manual lenses yes or no

screech

screech

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Hi i am a bit confused i will tell you why,today i went to a camera shop in the hope i could buy a second hand manual lens for my cannon 400d because i would like to try my hand at macro useing a manual lens and extension rings because my budget will not allow for dedicated macro lens so anyway to cut this short the guy in the shop told me it is not possible to do this saying that if the camera can not detect an apature setting from a lens the camera will not work does anybody know if this is true:thinking:
 
Not sure about your camera but ony my GF1 you have to select the 'shoot without lens' option to use manual focus lenses. I really enjoy using them and you can pick up some real bargains.
 
Basically, that guy is talking out of an area of his body designed for another job.

What you need is some kind of adaptor, a lens and a pair of hands to control it. :)

The tricky part is that all AF lenses focus wide open then stop down to the aperture you selected as you shoot. This makes focusing bright and simple. With a manual lens you need to focus wide open then stop the lens down for correct exposure.

You shoot in manual (well, I do) and set the shutter speed in camera. When you change the aperture on the manual lens the camera's inbuilt lightmeter tells you when you're sorted.
 
Sounds like complete nonsense to me. Mine just shows f/00 when I have my m42 lens on it, but it still shoots. In fact, it still works in aperture priority mode, correctly adjusting the shutter speed when I physically adjust the aperture! I have a 450D - I doubt your 400D will be any different.
 
Not sure, but I think the old Canon Manual lens mount is quite different to the newer EOS mount, so the older lenses physically won't fit (without an adaptor).
 
He's right - your camera won't know what aperture the lens is working at and thus you won't be able to change it - so you will be stuck with a tiny depth of field. I recently did some tests and shooting from around 45 degrees down from around 1-2inches away the depth of field was less than 0.5cm.

Perhaps look at getting some of the screw on filters from ebay, at least when you are using those you can stop down your aperture and get a larger depth of field.

Edit; Just realised your using manual lenses - in theory it should work however make sure that the lens will be able to mount to the body, you'll probably need an adapter as Nod said.
 
I know quite a few people using the 400d with astro telescopes, and they have no electronics in them without any issue at all. So in terms of them not working, it's not true. There may be other issues that might prevent you being able to use them/fit the lenses in question directly, adpaters etc would be needed, but they'll work. I've used manual OM mount lenses on my 450d as well.

there's a webpage, not that I can find it, that indicates whether the lens ought to be able to reach focus at inifinity or not, based on the thickness of the adapter, and how far from the sensor plane it reaches. If the adapter is too thick, the adapter needs an optical adjustment lens of some sort... but of course I can't find it now...
 
Right, this all depends on what type of manual lens you want to use. I would recommend M42 lenses as these are the most common. You first need to get an M42 to EOS mount adaptor. These are very cheap, I got mine from Amazon for a couple of quid. Make sure you buy a 'flanged' adaptor as some auto M42 lenses did a similar thing to what Dean mentions with the aperture prior to shooting, via a small pin on the back of the lens. This pin needs to be pushed into the lens (via the flange) so the aperture ring works.

You put the adaptor onto the back of the lens then fit it to the camera in the usual manner. You then set the aperture wide open on the lens, and set your desired shutterspeed on the camera, as normal. Focus and then close the aperture to the desired setting. For macro, you will find you need a tripod, you might also find (as I do) that to focus accurately it is easier to get somewhere close and then move closer/further away to get it bang on.

I wouldn't bother at all with old Canon FD mount lenses - I can't remember exactly what the reasons are but these lenses don't adapt easily to the EOS system. Another type would be Tamron Adaptall lenses - these need a different type of adaptor. There are others but these are the main types.

As someone who fell in love with manual lenses recently, then fell out with them and recently fell back in love with them :D my biggest piece of advice would be make sure you have the camera's viewfinder diopter adjustment correctly adjusted! Otherwise even though everything looks hunki dori in the viewfinder your shots will be out of focus.

Manual lenses aren't for everyone. Some find they just can't get on with them at all, but if you stick with it they are very rewarding, especially if you get some really good ones. I particularly recommend the Helios 44M series (58mm focal length, f2 - f22. I got two for £3 each) and Carl Zeiss Jena lenses, and Jupiter lenses too.
 
screech said:
...the guy in the shop told me it is not possible to do this ...
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Rubbish. As soon as your camera has manual mode - any lens will work. Even if you just hold it with your hands without physically attaching to the camera.

trencheel303 above already commented that Av mode works so all you have to do is get an adapter. Depending on lenses you get - there are plenty of choices. M42 mount old lenses are quite popular and you can usually get a very good optics for the price. Some adapters can use medium format (MF) lenses and provide tilt and/or shift capability.
 
