Historic cameras/lenses and other exotic bits of kit.

[Canis Vulpes]

Nikon Still Video Camera, Model 1.

Considering this was 1986, truly amazing!

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography.../SVC/index.htm

[miketoll]

I had never heard of this one before. Amazing to think that was 1986. Then eventually the D90.....

[sassan]

Here is one lovely L class old Fd lens from Canon that was sooo well done that was converted into movie camera lens by modifying the mount.

LINK

Not an uncommon story as I have seen many of these type conversions by Hollywood giants to take the advantage of excellent glasses. In fact sometimes back saw add on ebay that even would specify which movie the lens was used for...

Wonder why can't we convert them to todays DSLR mounts without obligation to use those unwanted converters with cheap glass that fully degrades the original lens' quality. Where is Don to come with some easy DIY suggestion?

[miketoll]

Amazing bit of kit, love the handle which rather indicates it weighs a ton.

[Joe]

Agree totally with you Sassan. There's some real gems in the FD mount, which don't fetch much money. Canon did there own converter, which are now very rare (and expensive)...shame the chinese copies aren't that brilliant.

I've seen both of these lens types go on ebay in the last few years.
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...ses/6800mm.htm

Neither of them fetched anything like the money you'd expect them too.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by sassan

......... Where is Don to come with some easy DIY suggestion?

You are cracking me up Sassan. Me, a Nikon guy trying to understand the ins and outs of the various Canon lens mounts. Toooooo late to convert me now.

A rummage around shows that Canon had 4 different lens mounts. 'R' mount, 'FL' mount, 'FD' mount, and 'EF' mount. The critical element appears to be that with the introduction of the EF mount the flange to film/sensor plane was increased from 42mm to 44mm. Necessarily an optical element needs to be included in any adaptor to achieve infinity focus. I have no idea if there is a then compatabilty issue between the various models of DSLR as to their ability to obtain exposure information. Perhaps we need a Canon Lens Resource thread similar to my Nikon one.

Pentax and Nikon have no problems in mounting early lenses, but sensor resolution and in camera processing engine brings its own problems. The 12mp sensor of my D2X will find and magnify flaws on lenses that would have been quite ok when used with films other than the ultra high resolution Technical Pan.
For example I have a Nikkor 300mm (non ED version) f4.5 lens, that is fine for colour negative film but is just plain soft on the D2X. A Nikkor 200mm f4 that has good sharpness and resolution but gives quite a bit of CA towards the edge of the frame, again tested on the D2X. However that same 200mm on Stevies new toy - D300, again a 12mp sensor but with a different processing engine, is superb even wide open without a trace of CA.

Perhaps we need another thread covering known good lenses from the manual focus era in various lens mounts. I have a few top notch Nikon AIs ones (nothing exotic though) for such a list .

I have found mir.com links to the 150mm-600mm giving specs
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...oms/150600.htm
and a link to the converter Joe mentions.
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...nses/fdeos.htm

Don

[miketoll]

You can order FD to EF converters from SRB Giturn, as you say they have an element in them which, if I recall correctly, has a magnification of 1.6. Obviously manual focus and presumably manual aperture set on the lens which would mean exposure via the shutter speed for a sort of shutter priority.

[Joe]

You can order FD to EF converters from SRB Giturn, as you say they have an element in them which, if I recall correctly, has a magnification of 1.6. Obviously manual focus and presumably manual aperture set on the lens which would mean exposure via the shutter speed for a sort of shutter priority.

Have not used one myself, but these chinese ones have had very mixed reviews for hi res digi use. Canon's own version was much better, but was intended very much as a stop gap to try and stop the pro's moaning about having to ditch their F1's to get Eos1's (back in film days!), AND then buy new big glass.

[sassan]

Originally Posted by Joe

Have not used one myself, but these chinese ones have had very mixed reviews for hi res digi use. Canon's own version was much better, but was intended very much as a stop gap to try and stop the pro's moaning about having to ditch their F1's to get Eos1's (back in film days!), AND then buy new big glass.

I have had good share of experience with those Chines and even so called Japanese after market ones and to be frank, they socks! though do the job of physical connection. The cheap glass is the source of problem and to say the least, you will be expert to take out the "Chromatic Aberration" out of your images, in no time... Here are some experience from my past:

LINK One
LINK Two

I removed the cheap glass (That is needed for infinity focusing) from one of those Chines ones, and like the quality of images are as good as the should be, of course only for the macro or very near field focusing.
Canon has the same macro (No glass) adapters for about 100-200 dollar but why to pay high when you can easily get the same result form after market, much cheaper products.
But the Canon's original FD to EOS converter is a totally different story. Glass on those are excellent Canon quality (No CA or any other imperfection in final image). The problem is that Canon made only a few of them (I believe about 2000 of them only) at the transitional time to switch between older FD / FL mounts to the newer EOS. So they are very very hard to find and even if you do find one, they may be even more expensive that the super telephoto lens itself. You actually can call yourself luck if you find one, but "Unlucky" to pay for!!! I just don't understand why Canon doesn't make any more effort in bringing a respond to the buyers who like to see this retro conversion. It surely has to do with the marketing of the new products.
If interested check these before the link dies.
Cheap ones
Cheap ones without glass i.e. Macro adapter
Canon's original

[sassan]

Oh one other thing I forgot to mentioned about FD to EOS converters is the ingenuity of some people (Where is Don?).

Long time back I saw one auction on ebay where the seller physically converted the camera end of long lens (A 600mm SSC F/4.5 Canon FD) into an EOS by a yet to find out how, one way, permanent conversion. He then added a chips that fools the new camera body, harbouring the old lens to think that lens is an electronic F/1.4 electronic lens (No error 99!) so you could have the electrical coupling. What it does, it gives you that Red Focus confirmation waring in your eos viewfinder once your subject is in perfect focus, of couse, needless to say, you must focus manually.
I contacted the guy about the conversion, but he must have been desperated from low final sale price he got on the lens (About $800 that was a steal and Just can't find out how I missed it) so he never responded to me but may be our Don can through some light into this matter. I am ready to make a permanent FD - EOS conversion in a DIY way if get adequate information and no I suck in welding (I am OK with unscrewing though).