Lens Adapters

[Snowyowl]

Yesterday I was out at some yard sales and i bought a small group of camera related items. For my $10 I got a slave flash , a polarizing filter and a brand new, in the box, lens. I knew that the lens wouldn't fit my Canon 20D but the other two items were worth the money.
When I got home, I did some checking on the lens and apparently it's a well rated lens. It's a Vivitar 70-210mm f4.5-f5.6 Macro. It is one of the last all metal lenses made by Vivitar. I'm wondering if there is any kind of adapter that would allow me to use this lens on my 20D? It presently has Yashica/Contax mount.

[Saphire]

Dan, I don't know anything about the lens but there is an adapter to make the conversion, you can pick them up on ebay. If Joe comes on he will tell you more about it he bought one for wishers lens.

[Joe]

Hi Dan,

If it's the lens I'm thinking of, it was indeed well respected glass in it's day, where Sigma lens were pretty mediocre at that time (oh how things change!)....also made when Vivitar was much more than the mere brand printed onto cheap entry level digi' cameras as it is today.

RE the lens mount adapter. loads are available for the Canon EF (EOS) mount. The fact that the Canon bodies lens large mount throat diameter makes life easier.
Here in the UK, SRB filters are generally the best people to go to, to get lens adapters of all sorts.
However, there are plenty around on the dreaded ebay. I bought one from a company called Roxsen, who also trade on ebay. I have no personal connection with the company, but know I've had good service from them in the past.
A quick search on ebay reveals quite a few.
here's one as an example;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Contax-C-Y-len...QQcmdZViewItem

Worth a mention is the the focus confirmation feature that some adapters have. To be honest if I were to buy one again to put my Contax fit lenses on Jacky's (wisher) Canon digi camera, I would've probably gone for one with the AF confirmation....unfortunately Jacky's camera doesn't benefit from micro prism, fresnel or split prism focus aids on the screen, so the AF confirm feature might have been a nice thing to have.
Here's an example of a mount adapter with AF confirmation;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=008

Now for the brutal honesty!
We've only actually used the adapter a few times...Jacky's used it once or twice, but the majority of my lenses are too big and heavy for her, and she likes auto focus!

Hope this helps.

cheers
Joe

[Snowyowl]

Thanks, guys. Good news for me. I'll check out Ebay and see what i can come up with. I'll let you know what happens.

[Snowyowl]

I've been checking out some of the other adapters that are available and it seems that almost any brand of lens can be adapted for use on DSLRs. Some loss of IQ obviously but how much will be the question. There are all kinds of older lenses for sale in pawn shops etc and after I get the adapter for my lens and have checked out how it works, and if it works out OK, I'll definitely be looking more closely at some of the older lenses.
Here are a couple of shots of the lens in question. Is this the same type of mount that you have?

[Joe]

Here are a couple of shots of the lens in question. Is this the same type of mount that you have?

It's difficult to tell from the side on view of the mount. If it's labelled up C/Y or Contax MF or Yashica, it most certainly is. From the appearance of the lens , also can't see any electrical contacts, which rules out Yashica AF or Contax AF /N mount. Looks the same mount to mine.

There's loads of adapters available for the Canon EF mount....seem to be lots for Olympus E series stuff to.

[Snowyowl]

My lens adapter arrived on Thursday and so yesterday I tried it out. This is one of my first efforts using the 70-210. The shot hasn't been PP'd except for resizing. It seems to be a reasonable lens for regular work but I am not having much success using it as a macro lens (which is my main interest in this lens). I imagin that I'll get the hang of it before long.