dr_zero
VMK Ultracoolmouse
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Using old manual lenses with todays digital SLRs
By RUSS JUSKALIAN
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Sept. 11, 2008, 1:38PM
All Shawn McCully wanted was a lens for his digital single-lens reflex camera. Little did he know, he was searching for the holy grail of amateur photography and hoping to do it on the cheap.
I just wanted to be able to shoot family and friends indoors without a flash, he said. He also wanted his digital Canon 40D to take photos with a buttery smooth background and only the tiniest area in focus.
Canon sells a lens that would have been perfect for McCully if not for its $1,500 price tag. So McCully, a 32-year-old lawyer from Bellevue, Wash., turned to his closet where, like so many recent converts to digital photography, he had a stash of manual-focus lenses from his days shooting with film.
One lens in particular, a Canon FL 55-mm f1.2, bought around four decades ago by McCullys father, was nearly identical to the contemporary offering from Canon. But it would not fit McCullys digital Canon. I realized I could probably figure out how to make this thing work, he said.
With little more than a cheap metal ring found on eBay, a Dremel tool and a sander, McCully was able to convert the old lens so it would mount on his new digital camera. And he thus disproved an axiom of photography that had seemed as immutable as the laws of physics: when buying a lens for a DSLR camera, low cost and ultra-wide aperture are mutually exclusive terms. (A lens with a wide aperture, or a large optical opening, makes it possible to shoot in dim light and to produce very blurry backgrounds.)
For the vast majority of DSLR users, the switch that turns off the cameras autofocus system is nothing more than a curiosity, some kind of vestigial remnant from a mechanical evolution. But a renewed interest in the deliberate twisting of a lens to focus has generated a healthy market for decades worth of optics that have been gathering dust in closets and taking up space as dead inventory on camera store shelves.
Photographers who had been all too happy to hold down the shutter button in a practice known as machine-gunning or spray and pray are now searching online for vintage lenses with exotic names like Pentax Takumar, Voigtlaender Nokton, Chinon, Kiron, Fujinon, Hexanon and Rollei.
Paul Yates, a manager of technical training at Torontos Q9 Networks, says he shoots almost exclusively with vintage lenses these days, though he had been firmly ensconced in the autofocus camp.
He switched to older lenses not just for the good deals or the slower shooting, but because each lens attached to his DSLR camera created a unique look, even when the lens was the same focal length. I might buy five 50-mm lenses because they each produce images with a different character, Yates, 38, said.
He also says he believes that a manually focused lens often surpasses the accuracy of the few autofocus lenses he still owns. There is a tactile quality to holding onto a metal focus ring, said Yates. The damping of the ring the resistance allows me to fine-tune the focus so much more accurately. When I manual-focus with the newer lenses, they just dont feel the same.
Usually all that is needed to get many vintage lenses working on a new camera is a simple twist-on adapter, costing $10 to $30. Because each adapter is unique to a specific lens mount and camera combination and adapters are relatively inexpensive as camera gear goes, photographers usually buy a separate adapter for each lens. They can be found on eBay, though some manufacturers, like Pentax, sell their own. Many vendors sell generic adapters, but it is best to search online for reviews on the quality and compatibility of specific lens, camera and adapter combinations. Online photography communities like fredmiranda.com and ManualFocus.org are good places to start the research.
But like shooting with a manual lens, buying them can be complicated. For mechanical and optical reasons, some brands of DSLRs work with a wider array of vintage lenses than others. Nikon DSLRs can take scores of vintage Nikon lenses without adapters. But the Nikon cameras dont work well, if at all, with the majority of vintage lenses from makers like Olympus, Pentax and Zeiss.
Canon cameras have the opposite characteristic. They are incompatible with most vintage Canon lenses, but with cheap adapters can mount dozens of brands of third-party vintage lenses.
Olympus DSLRs can mount most of the same vintage lenses Canon cameras can, along with vintage Olympus lenses if you have the adapters.
Pentax DSLRs can mount just about every Pentax lens ever made and the third-party lenses that use the Pentax-style lens-mount. Sony DSLRs are the least compatible of the major manufacturers. Those cameras work with certain Minolta lenses and, with an adapter, lenses that use what is known as a M42 screw mount.
