I use for stills, and they'd be nice for that. So I stick to prime, manual focus lenses. You cannot use auto focus features on these cameras (Canon DSLRs) in video mode, so why pay extra for the feature? If you are buying lenses for both stills AND video, then buy Canon EOS mount glass. If you aren't going to use a follow focus, then maybe the AF will work for you, but I find it WAY to hard to adjust focus subtly, with them. You move the focus 2mm and your suddenly WAY out of focus. Not what I want at all.

With a good manual lens, you have 150-300 degrees of travel to focus from close to infinity. There is a lot of precision there. Just like when we actually used to shoot with MF glass for stills.
 
Thanks again, sound advice.

Some of my work is videography, so a zoom is going to be necessary. Also the zoom should have IS capability; I recently shot video on a 7d with a Canon zoom lens without IS, and it was markedly jittery off a monopod, even at the wide end.

Also, my T2i would indeed be used for stills too. So you're saying buying Canon EOS lenses may be the best bet; the logic being, only Canon EOS lenses will be able to use the camera's AF functionality? Or would other brand lenses with a Canon EOS mount be able to use AF for stills?

Also also, how's that wide zoom lens I mentioned? People here seem to love it. I guess it'd actually be a 17.6-25.6mm?
 
Only modern lenses made for the EOS mount will be able to use AF. And only those will have IS. If that is a requirement, that that's what you need to buy. Canon, Tokina, Sigma, Tamron, and others make lenses to fit this mount and have those desired features. Lenses that require an adapter will not provide auto focus or IS.

I'll let others speak to the zoom lens you mentioned. I have no knowledge of it. Zooms are too slow and the manual focus too sloppy for my current needs.
 
Metrolens said:
One other question: can someone quickly explain the difference between EOS Mount, EF, and EF-S lenses?
Click to expand...

Is the answer to my own question basically as follows:

1. "EOS Mount" refers to both EF and EF-S lenses.
2. EF-S Cameras (like the 7d and T2i) can take both EF and EF-S lenses, though with EF lenses you will get a 1.6x tighter FOV.
3. EF Cameras cannot take EF-S lenses.
4. Other companies make EOS Mount lenses, both of EF and EF-S varieties?
 
Yep, that's a great summary. There are some exceptions to #3 though so be careful. If you mount a lens designed for a crop sensor onto a non-crop camera, it won't cover all the sensor and you'll have large black corners where the image doesn't reach.
 
I just shot these test yesterday with a 50mm 1.4 Nikkor. Works very well on both the 550D and the 5D. A collection of manual Nikon lenses would be well worth it. I put the lens to the minimum focus distance so the DOF is very shallow at f2.8 this close. A few more stops would make a difference.
 

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ROCKMORE said:
I just shot these test yesterday with a 50mm 1.4 Nikkor. Works very well on both the 550D and the 5D. A collection of manual Nikon lenses would be well worth it. I put the lens to the minimum focus distance so the DOF is very shallow at f2.8 this close. A few more stops would make a difference.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have that lens (pre-AI), plus several other vintage pre-AI Nikkors that I use on a T2i. I love them. I think they are the way to go, if budget is an issue (and when is it not?).
 
Prime logic...

Prime logic...

I'm beginning to see the light in PerroneFord's prime lens logic.

Next question being - is it true that older Nikon F mount primes are a good pairing with the T2i, while older Canon (FD and otherwise) lenses actually are less suited to use with a T2i due to the extra glass in the adapter?

If I want to buy a bunch of used vintage primes for a T2i, should I only be considering Nikon F mount lenses? If so, is there a better Nikon F mount to EOS Mount adapter than the Kawamall one - which is apparently nearly impossible to remove and would thus cost $15 per lens?
 
You are correct about Canon FD lenses. There is a degradation in IQ because of the extra glass needed.

There are other excellent vintage lenses. Russian-made Zeiss copies can be bought on Ebay. The Mir 24m (35mm f/2, about $200), Jupiter-9 (85mm f/2, about $70), and Helios 44-2 (55mm f/2, about $35) are excellent lenses. Make sure they've got the m42 mount. Then just buy an m42 to EOS adapter and Canon caps.

