Canon & old lens compatibility

[kelstar84]

Hi all,
Hoping you would be able to help with me out with this one, as I have read basically everything (well.. all that i'm willing to read) on the net to try and find this answer with no luck. Bare with me, i'm new to the DSLR world.

I have my brand spanking new Canon EOS 550d/T2i on order. My Dad has some old lens' from his Ricoh SLR and was hoping i could use them. (not an uncommon question really)

One is a Rikenon 50mm 1:2, from the late 70's, and I beleive that its a K-mount which i would need an adapter for, however there is a red dot on the lens like the EF lens'. ?? It looks like it is the same mount as the Canon. Am I going to need to look at specific measurements to see if its compatible or not?? Or is it technically not supposed to fit?

Or is it just not worth the hassle?

The other is a screw in zoom lens, different brand ( I have forgotten details, i'll have to write about it later.) My dad has the screw on adapter for this lens.

Any ways, it would be great to see if anyone has any idea.

Cheers.
Kels.

[inkista]

You need to identify the mounts of the lenses. The six you can easily adapt to Canon EOS are:

• Contax/Yashica
• Leica-R
• Olympus OM
• M42 (Pentax screwmount)
• Pentax K
• Nikon F

My guess is you have Pentax K and an M42 lens, both of which can be used on a Canon dSLR, but there are certain restrictions on their usage.

Obviously, since there are no electrical contacts for the lens to communicate with the camera body, you're stuck with manual focus. But you are also stick with manual aperture. You'll have to set the aperture with a ring on the lens, and you'll be stuck on the camera in Av or M modes only. In addition, you'll have to use stop-down metering, because the camera cannot tell the lens to stay wide open until the shot is taken and then use the aperture setting you dialed in. So, your viewfinder will get dimmer the more you stop down. The practical upshot is that you want to compose and focus first, then monkey with your exposure settings before taking the shot.

And last, but not least, you'll have holes in your EXIF. All the information that comes from the lens (aperture setting, focal length, max. aperture, etc.) will be blank, unless you get a chipped adapter ring to fake being a Canon lens's chip.

Other than that, should work just fine.

[kelstar84]

Thank you Inkista, thats exactly what i was after.
You're answer was a lot more precise and straight forward then all the websites i found.
I had looked at that site, but couldnt see the particular lens, however it could just be my ameteur eyes.

So the lenses my dad has are:
XR RIKENON 1:2 50MM s Ricoh Lens.
& Tasman Auto1:2:8 f=13 5mm 55m w/screw in adapter.

Thats the other lens. Are they good lenses? It sounds as though its not really worth the hassle to play around with, unless i'm bored.

I figured there would be electronic issues, due to lack of technology on the old lens, which is fair enough.

Thanks again for making it a lot clearer.

PS. my new 550d/T2i came in last night. there will be a lot of playing over the next week..month...for sure.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by kelstar84

So the lenses my dad has are:
XR RIKENON 1:2 50MM s Ricoh Lens.
& Tasman Auto1:2:8 f=13 5mm 55m w/screw in adapter.

Thats the other lens. Are they good lenses? It sounds as though its not really worth the hassle to play around with, unless i'm bored.

I've got no idea, as I've never heard of those lenses, but asking your dad would probably be the best route. If he liked them, then they're probably worth trying out.

The Tasman stuff looks a little weird to me. the 1:2.8 means it's an f/2.8 lens, so I'm not sure what the f=13 means, nor the 5mm, unless it's f=135mm, which which case it's a 135/2.8, which is probably good, since most 135mm lenses are. And the 55mm is possibly the filter size. Did it have a Φ in front of it? If so, then that's the filter size.

Anyway, happy new gear! Hope the lens adapting works out for you!

[kelstar84]

Thanks again inkista
I think thats just my mum copying the lens details down for me. hehe. Yes its a 135mm lens the filter size is 55mm.

I'll let you know how i go in the near future. I think i'd still like to try them.

kels.

[BCampbell]

On the lenses:

There are hordes and hordes of old manual 135/2.8's out there. Most are middling to average, assuming you can get the focusing nailed down. There are a few (Super Takumar comes to mind) that are excellent. I would guess the one you have is average at best, but it's better than not having a 135 at all. I personally love that focal range (anywhere from 100-150mm, though I'm on full frame, so something 85mm or 90mm would be closer for the crop sensor), so it could be a fun lens. It doesn't take much to make a 135mm prime (most are 4 elements in three or four groups), so it's not likely you have a total dud.

Most manual 50mm lenses are really quite good. Again it doesn't take much to make these, especially at these narrower max apertures, and they tend to be pretty sharp. Rikenon's have a good reputation as I understand, so this should be above average. 50/2 was the basic "kit" lens back in the day, so there are a lot of these kicking around.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind though. Lens design has come a long way in the last 30 years or so. It's very, very rare for these older lenses to outperform modern designs unless you're talking about the best examples (which can go for ridiculous amounts of money) compared against the cheapest modern consumer offerings. One important factor is glass coating; a lot of these lenses were single coated if coated at all, so you're talking low contrast and good chances of flaring. Shooting toward light sources and without a hood is not recommended. Though, part of the fun is the fact that they render things differently than modern, optimized lenses too.

Also, it's especially true that older zoom lenses are generally junk. Note that your 135mm is not a zoom, just a telephoto prime. There are a few exceptions like the Tamron SP and Vivitar Series 1 lines, but those are also cult lenses and draw higher prices.

Your 135 is almost surely an M42, so grab an M42-to-EOS adapter (just do a buy it now on ebay; ordering from Hong Kong will take longer but is cheapest). Find out what the 50mm mount is and you might as well get an adapter for it, too; post a photo of it and see if we can figure it out. That 50 will be a nice intro into faster apertures without having to grab the Canon 50/1.8. If you don't mind manual focusing and manual aperture, there are lots and lots and lots of M42 lenses out there, it won't hurt to have the adapter.

Manual lenses can be a nice conversation starter, too