Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I quite often see this question asked here and of course I want to scream "YES! They can be excellent!" I know that there are a few of us here on the forum that have become addicted to the collection of these old lenses. Last week I was lucky enough to score a wonderful sample of a Asahi Pentax Takumar 135mm f/3.5 preset lens on Ebay for just over $30 which included shipping. This lens was manufactured I believe between the years of 1958 and 1962 and arrived in a condition that I can honestly say looks like brand new. I stuck it on my 6D using a simple lensless adapter that correctly spaces the lens for registration (proper distance from the sensor) and am happy to be able to share the below image of my dog taken with that lens. Please download a view the enlarged image of the dog to see the quality of this old inexpensive lens.

(Download)

bthomas42 Loc: North Ridgeville Ohio

I have used my old Canon FL lenses with an adapter on my Nikon D5200 with great results. I shoot in manual mode with the aperture set to the lowest value and then select my shutter speed. I aperture value is then selected on the Canon lens for the picture. Since all of the Canon lenses are prime they range from 1.2 for the 50mm to 3.5 for the 200mm , I also have 85mm and 135mm Canon lenses. It took some time and practice to learn the best way to use these lenses.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

On your 'new' Canon Pentax, is there any automation or is operation 100% manual? Manual operation is not necessarily a bad thing, but does have a learning curve. The close up portrait of your dog is excellent, I didn't know they made adapters for dogs (just kidding).

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

One of the reasons I opted for Nikon as my DSLR system is the fact that I can use many old manual lenses on it without the need for an adapter. As I also use Nikon film SLR cameras (Nikon FE and F90) regularly, I can conveniently use the same lenses for both film and digital cameras.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

I use mine occasionally...especially the 135mm and 200mm. My AF lenses stop at 75mm, so if I need more reach, I have to grab the 135 or the 200mm. Now if only I could find a fast and sharp 300 to 400mm lens that won't break the bank.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

As we have discussed, using old FD/FL glass on EOS cameras, especially full frame is very challenging. On APS-C cameras they can be good, but it isn't easy. It is easier to use other lens formats in most cases. That said, for the lenses that I have converted the results are very good.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Yes, it is fully Manual operation, it does present a learning curve but the upside to that is that in doing so it will teach you a great deal about photography. Presets are actually easier to use than the later model lenses because the cameras used a mechanical lever to close the aperture on the later lenses, presets did not employ that feature so the way that they worked is that you have two aperture rings on the lens, one is to set the aperture that you want to shoot at that serves as a stop for the second ring which turns freely until it hits the stop, the second ring also controls the aperture, the first only serves as a stop.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

That is good advice, it is exactly the situation I learned with with my first SLR, a Russian Zenit E. I have just bought an adapter to use that lens (Helios 44-2 58mm f/2) on my Canon APS-C DSLR. The principles are similar with adapted FL/FD/FDn lenses. Perhaps I am lucky. I began at the start of the learning curve!

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Same with Pentax, at least going back to 1975 when Pentax switched from M42 to K-mount. I still have the lens kitted with the first SLR I bought in 1979 {a Pentax} and the one kitted with the one I bought in 1984 {another Pentax I bought when I was convinced that the first SLR would never completely recover from a trip to Niagara Falls}; each works just fine when mounted directly on my Pentax K-30. I get better images from the K-30 using those lenses than I ever did when I shot Kodachrome 25 using them.

BebuLamar

That's because you use Pentax lenses on your Canon. If you use Canon lenses of the time it won't be as good. I think a lot of people would disagree.

blackest Loc: Ireland

sssssshhh You will end up putting the price up! Nothing to see here move along.

Obviously the inability to focus in a micro second, an inability to automatically select a suitable aperture and the lack of support for scene modes and a complete lack of image stabilisation and sophisticated lens coatings makes these lenses useless to photographers who want to reel of a dozen shots a second in razor sharp focus. Often these lenses lack any kind of zoom of any description and force the photographer to actually plan the shot.

;)

daddybear Loc: Brunswick, NY

However, if you have stopped, the adaptors can be had at B&H and others for around 40 bucks. You did not hear it from me.

JPL

I think I have more than 100 lenses of different age from the film era. I would say that 60-70% or maybe more of those lenses are good to excellent and can deliver just as good pictures on digital cameras as on film cameras. The rest is not worth using. There are 3 types of old lenses that are not good. First there are old zoom lenses, many of them are not good, then we have old wide lenses, 28 mm and wider. Many of them are not good. And at least we have all kind of old no name budget lenses that are of low build and optical quality, no matter the focal length or if they are fixed focal length or zoom lenses. The rest is all kind of prime lenses, european, japanese, russian, that are good to excellent. I have lenses that are 35 mm, 40 mm, 50 mm, 55 mm, 85 mm, and so on up to 500 mm that I am very happy to use. Of course they are all manual focus and manual everything and with no optical stabilizing. So you will only get good results if you hold your gear steady or use a tripod and use them on mirrorless camera for quick and accurate focusing. In other words, you have to use them in the same way on digital as when they were used on film cameras.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Some Camera bodies have in-body stabilizing for example every Pentax Dslr , the light metering and focus confirmation also works. You can also set a focus distance and use trap focus. Or even find a point to focus hold down the shutter button adjust the focus till the shutter fires.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Yes. Trap focus is an interesting capability. Another of the features available with Magic Lantern on some Canon DSLRs....