Are lens adaptors a good route to take?

[8ounty]

Hi community,

I have a Canon 20D which I primarily use for taking pictures of my little girl, but have always been interested in portrait photography. I'm now at the point where the kit lens with the camera is not enough so am either looking at a 50mm f/1.4 or 50mm f/1.8 lens. The latter of the two is more in my price range, however sat in a dusty cupboard somewhere I have a Pentax K1000 carrying an old 50mm f1.2 lens - my question is if I buy an adaptor to fit this lens to my 20D would it just be a waste of money?

I understand that there is no autofocus, but that's not a big deal, but what other effects will the adaptor have - I've heard rumours of aperture issues etc.

Thank you all in advance of your replies and advice!

[Gaurav Prabhu]

I've heard of the quality degrading when adapters are used & also camera unable to meter. Wait for more replies though.

[wulf]

How much would an adaptor cost you? My two favourite lenses are my 50mm and 90mm primes. I don't need an adaptor, as they are both Nikon mount, but neither can use the in camera metering. To be honest, that isn't a big deal as I normally take a batch of pictures in a location and can typically afford to throw away the first couple while I home in on a good exposure (sometimes, too, the mistakes turn out to be more interesting than a more typical exposure choice).

If the mount is cheap enough that you won't be upset if picture quality is degraded, then it would be a good way to get a fast lens.

Wulf

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Gaurav Prabhu

I've heard of the quality degrading when adapters are used & also camera unable to meter. Wait for more replies though.

This is usually for FD -> EOS (Old Canon to new Canon). Pentax to EOS should be no problem: all you need is the right adaptor plate. PM Inkista: I'm pretty sure she has a K-Mount to EOS adaptor and can help.

[LeeR]

I carried a wide angle adapter for years and had a lot of fun with it. On my 50mm lens I got a really wide shot with lots of angular distortion. On my 28mm lens it became a true fisheye. All of this was back in the days when zoom lenses were considered 'suspect' for their quality and the adapter help round out my assortment of glass. These days if I was using one of the very fine point and shoots that Canon makes I'd invest in a couple of adapters. You'll get shots you can't get any other way and I believe you will find the quality better than the price would imply.

[8ounty]

Hey thanks for the replies there guys. The adaptor plate will only cost me about £10 so I may just go an get one - what's the worst that can happen eh?!

I'll keep you all posted!

[BCampbell]

I regularly use a k-mount to EOS adapter on my 300D. There are no problems with infinity focus or quality issues.

The Pentax 50mm f/1.2 is generally regarded an an absolutely excellent lens, I wouldn't hesitate to use it, and it should work well for portraits. You will have stop-down metering (meaning the viewfinder will get darker as you stop down), and be limited to M or Av modes, have to change aperture manually, and have to focus manually with no focus confirmation, but otherwise you're golden.

Metering works as normal, but some people find with some lenses the camera over or underexposes at some apertures. Just takes some practice.

[inkista]

Definitely worthwhile for a good 50/1.2. I use an Olympus OM 50/1.2 myself:


Canon 50D. iso 100, f/1.2, 1/1250s.

I have never used a K->EOS adapter, but as you've found out, they're plentiful and cheap and they'll work. SMC Takumars are among the faves of the alt. lens crowd, as they combine high quality and low cost.

A couple issues you will want to keep in mind, though.

Focusing wide open with an f/1.2 lens is going to make swear words rise to your lips a lot, because the standard matte focus screen in your camera is NOT going to accurately represent the DoF you have from the lens. The viewfinder will give you a deeper DoF. The 20D does not have interchangeable focus screens or liveview with 10x magnification, so you'll have to learn to focus by "feel". I never quite mastered it, which is why I snagged myself a 50D, so I could swap out the focus screen for the high-precision matte or a split-circle with prism collar. f/2 and smaller, I never had an issue just eyeballing it, but wider than f/2, it can become frustratingly hard to nail focus.

AF confirmation can help you get in the ballpark, but to get it, you will need to use a chipped adapter ring, which can be slightly more dangerous than a non-chipped one, given that you are messing about with electronic contacts. The plus side is that you will get at least some EXIF information. Depending on the chip you get, you might even be able to record the aperture setting you used (I use chipped rings from big_is and happypagehk on eBay).

Overall, though, I wouldn't hesitate. It's a blast to be able to use old manual focus lenses on Canon, and get a taste of what non-Canon flavors of glass are like. And we've got six mounts to choose from that can use simple ring adapters: Nikon F, Pentax K, M42, Contax/Yashica, Leica-R, and Olympus OM.

[8ounty]

Originally Posted by BCampbell

You will have stop-down metering (meaning the viewfinder will get darker as you stop down), and be limited to M or Av modes, have to change aperture manually, and have to focus manually with no focus confirmation, but otherwise you're golden.

Focus confirmation?! Ha ha, I've grown up using oldschool manual focus cameras so that's no problem, and I generally shoot in Manual mode anyway, but thanks for the heads up.

As with the other issues, a massive perk with digital shooting is being able to see how your shots look straight away, and can make any needed adjustments.

Thanks again for all your comments, they will help a lot, and i look forward to playing with my new lens!

[inkista]

Originally Posted by 8ounty

Focus confirmation?! Ha ha, I've grown up using oldschool manual focus cameras so that's no problem,

Errr... that's what you'd think, but those oldschool manual focus cameras gave you focusing aids in the viewfinder we no longer have with digital. And half the light in the viewfinder is now diverted to the sensors for autofocus and autoexposure. Trust me, it really is harder to do this with my 50D than it ever was with my old Olympus OM-10, which is why I gave you my words of warning. I shot with a manual focus film SLR for over 20 years, too.

As with the other issues, a massive perk with digital shooting is being able to see how your shots look straight away, and can make any needed adjustments.

Except that the one thing you can't see on those lower-resolution LCDs is whether or not you've nailed critical focus. Shooting tethered might help, though.