Numpty question re SLR/Digital camera

[mikal83]

I bought a canon AE1 yonks ago and loved it. Bought a few nice lenses over the yrs then the digital revolution came along. Not wanting to carry a large camera we bought a small Nikon Coolpix. Loved them and have now got a slightly better one.
My ? is, can I buy a digital body to use my lenses with? are they compatable or need an adaptor. the lenses are Canon bayonet type not screw thread. I just want a cheap second hand ebay buy for the body. I don't want to spend more than 50 squids if I can get away with it.

cheers

[wseed]

I think you can get an adapter but I'm pretty sure you'll probably need to shoot in full manual mode.

I actually have a canon 10D that I'm about to stick on ebay but they look to go for more than £50 in good working order. I have the battery grip too.

[Gold]

What lenses do you have? As said they will require an adapter and will be fully manual, you may be better ebaying them and picking up a cheap used DSLR system.

[mikal83]

2 a vivitar 210mm zoom and a macro. Theres a nice looking 400d on ebay now with all the bitz n bobs

[LongQ]

mikal83 said:

2 a vivitar 210mm zoom and a macro. Theres a nice looking 400d on ebay now with all the bitz n bobs

The digital world expects auto focus so one of the problems with using manual only lenses is being able to focus well enough to get results you will enjoy.

With a quality wide angle lens it's less of an issue since it is possible to guess at something that will give a depth of field that approximates to a usefully sharp image.

Not so easy with longish zooms working via and adapter. No interchangeable focusing screens for most bodies until you get to the Pro/enthusiast level. Later bodies, with Live View, offer some improvement but the screens on the earliest iterations are not that good at displaying what is and is not sharp if that is important.

Not all old FD lenses will work usefully with an adapter. Most adapters need and extra lens to give focus to infinity. That extra piece of glass may compromise image quality or, in some cases perhaps, whether the lens will fit. In general long telephoto lenses are interesting to play with and general useful - if you can live with the manual operation, as a way of getting a lot of length for much less cost than a modern AF equivalent. On the other hand the successful hit rate is usually less too and although old lenses can give remarkable results in the right circumstances they will almost certainly fall short of what is available today. Especially at the "budget" end of the market.

IMO.

[nellyleelephant]

Honestly, I wouldn't be looking to use those lenses on a canon DSLR, you'll have all sorts of problems, have a read of this http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-manual-lenses/#...

You'd be better off looking for a mirrorless body to use them on, due to the shorter distance between the sensor and the rear of the lens you can use simple glassless adapters. I'm not sure what you'll get for £50 though.

[Simpo Two]

LongQ said:

The digital world expects auto focus so one of the problems with using manual only lenses is being able to focus well enough to get results you will enjoy.

This is a major point. Film SLRs were designed for manual focus, so they had with big bright viewfinders with a ground glass screen, split prism and fresnel area to nail focus accurately. A DSLR body, or most of them at least, have none of these.

Try by all means but I'm with Mr Elephant - sell up and start again.

[mikal83]

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit, batman.

thnx for the advise so far. I aint gonna bother paying a few hundred for a zoom lens and another 50 for the body. Wife would kill me. Was hoping to get away with a 50 squid body and my old lenses. guess one main prob seems to be the focusing. I loved the split lens for focusing, easy and spot on but why wont that work with a dslr body?

[sgrimshaw]

mikal83 said:

I loved the split lens for focusing, easy and spot on but why wont that work with a dslr body?

Happy to be corrected on this, but I think the focussing screen itself is responsible for giving you the split screen image for focussing .

Typically, DSLRs do not have this type of focussing screen. I think you might find some high end DSLRS which have user replaceable focussing screens ...... but they will be way out of your budget.

[mr_fibuli]

You might be able to find a Sony Nex 3N body for about £60 on eBay, this will give you a decent live view and has focus zoom and "focus peaking" which highlights the edges that are in sharp focus in red - makes it very easy to get good focus with manual lenses (and stationary subjects).

The Nex has a similar APS-C sensor to an entry level DSLR camera, so takes great quality pictures despite the small size.

Then you just need an E-mount to Cannon FD adaptor. Loads on eBay for around £6.