I have this Nikon to EOS adapter. It fits snugly and is removable.
 
Let me take these in turn...

Metrolens said:
I'm beginning to see the light in PerroneFord's prime lens logic.
Click to expand...

I can't take credit for it. It's been done this way for 75+ years. I am just following the traditions of those who've come before me, and have been lucky to have done enough work to understand WHY things have been done that way so long.

Metrolens said:
Next question being - is it true that older Nikon F mount primes are a good pairing with the T2i, while older Canon (FD and otherwise) lenses actually are less suited to use with a T2i due to the extra glass in the adapter?
Click to expand...

Any time you put a piece of glass between the lens and the camera that was not designed to go there you are going to have issues. Putting glass on the far end of the lens is a lot less critical. It would be a rare circumstance that I'd use anything with a glass element behind a lens. Maybe if I just HAD to do a long shot, any my 300mm wasn't long enough. But that's about all I can think of.


Metrolens said:
If I want to buy a bunch of used vintage primes for a T2i, should I only be considering Nikon F mount lenses?
Click to expand...

No, there are numerous options. The Nikon primes are popular because there are a LOT of them, there are a LOT of adapter choices, there is a chance that Nikon could develop a good video DSLR and the glass would then still work, and should you need to rent a higher end camera like a RED for a shoot, you can usually get it with a Nikon mount. Thus the investment in Nikon glass is an easy solution.

I am about to start collecting m42 screw-mount glass. This is a different mount that was popular in the 60s and 70s. There is some EXCELLENT glass in this configuration. Often times better than Nikon glass. It used to be that you could get that glass for next to nothing despite it's quality, because demand was low. But with the popularity of the GH1, that's changed. And now many are adapting it for use with the Canon's as well. So I am going to try to finish a set of that glass before Christmas, and a set of Nikon glass next year.


Metrolens said:
If so, is there a better Nikon F mount to EOS Mount adapter than the Kawamall one - which is apparently nearly impossible to remove and would thus cost $15 per lens?
Click to expand...

:) The adapter is super tight for the first 20-25 uses. it gets easier. It took a great deal of effort for me the first few times. Now I move it from lens to lens in about 15 seconds. However, I am afraid that if I keep moving it around, it will get more loose than I might prefer. So I am just going to leave the adapters attached for the duration of my shoot, then remove them. $15 is a pittance. A full set of primes might be 8-10 lenses. If you bought an adapter for each of them, you're talking about an amount of money that would hardly be cause for alarm. I know that buying my 85mm F/1.8 is going to cost me more than half as much as the body cost. I'm not going to cry about putting a $15 adapter on it. What is REALLY going to hurt is buying a good piece of protective glass for the front of it!
 
Thank you once again for all this fantastic information.

And now, a curveball.

I just took a closer look at my Nikkor 50mm lens... which I'd never used despite owning it for several years. And... when I turn the aperature dial looking through the barrel of the lens, I don't see any aperature opening/closing whatsoever. Is this normal?!? I connected it to a borrowed Nikon D90, and sure enough, changing the aperature on the Nikkor 50mm has no effect on exposure - it's apparently full wide at all settings.

Busted lens? Can it be repaired?
 
Metrolens said:
I'm beginning to see the light in PerroneFord's prime lens logic.

Next question being - is it true that older Nikon F mount primes are a good pairing with the T2i, while older Canon (FD and otherwise) lenses actually are less suited to use with a T2i due to the extra glass in the adapter?

If I want to buy a bunch of used vintage primes for a T2i, should I only be considering Nikon F mount lenses? If so, is there a better Nikon F mount to EOS Mount adapter than the Kawamall one - which is apparently nearly impossible to remove and would thus cost $15 per lens?
Click to expand...

I really like the Nikon F mount lenses, but ONLY is a big word. There is a lot of talk about old Russian made glass, and there are a lot of lenses out there that I would never rule out. I use the Kawamall adaptor and they can be tricky to remove. The trick that helps me is to use a rubber pad, like those used to help open stuck food jars, to hold the edge of the adaptor (which can be sharp). You then flick that little lever, and twist the lens and adapter in opposite directions. At 15 bucks, I just bought one for each lens and got a Canon EOS mount end cap for it.
 
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