Canon 5d I/II, Nikon D700, Sony A850/A900 -- What about shooting old film lenses on these full-frame wonders?

by seanhagwell

I’m thinking about investing in a full-frame digital camera body, and these three seem to be the primary contenders.

My question is not which FX camera is “the best”, they all seem to have their own strengths, and all seem to be getting some good reviews.

The general question is…

Supppose I want to buy and try lots of old, hi-grade, fully-manual, film lenses from the 60′s to the 80′s (eBay, garage sales, flea markets etc) for not much money, and have lots of fun shooting them manually on a full-frame digital sensor…

…Which camera offers the richest potential in this regard?

1) NUMBER OF LENSES OUT THERE — For which camera would I likely find the greatest number of good to excellent quality lenses?

2) EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION / NICE ADAPTERS — Given that I find plenty of lenses for not much money, which camera would be the easiest and/or most satisfying to shoot with, when an old film lens is mounted?

3) ESPECIALLY THE WIDE LENSES — I am particularly interested in wide, ultra-wide, and fish-eye lenses — are the answers any different when this issue is given some priority?

4) If the answer is any one is as good as the other for shooting old lenses, the 5D Mark I looks like a strong candidate, since a nice used model can be had used now for about a thousand. …Anyone out there been using lots of old lenses on the 5D Mark I, and if so, how is it working out?

Thanks for your input.

.
Two relevant excerpts I have come across at http://photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00SDZD

“The Canon EOS system [incl 5D] is one of the most adaptable out there – with the right (glassless – no loss in quality at all)) adapter you can use Nikon F (non-Ai, Ai, Ais, D), Olympus Zuiko, Leica R, Pentax M42, Contax/Yashica, and I’m sure a few others. Canon landscape shooters regularly adapt Nikon’s 17-35mm lens … There are only two limitations: NO Autofocus, and Stop-Down metering.”

and

“Here’s what I currently use on my two EOS bodies.
Contax Zeiss – 28/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.4, 85/2.8, 100/2.0, 135/2.8
Leica R – 50/2.0, 60/2.8 macro, 90/2.8, 135/2.8, 180/3.4 APO, 560/6.8
Pentax M42 – 50/1.4, 135/3.5
Olympus OM – 24/2.8, 35/2.8 PC
Vivitar Series 1 90/2.5 with C/Y and M42 mount
Nikkor – 800/5.6 ED
Mamiya 645 – 200/2.8 APO
… I have focus confirm adapters for the Contax Zeiss, Leica R, M42, and Nikon systems and they do work.”
Also just found this excellent link, which is directly relevant to my original question:

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/manual_focus_EOS.html

Answer by Caoedhen
To do this, your only real choice is the Nikon. Canon and Minolta changed their lens mounts completely when they went to the EF lenses for Canon and A mount for Minolta.

Adapters are a waste of time and money. Yes, there are lots of old lenses out there, and yes, you can get an adapter to mount just about anything on a Canon or Minolta (but not Nikon!) but why? Just because you can? To have a bigger lens collection than anyone else ever?

These cameras are designed to use modern lenses, and modern lenses are designed with the special needs of digital imaging in mind.

Answer by Pooky
Caoedhen is correct you know.

If you’re going pay that much for a FF camera, get current lenses instead. Older ones you may not be able to auto-focus, or even meter with it, even if it fits.

p.s. I have some photos taken with 5D and 5D Mark II if you’re interested to see (especially in full size) here http://www.flickr.com/little_pooky

Answer by MistyCreek
I would go with the Nikon D700.

Nikon has a wide varitety of professional, sleek, super sharp lenses.

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/lens/af/index.htm#dx

A superb wide lens is the 14-24 f/2.8 it has the nano crystal coating to prevent any ghosting or flair, also makes the lens very sharp.

Good Luck

Answer by Rob Nock
Of the cameras you mention only the Nikon models maintain true backward compatibility.

Canon abandoned the “Breech Lock” lens mount that their 35mm cameras used with the “FL-FD” lenses up until the mid-late 70′s so earlier lenses will not work without optical adapters because they have a different back focus distance. Adapters to mount the “FL-FD” series lenses must have an optical element or the lenses will not focus to infinity. To my knowledge there were very few optical adapters ever attempted and many disgruntled Canon owners switched to other brands (frequently Nikon).