[mikal83]

mr_fibuli said:

You might be able to find a Sony Nex 3N body for about £60 on eBay, this will give you a decent live view and has focus zoom and "focus peaking" which highlights the edges that are in sharp focus in red - makes it very easy to get good focus with manual lenses (and stationary subjects).

The Nex has a similar APS-C sensor to an entry level DSLR camera, so takes great quality pictures despite the small size.

Then you just need an E-mount to Cannon FD adaptor. Loads on eBay for around £6.

WOW, many thnx for that, some light at the end of the tunnel

Like this one?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-NEX-3N-Black-Body-O...

Edited by mikal83 on Monday 21st March 18:13

[Simpo Two]

mikal83 said:

I aint gonna bother paying a few hundred for a zoom lens and another 50 for the body. Wife would kill me. Was hoping to get away with a 50 squid body and my old lenses. guess one main prob seems to be the focusing. I loved the split lens for focusing, easy and spot on but why wont that work with a dslr body?

As said the focusing aids are in the body, not the lens.

But you can get a 70-300 telephoto, albeit not a great one, for £99 - and of course there are plenty of s/h ones on eBay.

[RobDickinson]

dSLR's can have their focus screens (typically but not always) swapped for a split prism focus screen so you can manually focus just like the bad old days.

TBH mirrorless with focus peeking and zooming is far easier...

[Bring on the clowns]

RobDickinson said:

dSLR's can have their focus screens (typically but not always) swapped for a split prism focus screen so you can manually focus just like the bad old days.

TBH mirrorless with focus peeking and zooming is far easier...

Why bad old days?

The viewfinder on my OM1 makes the EVF of the A7Rii look like a joke. A bad joke. Admittedly, peaking can be a help - if you trust it - and the zebra too, but for focussing manually (I don't always want the camera to decide which bits of the image are in focus) in anything other than really, really dim light it is so much easier. The Leica rangefinder is also so quick and accurate in other than dim light.

The Canon 5DS was much better, where you could chose the optical viewfinder or the rear screen. The screen of the Sony is just not finely detailed enough to make absolute focus easy on trickier subjects even with the magnification facility. For example, using a macro lens and using the zoom feature it gets too noisy and indistinct to be absolutely sure.

[RobDickinson]

I seem to manage fine with it shooting a wedding Saturday with a 50/1.4 on the a7r manual focus.

Split prism fast focus screens on dSLR's have a heap of associated issues to deal with, and the standard focus screens are only good to f4 at best.

[Bring on the clowns]

RobDickinson said:

I seem to manage fine with it shooting a wedding Saturday with a 50/1.4 on the a7r manual focus.

Split prism fast focus screens on dSLR's have a heap of associated issues to deal with, and the standard focus screens are only good to f4 at best.

Yes, but that is probably fairly large target areas for the desired in focus bit? Anyway, my question was about the bad old days comment. Also, the positive comment on optical finders related to those bad old SLRs rather than DSLRS.

[RobDickinson]

Manual focus with a split prism OVF = bad old days.

You get the split prism in the centre of the frame forcing focus and recompose and thus guaranteed out of focus images with fast lenses.

And then you get really dark viewfinder with slow lenses..


I dunno just seems a bad solution to it all

[mikal83]

Sooooooooooooooo which body DSLR can I buy that I can fit my slr lenses on?

[RobDickinson]

mikal83 said:

Sooooooooooooooo which body DSLR can I buy that I can fit my slr lenses on?

None really.

You can use them more easily on mirrorless with an adaptor but tbh its going to be almost as cheap to pick up a couple of used lenses for a cheap slr.

18-55 kit lenses for canon/nikon go for peanuts and likely included in the price, and a 55-250 100-300, 70-300 wont be much either and you get autofocus etc too.

[Bring on the clowns]

RobDickinson said:

Manual focus with a split prism OVF = bad old days.

You get the split prism in the centre of the frame forcing focus and recompose and thus guaranteed out of focus images with fast lenses.

And then you get really dark viewfinder with slow lenses..


I dunno just seems a bad solution to it all

I take the point re. the Leica, but suppose I'm more positive because the OM viewfinder is so good (a joy to look through) that you don't need the split image spot to get good focus, with or without the vari finder attachment which is v. useful.

Right, sorry OP, I'll stop the off topic digression.








Could sell you another manual lens though...