The hundreds of manual focus lenses adaptable for DSLRs vary in price from the unlikely Sears-branded variations for under $10 to limited editions of the legendary Leica Noctilux that can cost more than $10,000.
For those interested in experimenting with manual focus lenses, here are a few popular choices that can be found in excellent used condition on eBay or for slightly higher prices at camera shops that carry used gear.
The decades-old Olympus Zuiko 28-mm f3.5 and Zuiko 50-mm f1.8 are steals at $30 to $60. Comparable autofocus lenses cost $100 to $300, depending on the manufacturer.
The wide-aperture Pentax SMC Takumar 50-mm f1.4 ($80 to $100), and SMC 50-mm f1.2 ($300 to $500), are one-half to one-quarter the price of comparable autofocus lenses, as are a handful of Contax/Yashica Zeiss 85-mm and 135-mm telephoto lenses ($150 to $600, depending on the version and maximum aperture).
And the wide-angle Olympus Zuiko 24-mm f2.8 ($125 to $175) can produce such stunning images that it compares favorably with a few lenses that cost more than $1,000 even when used on cameras like the Canon 5D and 1Ds series, which are known to accentuate the corner softness and other defects of most optics.
While vintage lenses are often cheaper than their modern counterparts, smaller in size and built more solidly, there are a few caveats about using them on new cameras (aside from the potential peril of purchasing antique mechanical equipment in a state of disrepair.)
Also, getting used to manual focus can be difficult, particularly for younger photographers born in the digital era. Most will need to learn the art and science of manually adjusting the aperture, or f-stop, of vintage lenses.
Photographers havent been required to shoot in full-manual-everything in decades, but not everyone finds this aspect of using vintage lenses a nuisance. Some even find it an advantage, laced as it is with a bit of nostalgia.
Its more like the photography process that I was used to back in the day, said McCully. It slows me down and makes me think about what Im shooting. And its more fun.
By RUSS JUSKALIAN
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Sept. 11, 2008, 1:38PM
All Shawn McCully wanted was a lens for his digital single-lens reflex camera. Little did he know, he was searching for the holy grail of amateur photography and hoping to do it on the cheap.
I just wanted to be able to shoot family and friends indoors without a flash, he said. He also wanted his digital Canon 40D to take photos with a buttery smooth background and only the tiniest area in focus.
Canon sells a lens that would have been perfect for McCully if not for its $1,500 price tag. So McCully, a 32-year-old lawyer from Bellevue, Wash., turned to his closet where, like so many recent converts to digital photography, he had a stash of manual-focus lenses from his days shooting with film.
One lens in particular, a Canon FL 55-mm f1.2, bought around four decades ago by McCullys father, was nearly identical to the contemporary offering from Canon. But it would not fit McCullys digital Canon. I realized I could probably figure out how to make this thing work, he said.
With little more than a cheap metal ring found on eBay, a Dremel tool and a sander, McCully was able to convert the old lens so it would mount on his new digital camera. And he thus disproved an axiom of photography that had seemed as immutable as the laws of physics: when buying a lens for a DSLR camera, low cost and ultra-wide aperture are mutually exclusive terms. (A lens with a wide aperture, or a large optical opening, makes it possible to shoot in dim light and to produce very blurry backgrounds.)
For the vast majority of DSLR users, the switch that turns off the cameras autofocus system is nothing more than a curiosity, some kind of vestigial remnant from a mechanical evolution. But a renewed interest in the deliberate twisting of a lens to focus has generated a healthy market for decades worth of optics that have been gathering dust in closets and taking up space as dead inventory on camera store shelves.
Photographers who had been all too happy to hold down the shutter button in a practice known as machine-gunning or spray and pray are now searching online for vintage lenses with exotic names like Pentax Takumar, Voigtlaender Nokton, Chinon, Kiron, Fujinon, Hexanon and Rollei.
Paul Yates, a manager of technical training at Torontos Q9 Networks, says he shoots almost exclusively with vintage lenses these days, though he had been firmly ensconced in the autofocus camp.
He switched to older lenses not just for the good deals or the slower shooting, but because each lens attached to his DSLR camera created a unique look, even when the lens was the same focal length. I might buy five 50-mm lenses because they each produce images with a different character, Yates, 38, said.
