The Vintage Lens Thread

C

Chris Watson

Well-known member
Hey Guys,

In order to save money on glass, I'm taking a good hard look into the vintage lens/manual lens market and I have two questions.....

1. What lenses are adaptable to Canon EF? I know about m42, K mount, C/Y, and F mount. Any I'm missing here?

2. What's the best and cheapest way to acquire these lenses? I know there's Ebay, Keh.com, Adorama, and B&H but I'm wondering how THOSE places find the rare lenses. Any suggestions on where to look?

Thanks in advance!

Chris W
 
You've pretty much summed it up right there. FD won't work because of incompatible flange distance. There is a specialized adapter around that contains an extra piece of glass but they say quality suffers.

When searching on ebay there is a great tool at this link
http://primes.decentattempt.com/list

edit:
those place find lenses because people sell their used lenses to them. you can also try thrift stores, yard sales.
 
Quick question. Are all Nikon lenses F mount or are there different mounts within that brand similar to Canon's FD mount/EF mount? Thanks!

Chris W
 
Chris Watson said:
Quick question. Are all Nikon lenses F mount or are there different mounts within that brand similar to Canon's FD mount/EF mount? Thanks!

Chris W
Click to expand...

Nope, all Nikon SLR lenses are the same physical mount. The electronics and meter coupling changed over the years but that stuff doesn't mean squat when you adapt it.
 
Chris Watson said:
Hey Guys,

In order to save money on glass, I'm taking a good hard look into the vintage lens/manual lens market and I have two questions.....

1. What lenses are adaptable to Canon EF? I know about m42, K mount, C/Y, and F mount. Any I'm missing here?

2. What's the best and cheapest way to acquire these lenses? I know there's Ebay, Keh.com, Adorama, and B&H but I'm wondering how THOSE places find the rare lenses. Any suggestions on where to look?

Thanks in advance!

Chris W
Click to expand...

1) Your list is pretty complete. However, those lenses with longer registration distances can still be adapted (FD, Minolta-SR, etc) with a diopter optical adapter which will allow infinity focus with a trade off in quality. You can also adapt them without the optic in which case you will lose infinity focus but still might be useful for some.

2)Craigslist, ebay, local camera shows. I've gotten so much stuff off craigslist its not funny. 2nd place tie for me is ebay. If you can't find it anywhere you can find it on ebay if you wait. Local camera stores can be a gold mine if they haven't been farmed already by something like me:cheesy:
 
That's good to know about the Nikons. At least I know there won't be any compatibility problems with them.

There's a huge thrift store near here. I might make a field trip to see what I can find. Is there a site with pics of the flange connectors so I know what lens type I'm looking at?
 
Chris Watson said:
Is there a site with pics of the flange connectors so I know what lens type I'm looking at?
Click to expand...

Not really. A lot of flange/bayonet mounts look very similar. I've usually just trusted the seller/store knowing what it is. Obviously if the lens is first party, you can deduce it pretty easily. Its the third parth stuff thats harder. Sometimes the mount will have an engraving "Nikon/AI/F/MD/FD/K/OM/etc" which can be useful if you know the acronyms.
 
Chris Watson said:
Hey Guys,

In order to save money on glass, I'm taking a good hard look into the vintage lens/manual lens market and I have two questions.....

1. What lenses are adaptable to Canon EF? I know about m42, K mount, C/Y, and F mount. Any I'm missing here?

2. What's the best and cheapest way to acquire these lenses? I know there's Ebay, Keh.com, Adorama, and B&H but I'm wondering how THOSE places find the rare lenses. Any suggestions on where to look?

Thanks in advance!

Chris W
Click to expand...

Here is a list of what will work

Canon EOS
44.0 mm​
Adapters​
Contarex
46.0 mm​
Mechanical adapters with no optics and which maintain infinity focus may be possible​
Contax RTS
45.5 mm​
Leica R
47.0 mm​
Nikon
46.5 mm​
Olympus OM
46.0 mm​
Pentax K
45.5 mm​
Pentax Screw (M42)
45.5 mm​
Petri Bayonet
45.5 mm​
Ricoh Bayonet
45.5 mm​
T2 mount
55.0 mm​
Yashica FR, FX
45.5 mm​
Canon (FD and earlier)
42.0 mm​
Adapters would need optics for infinity focus and act as weak multipliers​
Fujica X Mount (bayonet)
43.5 mm​
Konica F
40.5 mm​
Minolta MD
43.5 mm​
Miranda
41.5 mm​
 
ROCKMORE said:
Minolta MD
Click to expand...

Protip: the proper name for the minolta manual focus mount is called "SR" or "Minolta-SR". But over the ages, confusing Minolta naming and consumer trends coined "MD" as a name for the mount. However, the letters MC and MD were not used to describe the mount.
 
Last edited:
Don't think I'll be hitting the thrift store/pawn shop/antique dealer circuit any time soon. Finding old lenses at those places is like hitting the lottery. Looks like Craig's List and Ebay for me!

Chris W
 
Its less of a lottery if you examine it before you buy. I can pretty much tell how messed up a lens is just by eye and touch without even mounting on a camera.
 
keh has good prices on contax ziess lenses, specifically the 50 f/1.4 and f/1.7.. under 300 usd for the 1.4 and under 200 for the 1.7.

the cy zeiss is a great lens for the 7d.. it's currently my fave zeiss right now and it was the cheapest one to boot.

Also, you can easily adjust inifinity on the old CY Zeiss lenses by losening some the focus barrel screws. That way you can buy cheap adapters and fine tune the lens to work with the adapter.
 
i just won a vivitar 70-210 f3.5 macro nikon mount lens. I hope this is a decent lens, i needed a zoom, and wanted constant aperature.

Comming from my old sigma 70-300 macro 4-5.6 im hoping this is a stepup.

Any tips for working with an adapted lens? Just have to adjust the aperature manually on the ring? Is there a trick to it?
 
jonE5 said:
Any tips for working with an adapted lens? Just have to adjust the aperature manually on the ring? Is there a trick to it?
Click to expand...

No tricks. Just don't plan on zooming while shooting with these lenses. Did you get the 67mm filter thread version?
 
i just won a vivitar 70-210 f3.5 nikon mount lens.

Desperately needed a zoom, so hopefully this fits the bill for cheap.

Id like ot add an 85mm 1.8
 
I swear by Zeiss Jena medium format primes of the 1960s/early 1970s.

Best glass Zeiss ever made in my book. Amazing cinema focus throw, no breathing at all and a extremely cinematic look and bokeh.
I use them religiously on the HVX200/Letus Adapter combo and on the 5D now.

Best of all, they are dirt cheap (at least here in Germany) you can score them in mint condition between 100 and 170 Euros on German Ebay. Look for “PENTACON SIX Zeiss”

Frank
 
Question: the focal length of the medium format primes: how does it compare to a FF or APS-C camera's focal length?
 
FixMix said:
Question: the focal length of the medium format primes: how does it compare to a FF or APS-C camera's focal length?
Click to expand...

You're thinking too hard. Cameras don't have focal length, only lenses. A 50mm medium format lens will look exactly the same as a 50mm FF lens when mounted on a FF or APS camera. Medium format lenses produce a larger image circle but you'll never see any of it with the smaller FF and APS sensor.

Or are you talking about how they actually look when using a medium format sensor?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top