lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

I purchased an inexpensive converter to enable me to use my Canon FD 50mm 1.4 lens on my Sony a7ii. I have no trouble connecting the lens to the converter and the converter to the a7ii, but I don't know how to take photos. The focus dial works fine, but the aperture and ISO are unresponsive. Can anyone give me some pointers?

cucharared Loc: Texas, Colorado

I don't know about the a7ii but with my A6000 I set shutter speed, ISO and such in the menu system. Oh, all my 'other' lenses are totally manual and have aperture dials on the lens. So, I'm now assuming your Canon FD lens does not have that? In that case good luck.

ron

JPL

It is very easy, you set the top dial to M (manual), in the menu system you must allow your camera to take pics without lens attached. And then you just set your ISO in the menu, the aperture you set on the lens, the shutter speed on the camera and focus on your subject and press the shutter button. Then you get the picture.

Detailed information about what to do is in the camera manual. If you need more info, read it.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

JLP, I follow you, but my problem is that the aperture dial on the lens is unresponsive. To achieve proper exposure, I only have the in-camera shutter speed control. Any thoughts? Leonard

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Take the lens off and see if the aperture changes when unmounted. Are you sure its an FD lens and not an FL?

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

The lens is clearly an FD lens. When I take the lens off the camera, the aperture still does not change.

The aperture setting in the viewfinder looks like "F--".

Is it possible that my old lens is broken?

Leonard

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

If it an FD lens then the aperture will not change on your adapter, nor off the camera. It will stay at the last aperture setting that it was shot at on an FD mount body, unless you change the aperture ring to "A", then it will stop down to a preset aperture that will vary depending upon the lens. These are never particularly good candidates to use on any adapter. One of the reasons old FD lenses can be bought for literally pennies on the dollar.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

MT Shooter, it looks like my plan to use my old FD lens wasn't such a good idea. At least the converter was inexpensive.

Thanks for the info. I believe I'll stick with the lenses designed for my Sony.

Leonard

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

If you have "high quality" lenses, the cost of the Ed Mika mount conversion may be worthwhile, around $100. I did one on a Canon FD 400mm F2.8L lens and the end result was one hell of a lens for a VERY good price. Still manual focus, but it will mount on any EOS camera or adapter, and the aperture will be fully functional.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

My lens is nothing special. It is the 50mm, 1.8 "kit lens." I wanted to try to use it, as I was curious whether the quality of older glass was good, or even better than good.

Thanks for all of your help.

Leonard

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Definitely nothing special at all about that lens, how many do you need?

Skibum

If it is a FD lens you will need to activate the manual aperture control because it gets locked. Look for the small pin on the base of the lens which you need to depress slightly with a very small screwdriver or a needle. There are many clips on youtube about FD lenses. Don't give up yet. Good luck!

SVOtomcat

Is this a "Fotasy FD-NEX" adapter? On top of the adapter is a double ended white arrow. One end is marked "LOCK". The other end is marked "OPEN". Make sure that the word "LOCK" is aligned with the red dot on front of the adapter at the top. On my adapter the ring is very stiff to move. Mount the lens to the adapter. It doesn't matter if it is an older "Breech Lock" style lens with the the ring that twists or the newer "Bayonet" style where the body of the lens twists while mounting or dismounting.
This applies only to the old FL or FD style lenses and not the Bayonet style of the newer auto focus EF and EF-S lenses, since they started about 35 years ago or so.
Now move the ring to the "OPEN" position. The lens should now respond to the aperture ring on the lens. The idea is that you move the ring on the adapter to the "LOCK" position for wide open brightness to aid with manual focusing. Then move to the "OPEN" position to stop down to your chosen aperture for taking the picture.
I use this adapter almost daily on my A-6000 shooting all focal lengths of old FD lenses from 15 to 600MM. I also use a Metabones Ultra Speed Booster when I don't want the crop factor.
The aperture set on the lens will never show in the viewfinder.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

My adapter is a Fotasy FD-A7ii model. I have abandoned my project of using my FD 50mm lens on my a7ii. I was having difficulty, and the lens appears to be nothing special. Thanks to you, tomcat, and to everyone else who commented and attempted to help me with this project.