He also says he believes that a manually focused lens often surpasses the accuracy of the few autofocus lenses he still owns. There is a tactile quality to holding onto a metal focus ring, said Yates. The damping of the ring the resistance allows me to fine-tune the focus so much more accurately. When I manual-focus with the newer lenses, they just dont feel the same.
Usually all that is needed to get many vintage lenses working on a new camera is a simple twist-on adapter, costing $10 to $30. Because each adapter is unique to a specific lens mount and camera combination and adapters are relatively inexpensive as camera gear goes, photographers usually buy a separate adapter for each lens. They can be found on eBay, though some manufacturers, like Pentax, sell their own. Many vendors sell generic adapters, but it is best to search online for reviews on the quality and compatibility of specific lens, camera and adapter combinations. Online photography communities like fredmiranda.com and ManualFocus.org are good places to start the research.
But like shooting with a manual lens, buying them can be complicated. For mechanical and optical reasons, some brands of DSLRs work with a wider array of vintage lenses than others. Nikon DSLRs can take scores of vintage Nikon lenses without adapters. But the Nikon cameras dont work well, if at all, with the majority of vintage lenses from makers like Olympus, Pentax and Zeiss.
Canon cameras have the opposite characteristic. They are incompatible with most vintage Canon lenses, but with cheap adapters can mount dozens of brands of third-party vintage lenses.
Olympus DSLRs can mount most of the same vintage lenses Canon cameras can, along with vintage Olympus lenses if you have the adapters.
Pentax DSLRs can mount just about every Pentax lens ever made and the third-party lenses that use the Pentax-style lens-mount. Sony DSLRs are the least compatible of the major manufacturers. Those cameras work with certain Minolta lenses and, with an adapter, lenses that use what is known as a M42 screw mount.
The hundreds of manual focus lenses adaptable for DSLRs vary in price from the unlikely Sears-branded variations for under $10 to limited editions of the legendary Leica Noctilux that can cost more than $10,000.
For those interested in experimenting with manual focus lenses, here are a few popular choices that can be found in excellent used condition on eBay or for slightly higher prices at camera shops that carry used gear.
The decades-old Olympus Zuiko 28-mm f3.5 and Zuiko 50-mm f1.8 are steals at $30 to $60. Comparable autofocus lenses cost $100 to $300, depending on the manufacturer.
The wide-aperture Pentax SMC Takumar 50-mm f1.4 ($80 to $100), and SMC 50-mm f1.2 ($300 to $500), are one-half to one-quarter the price of comparable autofocus lenses, as are a handful of Contax/Yashica Zeiss 85-mm and 135-mm telephoto lenses ($150 to $600, depending on the version and maximum aperture).
And the wide-angle Olympus Zuiko 24-mm f2.8 ($125 to $175) can produce such stunning images that it compares favorably with a few lenses that cost more than $1,000 even when used on cameras like the Canon 5D and 1Ds series, which are known to accentuate the corner softness and other defects of most optics.
While vintage lenses are often cheaper than their modern counterparts, smaller in size and built more solidly, there are a few caveats about using them on new cameras (aside from the potential peril of purchasing antique mechanical equipment in a state of disrepair.)
Also, getting used to manual focus can be difficult, particularly for younger photographers born in the digital era. Most will need to learn the art and science of manually adjusting the aperture, or f-stop, of vintage lenses.
Photographers havent been required to shoot in full-manual-everything in decades, but not everyone finds this aspect of using vintage lenses a nuisance. Some even find it an advantage, laced as it is with a bit of nostalgia.
Its more like the photography process that I was used to back in the day, said McCully. It slows me down and makes me think about what Im shooting. And its more fun.
)
) don't have split-prism screens (unless you pop in a Katz Eye) but you do have the DSLR's focus technology that will alert you when you are in focus. Furthermore, on Pentaxes at least, you can do "catch-in focus" where you leave the camera in AF mode but focus manually. Hold the shutter down and it will wait until it confirms AF before tripping the shutter. I don't know if this is an option on the Canons and Olympuses (the other DSLRs where you're likely to mess with alternate lenses.) I do know that with these two, generally the cheaper adapters don't give you focus confirmation. Also, these manual lenses have much better control of focusing than modern AF lenses, which don't rotate much so it's tough to fine-tune the focus (plus it doesn't feel as nice as a proper MF lens.)