Sony is a newcomer to the still camera business having gained entry to the market by purchasing the rights to the still camera product lines of the Minolta & Konica brands about three years after those two companies merged their businesses about ten years ago. Sony continues to develop compatible products under the “Alpha” model designation but Minolta had also changed lens mounts, abandoning their “MC-MD” bayonet style lens mount for a new design when they introduced their auto-focus lenses in the Maxxum/Dynax camera models around 1985. So they, too, cannot use the earlier manual focus lenses on their current models. To my knowledge no adapters have ever been made to use the “MC-MD” mount lenses on newer Minolta/Sony models (but they can be adapted to fit Olympus 4/3 Digital cameras although that is a much smaller sensor). BTW the Olympus 4/3 is probably the most flexible lens mount for using older, manual focus lenses. Almost every older lens mount can be adapted to fit the Olympus and only rarely will any optical correction be required but all lenses will have a “crop factor” of 2 meaning that the effective focal length (magnification) is doubled.

Check this resource for a description of older manual focus lens mounts and compatibility ~

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-99.html

The guide mentions some compatibility problems with Nikon lenses but these are generally not severe EXCEPT possibly with certain extreme wide angle or possibly with tilt & shift lenses that could protrude too far into a digital camera body and damage the camera when the shutter is fired. I mention this because you say you are interested in very wide angle lenses and I would be cautious (thorough) in checking compatibility in the case of lenses with focal lengths below 20mm.

The Pentax brand has also maintained excellent compatibility through its K-Mount bayonet (adopted in early to mid-70′s) and to the earlier “universal” 42mm screw mount lenses. It would be a suitable choice for using older lenses however, it does not have any full frame sensor models.

So, to meet all your criteria only the Nikon will do. It has a vast selection of current and older model lenses available going back to the early-mid 1960′s it will require no adapters and only occasional factory adjustments and has an outstanding array of wide lenses.
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Edit: I see that someone mentioned that there are differences in optical construction of digital vs. film lenses. This is true, digital sensors perform differently from film and require a greater degree of “parallelism” to get optimum results. “Digital” lenses are designed with this in mind. However, the means of achieving this parallel alignment of light rays usually requires significantly larger (and heavier) lens element near the rear of the lens, this negates some of the advantages of a “full frame” sensor because digital design lenses for FF camera might become large and unwieldy to correct this problem. The good news is that there are work-around techniques that can be applied, primarily in the form of software compensation. Because FF sensors, by virtue of their size, collect more information the images can be adjusted in software more readily and with lower undesirable impact than would be true with smaller sensors.

If I am smart enough to figure this out I am willing to bet that Nikon engineers thought of it long before I did and incorporated features into their image processing software to compensate for “legacy” lens designs. I know that PhotoShop has some capability in this regard and their are probably additional add-ins available because of the number of professional photographers with extensive Nikkor lens collections.

end of edit.
_____________________

HTH. Email me if you have more specific questions.

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I have a Fuji Finepix S9500 and im having a hard time changing the shutter speed or anything for that matter! i have turned the first dial closest to the left hand side of the camera to “S” (s stands for shutter) and then i have turned the second dial closest to the right hand side of the camera. i was told this is how to change the shutter speed and it seems to do nothing, nothing appears and the shutter speed is no different. i asked my dad for the info booklet that it come with and he is being rather annoying he keeps saying hes lost it. i am wanting to do equine (horse) photography and when a horse is moving at high speed i need a faster shutter speed. i do know what i am doing with cameras and the finepix s9500 is one of my two cameras i use. my other camera is a nikon d700 digital slr and even though i know its a different camera all together i have no problem doing anything on my nikon. also i have trouble making my finepix camera take multiple photos at one time. i have forgotten what its called but i followed what my dad told me to do and it doesn’t work. i have tried to figure it out myself and im getting no where at all. please help im dying to know if i am doing something wrong or if the camera has a fault.
thanks =]

Answer by midnite.scribe
If you log onto the Fuji web site you can download a new manual. They also sell hard copies of camera manuals on eBay for just a few dollars.

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