Zeiss ZF on Canon Body

J

James M

Member
I was wondering which adapters people recommend for getting ZFs onto Canon bodies.

What are the sacrifices of using ZFs on a Canon body? I know I won't be able to autofocus or drive the aperature from the camera, but what about infinity focus? Are there problems at wide apertures?

Thanks.
 
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Indeed i have. Thanks for the info. Just double and triple checking that I'm not missing something before we place a rather large order.
 
I've been using zf's on canons since they came out. Just buy good quality adapters and buy one for each lens. It's a pita to remove them every time you want to change a lens. Also make sure that the adapters come with canon rear caps or order some of those as well.
 
I used my ZF's on the 7D when I had one. It's a little more cumbersome to deal with Nikon->Canon adapters than it is with Nikon->M43 adapters because the adapter is very, very thin on the Canon. On the M43 there's about an inch of depth to the adapter, so there's more than enough room that you can just leave the adapter on the body and then remove the lens from the adapter. On the Canon body, the Nikon adapter is a very thin ring, and it's not really easy or practical to remove the lens from the adapter, it's pretty much a case of that I had to remove the adapter from the camera body, then from the lens, then put the adapter on the lens, then mount that combo back on the camera body.

As such, I say that if you want to do it for keeps, do as LowDown says. Get an adapter per lens and get a rear cap per lens. Considering that ZF's average about $1200-$1500 apiece, getting a forty dollar adapter and a two dollar rear cap for each lens is a pretty minimal expense, in proportion to what each lens costs.

I went with ZF's instead of ZE's even though I was going to be using them on a Canon, because the ZF's have aperture rings and can be de-clicked and cine-modded and used on pretty much any camera... you can adapt Nikon-mount lenses to just about anything. The drawback to using ZF's (nikon-mount) is that they focus "backwards" -- pretty much every other lens ever made focuses one way, but the Nikon lenses focus the other way. Other than that, no real drawbacks.

If you're ever only going to use the lenses on a Canon body, you would probably be well served to get the ZE's. They have electronic iris control (which makes them only suitable for Canon bodies) but they also don't require adapters. And they focus "the right way". If you're only ever using them on a Canon, ZE's are the better choice, but if you plan on using them on any other body (GH2, AF100, Nikon, whatever) you'd be much better off with the ZF's.
 
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