Canon FD Lenses

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Jayceyned

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Hey guys,

Have seen that you can get FD to EF/-S converters but I have a few questions:

1. I'm guessing that the FD lenses will be manual focus (which I have no issue with) but was wondering if the focus confirm / bleep will work on my DSLR?

2. I'm also guessing that the aperture control will be manual, and was wondering how I would adjust the lens aperture?

3. Would the exposure indicator still work on the camera?

Any help or advice would be greatly received,

Thanks loads,

Jay.
 
Personally speaking, I wouldn't bother with FD on EF for a number of reasons. Firstly, the lens selection is very limited compared to what is available on M42, so if you want to play manual, that is the way I would go. Also, due to the flange distances, there is an optic required in the converter in order to achieve infinity focus which introduces its own distortions and aberrations in an image despite what lens you are using. There is a reason that Canon's own FD-EF converter is so hard to find and expensive compared to the cheap and cheerful ones and that is because it is produced to the same sort of standards that the kind of people who would have been using the L series glass back when the FD to EF changeover took place.

To answer your questions, the lenses would all be manual focus, but you need an AF confirm chip on the adapter in order to get focus confirm. This is usually on the more expensive adapters or can be glued on as a separate item. The aperture control is controlled through the aperture ring on the lens itself and is marked off at each f-stop. The exposure should work fine in aperture priority mode and manual mode too, as well as automatic shutter speed in AV mode.

Like I say though, if you want to foray into cheap glass for your Canon DSLR get an M42 adapter with an AF confirm chip. There is an absolute goldmine of weird and wonderful stuff at cheap prices, though I would only really recommend it to get a selection of M42 primes. The zooms won't really be worth the hassle as you will miss the improvements made in the last few years and the image quality won't be up to much.

I'd recommend some of the Asahi Pentax Takumars if you are planning on going down this path personally!

Good luck!
 
Thanks so much Jamtea,

Really good info. Am I right in thinking that M42 is a standard fitting type on third party lenses?

Thanks again,

Am going to get googling now.
 
That's correct, there are probably more different M42 lenses out there than any other fitting, so there is sure to be something you will find that will be interesting to use!
 
The Tamron adaptall mount is another option. You can get an adaptall to EOS adapter without any element that retains infinity focus.
 
Was there any lens in particular you were interested in using?
 
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