No question is stupid right????

[JeNniFer E]

or at least I hope so.

I have heard other people with dslr's talking about how they have used slr lenses on their dslr's. Have any of you done this, is it possible, or have they just completely lost their mind?

[Nathan deGargoyle]

A camera is a camera is a camera. And a lens is a lens is a lens, If your Dslr cam mount an SLR lens it works. You may lose AF or aperture but hey, its just glass neh?

[Jim Poor]

Oh, silly me. I completely mis-read the question. I'll leave my original post below just so I can come back and laugh at myself:

There may be some adapters out there of sorts, I just don't know.

Other than that, I would imagine that you could hold our P&S camera up to the lens just as you could one of those view finder thinges at a national park.

I've taken decent photos through a telescope with a P&S, but it wasn't easy.

[sk66]

It will work in many cases... It can be completely compatible with no compromises (late generation autofocus SLR's), or it can be very minimally compatible...(older fully manual SLR's)

This is the same thing you hear about as "full frame" lenses and the "crop factor" of smaller sensors.

[inkista]

Most dSLRs are made by camera makers who made film SLRs, too. And not wanting to tick off their customer base, they used similar or compatible mount systems when they made their dSLRs. Most folks will upgrade camera bodies regularly as newer features become available, but they'll hang onto the lenses they like for decades. So most companies let you use some version of their old film SLR lenses directly:

Canon's EOS mount film lenses can be used on their dSLRs.
Nikon's F mount film lenses can be used on their dSLRs.
Sony's Alpha mount takes Minolta AF mount lenses.
Pentax 's dSLRs can take use the old Pentax K-mount lenses.
The only two companies that don't do this are Panasonic and Olympus, who completely wiped the slate when they went to digital and made the four-thirds system.

But it doesn't stop there.

Some mounts can also be adapted to take other mount systems.

Most mounts are different in terms of the physical and electronic linkages. With some mounts that have very long backwards compatibility, like Nikon's F-mount and Pentax's K-mount, electronic linkages may or may not be present, even though the physical linkage is identical. So while you can mount and use the lenses, you'll lose some function: e.g., you can't build autofocus into a lens that was made for manual focusing.

If you're ok with that loss of electronic function (it usually boils down to being stuck to shooting in M or Aperture-prioirity (or in some cases M or Shutter-priority) modes only and having to manually focus); then you only have to worry about the physical linkage.

Because an adapter takes physical space, and lenses have to be held a very specific distance from the sensor to achieve focus to infinity, these kind of adaptions mostly can only be done with a body that has a smaller "back focus" distance than the mount system being adapted. So, Four-Thirds can theorically adapt everybody except rangefinder glass. Canon can adapt Leica R, Contax-Yashica, Pentax K, M42, Olympus OM, and Nikon F/G. Pentax can adapt Leica R, M42, and Nikon-F/G. Sony alpha could adapt Leica R, Nikon F, Olympus OM, and Pentax K, but the only optic-less adapter I've seen is for M42. And all the 35mm/APS format dSLRs, obviously, can adapt medium format SLR lenses.

So, yeah, you can use a lot of film SLR lenses, depending on what dSLR you have, and you may not even be limited to the same brand/mount.

I shoot with a Canon XT. I'm really happy that I can adapt lenses to EOS, because some of the best glass out there come from "orphaned" mount systems--systems that didn't go digital. Contax/Yashica was never developed into a dSLR line by Kyocera, so there's a lot of cheap Zeiss glass in the Contax mount. Olympus went to Four Thirds, so their entire OM mount system is up for grabs for adapting (e.g., the old Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 goes for $10-$20 on the used market). I use lenses from both those systems as well as my film and digital Canon lenses.

[JeNniFer E]

Thanks for all the info. I really thought my friend had lost her mind when she said that she was going to buy a slr lens for her dslr.....granted she has had a dslr a LOT longer then I have had mine I just didn't think it would work. So thanks so much for shedding light on this for me. I now have a better understanding.

[jatma]

On this same topic. Is there a reference site somewhere on what lens will fit what cameras and/or what adapter is needed?

I see you mentioned the 50mm 1.8 from another brand that you use with your XT. I have the XS and would love to get a 50mm 1.8 lens - new at the camera store here they are 89.95 So i've been putting it off until I can justify the expense.

but if I could get one for $10-20 - thats just forgoing weekend activites to get a lens - and could justify it.


thanks for any info

[JeNniFer E]

jatma I looked up this lens Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 goes for $10-$20 on ebay and looked up the adapter for the canon and found this Olympus Adapter

[inkista]

Here's the adaptability chart I refer to. The orphaned mounts may give you some lower prices, obviously, than the ones that are still usable. But you are still fighting Olympus 4/3 users for OM-mount lenses, and every Canon shooter who adapts will fight you for the Contax Zeiss. But know that you're up against every Nikon shooter if you're looking at a Nikkor, and every Pentax shooter if you're hunting up a Pentax K-mount lens. Chances are good that if a lens is cheap, there's a reason why. Ditto if it's expensive (Leica glass is never cheap). I found that with Nikkor, going for a pre-AI lens made for some bargains because those aren't usable on the higher-end Nikon digital bodies; makes no never mind to a Canon EOS shooter, though.

Also, remember that you're giving up a lot of stuff if you're going to adapt an older lens to a Canon EOS body:

1. No autofocus.
   
   
2. Only stop-down metering (i.e., the aperture will not remain wide open while you to focus and meter and then close down only for the exposure. You will have to manually stop down the lens to meter accurately before you take the picture. When you do this, the view will go darker--it's like continually holding down the DoF preview button. But you will have metering, which is nice.
   
   
3. No scene modes, no Auto, P, or shutter-priority modes. You can only shoot in M and Av.
   
   
4. No full EXIF information: you'll be missing accurate lens information in the EXIF. Remember, the lens won't talk to the body. So, focal length and aperture information will be completely missing or wrong.

And depending on the adapter ring you choose, no autofocus confirmation.

Manually focusing with a fast prime wide open on an xxxD body is particularly problematic because the viewfinder is small, not too bright, and not necessarily accurate in terms of giving you focus feedback. You can mitigate this a little with an AF-confirm chipped adapter ring, but it's still not necessarily easy.

That said, Adorama, B&H, and KEH are all great for finding and buying used equipment, and of course, there's always eBay if you know what you're doing. The Olympus OM-mount Zuikos can be adapted to Canon EOS with adapter rings. The one I got has an AF-confirm chip; I bought it off eBay from big_is. Fotodiox also makes good rings.

The best places to go for information on adapting lenses is the MF Lenses forum, and the alternative gear section of the Fred Miranda board.

[OsmosisStudios]

Inkista, are you a robot?