LOLOL, film cameras, DSLR's, Canon focusing screens

[67Dart273]

I recently picked up an old 5D (full frame 35mm format DSLR) and liked it so much I spent 400 on a "refurb" 5DMkII from Japan which turned out to be just like new

I decided to research and see if any of the focusing screens out of my old autofocus EOS film bodies (That's FILM not DIGITAL) would interchange (they won't) but it turns out that ONLY TWO of the film bodies have the same style focus screens!!! All the others are different. I have 2--Elan-IIe (eye control), an Elan 7 and an Elan 7e, and an EOS 3. None of these were cheap in their day. The Elan's were sort of "semi pro" and the EOS3 was pretty much pro. Only thing "better" in that period was an EOS-1. Someplace around here I also have an EOS-M which "I think" was intended for students. I mounts the same EF lenses as the rest of these, but is all manual all the time. It does not auto focus.

ANYWAY it turns out from what I can gather that not only do the screens out of these film bodies NOT fit the 5D series, but evidently the two 5D's are different from each other!!

 

[Dodge72]

I've always heard about the Canon eye focus and wondered if it worked accurately. I just spotted an article stating that they might/are going to bring back that eye focusing with their new mirrorless lineup. Pretty neat stuff, especially for back then!

Do you still use your film bodies?

 

[67Dart273]

No, in fact I've only used one. I got these various places, 2 just because they were cheap, and a the others because they came with lenses I wanted. When I bought the full frame, I wanted a cheap small zoom "carry around" lens, a local guy had one of the Elans with a 35-85mm for 25 bucks

Just for time period, the Elan 7 /7e was released about 2000 til 2004, and was just over 800 bucks

The EOS 3 reigned from about '98 to 2007, and was over a grand or 1200 when released. Even though plastic, it was an advanced camera

 

[3406pk]

Was going thru the closet and pulled out old 35 mm film cameras. Went to remove batteries so they don't corrode and ruin cameras. Have found that batteries in electronics corrode if not used often. Have Canon slr 35mm camera w telephoto lens that haven't used in 20 yrs. Old tech but works great, don't want to throw either. Only worth maybe $100.

 

[67Dart273]

What exactly do you have? The older FL/FD (all manual) systems have somewhat more value nowadays than they used to because of some cameras which can adapt them. The "key" is the "register" that is the distance from the sensor (film) to the lens mount.

The old FL/FD mounts are too short to be adapted to the newer Canon electronic (EF mount) bodies. But they CAN be adapted to Sony, and to the new Canon "M" mount (mirrorless) of which I now have an M-50

Here's the M50 with an old Canon FD 50mm f1.8 and adapter. The M50 has a VERY short register

Of course this has to be operated all manually that is manually focus and manually set aperture. On some lenses/ some cameras, you CAN get some amount of "automation" b shooting in Av (aperture priority) where the camera light meter sets shutter. This does not work well with all cameras, with all lenses, or even at all F stops on some lenses

That is a big disadvantage with Pentax / Nikon bodies. They have a long register and cannot be adapted to most older lenses

 

[bobscuda67]

What exactly do you have? The older FL/FD (all manual) systems have somewhat more value nowadays than they used to because of some cameras which can adapt them. The "key" is the "register" that is the distance from the sensor (film) to the lens mount.

The old FL/FD mounts are too short to be adapted to the newer Canon electronic (EF mount) bodies. But they CAN be adapted to Sony, and to the new Canon "M" mount (mirrorless) of which I now have an M-50

Here's the M50 with an old Canon FD 50mm f1.8 and adapter. The M50 has a VERY short register

View attachment 1715639348

Of course this has to be operated all manually that is manually focus and manually set aperture. On some lenses/ some cameras, you CAN get some amount of "automation" b shooting in Av (aperture priority) where the camera light meter sets shutter. This does not work well with all cameras, with all lenses, or even at all F stops on some lenses

That is a big disadvantage with Pentax / Nikon bodies. They have a long register and cannot be adapted to most older lenses

That is good information right there. I was looking at a Nikon DSLR purchase and was planning to adapt my manual focus Olympus lenses. Guess I'll have to rethink it.

 

[67Dart273]

Manual lenses on DSLRs is not exactly a picnic. There's several reasons why

1...Most/ all? DSLR cameras have MUCH smaller viewfinders than did the old school 60's-70's SLR counterparts. In the case of my old Canon XT/350D less than 1/2 the size

2...In the case of Canon Rebel series, the vewfinder is not "fed" with a prism--it's a mirror, so you lose some light right there

3...The main mirror down in the shutterbox in a DSLR is PARTIALLY TRANSPARENT because of the metering / autofocus. So not all light gets up to the viewfinder to start with

4...In addition, I think we likely have a tendency to "make use of" the nice big resolution in modern cameras, where back in the day, we ended up with, and were "happy" with a much smaller print. So errors REALLY show up badly

5....You must set aperture by hand, it does not stop down automatically (except with some Pentax electrically driven apertures on old lenses) so trying to keep focus--on a moving subject--you are looking through the thing stopped down. That is, unless you have some high quality really fast glass

All these things add up against you. My "keeper rate" for anything except sunsets, etc with manual glass is quite dismal.