Olympus OM lenses will also work with an appropriate OM->EOS Adapter, you can also get ones that have a chip that can confirm the focus.

As someone has already said AV mode will still meter and adjust shutter correctly but you have to use the aperture ring on the lens to set the aperture not the wheel on the camera.

The extension tubes will also work well as you can get a set of the ones without the electrical contacts which are dead cheap.

The way I have mine set up is:
Camera (400d) -> EOS extensoin tubes -> EOS->OM adapter -> OM Lens

If you do go the OM route of the 50mm f1.8 has better magnification that the 135mm f3.5 on a full set of extension tubes (I believe that these were the two most common and so are the cheapest available today). Although with the 135's built in hood you can hand hold the 50 in reverse and get some extra magnification.

I'll put up some examples of the set up later if you'd like.

For the FD lenses, in normal use the don't work as focus out at infinity won't work due to the shorter back focus distances between the FD & EF mounts. There was an official acanon adapter with a glass element that also acted as a short tele-converter but tis was discontinued ages ago. Copies of this with the glass element generally* use cheap glass and are of poor quality. *According to what I've read on the internet.

However if you are only going to use them on a set of extension tubes you should be OK. These lenses are fairly cheap as they don't work as normal lenses but for the same reason I think the adapters are rare. though if you do find one and you only want to use it on extension tubes get on without the glass element.
 
you have all been very helpful many thanks, Which lens would work best for macro work is there anything i should look for particularly:)
 
screech said:
you have all been very helpful many thanks, Which lens would work best for macro work is there anything i should look for particularly:)
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Check out the Tamron sp 90mm f/2.5. It's a classic.
 
matt2martin said:
Olympus OM lenses will also work with an appropriate OM->EOS Adapter, you can also get ones that have a chip that can confirm the focus.

As someone has already said AV mode will still meter and adjust shutter correctly but you have to use the aperture ring on the lens to set the aperture not the wheel on the camera.

The extension tubes will also work well as you can get a set of the ones without the electrical contacts which are dead cheap.

The way I have mine set up is:
Camera (400d) -> EOS extensoin tubes -> EOS->OM adapter -> OM Lens

If you do go the OM route of the 50mm f1.8 has better magnification that the 135mm f3.5 on a full set of extension tubes (I believe that these were the two most common and so are the cheapest available today). Although with the 135's built in hood you can hand hold the 50 in reverse and get some extra magnification.

I'll put up some examples of the set up later if you'd like.

For the FD lenses, in normal use the don't work as focus out at infinity won't work due to the shorter back focus distances between the FD & EF mounts. There was an official acanon adapter with a glass element that also acted as a short tele-converter but tis was discontinued ages ago. Copies of this with the glass element generally* use cheap glass and are of poor quality. *According to what I've read on the internet.

However if you are only going to use them on a set of extension tubes you should be OK. These lenses are fairly cheap as they don't work as normal lenses but for the same reason I think the adapters are rare. though if you do find one and you only want to use it on extension tubes get on without the glass element.
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that would be great thanks i love this site everybody is so helpful it restores faith in humanity lol :clap:
 
Quick Sample of the set up (this is the OM 135mm on full ext tubes and the you can nestle the OM 50mm inside the hood as the diameters match):
set-up-etxt-135-rev50.jpg


These are the various combinations taking a shot of a 20pence piece, straight out of camera not crops. I've included shots from my Ef-S 60mm macro for comparison. All of the shots are at minimum focusing distance for max magnification.

Sorry about the bad 1) jpg artifacts, 2) exposure, 3) focusing - these are just for examples of the magnification:
all-20p.jpgg


Lastly, here is the most magnified shot - the focus distance is probably less than 3cm here:
max-mag.jpg


I can't give exact figures for the cost of the set-up the OM lenses came to me from my dad when he gave me his old OM-10 camera when he went digital but I've seen both go for less than £20 each on E - bay. The extension tubes and the OM->EOS adapters were cheapo Chinese efforts about £10 - £15 each.

Matt
 
All manual SLR lenses will work with adapter on Canon bodies in stop down metering mode. Most lenses will focus to infinity, Canon FD ones can only be used for macros (unless using a very poor adapter with optical element, or doing manual conversion). There are a few things to consider. For macro work most respected long primes will do and MF is not an issue. Ultra-Wideangles are generally easy to deal with too. However standard-to-long lenses for general use can be a real pain in a but without AF.
 
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