 

[67Dart273]

Taken with old Nikkor 300mm likely stopped down to f8 or so. "A lucky shot" My old XT/350D

Taken with hacked/ modified/ fungus infected Canon 200mm/ f2.8, again on the old XT/350D. Had to remove the original mount to move the lens back towards the camera, and in so doing ruined the aperture linkage. If the lens was not a fungus victim, I would not have done so.

Bird is Nikon 180mm F2.8, again on my old Xt

One of my best shots ever. This is an old Sears 50mm 1.8 made by Mamiya, on the Xt. Even though it is M42 mount, made for a Mamiya 1000DTL, it had a skirt around the bottom of the lens which had to be filed off, laborously, to fit flush against other cameras / adapters.

Below, a crop of a shot, handheld, with a Tamron Adaptall SP 500mm mirror lens These are quite difficult to deal with because they are fixed aperture, and the 500mm on a crop camera makes them "big." also the background can give you unwanted effects with these lenses

 

[67Dart273]

The "fleet" of Mirror lenses. The two outside ones are both Sigma, the center is the Tamron Adaptall 500mm. The two Sigs are both 600mm. I think both were originally Minolta mount, which is too short a register for Canon. One of them I 'hacked' a junk lens to get the M42 rear piece and mounted it to the mirror, the other did the same thing with an import Canon EF adapter. I've never got the performance out of those two. Very difficult to deal with

 

[67Dart273]

Since you mentioned Olympus, here's an Oly 28mm 2.8 stopped down to?? "a long ways" likely F16. This was on my "then" 40D

This was an EXCELLENT place to catch sunsets, just off a local highway. But it turned out to be privately owned, and the owner put up signs and some gigantic logs to block it off. "I guess" there were partiers going down there.

 

[bobscuda67]

Since you mentioned Olympus, here's an Oly 28mm 2.8 stopped down to?? "a long ways" likely F16. This was on my "then" 40D

This was an EXCELLENT place to catch sunsets, just off a local highway. But it turned out to be privately owned, and the owner put up signs and some gigantic logs to block it off. "I guess" there were partiers going down there.

View attachment 1715639906

Great pics. You're way more advanced than I am.
I have some pretty good sunset pics too. But there all on slides and I haven't digitized them yet. And I still have my Olympus 28 mm lens that you mentioned.

 

[robcuda]

I recently picked up an old 5D (full frame 35mm format DSLR) and liked it so much I spent 400 on a "refurb" 5DMkII from Japan which turned out to be just like new

I decided to research and see if any of the focusing screens out of my old autofocus EOS film bodies (That's FILM not DIGITAL) would interchange (they won't) but it turns out that ONLY TWO of the film bodies have the same style focus screens!!! All the others are different. I have 2--Elan-IIe (eye control), an Elan 7 and an Elan 7e, and an EOS 3. None of these were cheap in their day. The Elan's were sort of "semi pro" and the EOS3 was pretty much pro. Only thing "better" in that period was an EOS-1. Someplace around here I also have an EOS-M which "I think" was intended for students. I mounts the same EF lenses as the rest of these, but is all manual all the time. It does not auto focus.

ANYWAY it turns out from what I can gather that not only do the screens out of these film bodies NOT fit the 5D series, but evidently the two 5D's are different from each other!!

View attachment 1715639096

That's a great deal on the Canon Mark II ! I have a Mark III and love it. Canon did have issues with compatibility (ie ground glass) when AF first hit the market. But as you probably know, in the race of digital and AF (Canon VS Nikon) Nikon held on to the belief of maintaining interchangeability (use of older lenses etc) while Canon redesigned completely. Turns out that Canon's route proved best as most pros went with Canon mostly based on speed and accuracy of AF. Thanks for sharing some of your photos!

 

[67Dart273]

Great pics. You're way more advanced than I am.
I have some pretty good sunset pics too. But there all on slides and I haven't digitized them yet. And I still have my Olympus 28 mm lens that you mentioned.

Adapters are not expensive. The "better" ones seem to be an outfit called "Fotodiox" but there are cheapo chinezeo ones on Ebay for less. Once in awhile, one of them is a bit sloppy