Epic Canon FD Mount?

[Trevor Meeks]

Any update on this?

 

[Michael Panfeld]

< sound of a pin dropping >

 

[paulherrin]

What is the status of 3rd party mounts right now? Are any approved? Are any forthcoming? I've got some FD glass I'd like to use... if a mount ever comes out.

I have an FD>EF adaptor... nobody makes good ones - they all have cheap plastic elements that (regardless what they say) don't really focus anywhere close to infinity. Looks fine if you're shooting within a few feet/macro and want a super soft plastic glow look, otherwise you're out of luck.

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

Approval

Approval

I have them ready, just need the nod from Jarred:ihih:
Probably not this week- he's sleeping NAB off:wink5:

 

[paulherrin]

nice jacek... lookin' good there. any notions on cost yet?

 

[Trevor Meeks]

Damn, and I just sold my 50mm f/1.2L FD

 

[Andi Loor]

How do you get the aperture working with FD lenses? Any other issues?
Thanks
Andi

 

[Michael Panfeld]

Canon FD's are 100% manual.

 

[Andi Loor]

Canon FD's are 100% manual.

Yes, thanks, but they are designed not to close the aperture before the trigger is pushed. On Canon F1 cameras you had to push a button to enable viewing through the "set" aperture. This button is not available on Epics I belive.
Andi

 

[Trevor Meeks]

Yes, thanks, but they are designed not to close the aperture before the trigger is pushed. On Canon F1 cameras you had to push a button to enable viewing through the "set" aperture. This button is not available on Epics I belive.
Andi

You can cut a small piece of Q-Tip and use it to hold the mechanism in the "aperture closed" position. Very easy, very safe solution.

Here's a photo of the 50mm f/1.2L FD I had. The aperture control mechanism is at about the 10 o-clock position in this photo, and you can see the small piece of Q-Tip shaft holding it in the correct position.

On a lot of lenses, the aperture only closes down if the lens is mounted to the camera or has a rear cap on it. Just something else to be aware of

 

[Michael Panfeld]

Yep, what Trevor said. Lots of online how to videos. There's also a great and easy vid on how to de-click the FDs

 

[Andi Loor]

Thanks for the info. Below I have some info describing the problems using adapters:

Problems with Canon FD manual lenses.
Canon FD lenses are manual-focus only lenses which Canon sold in the years before switching over to the autofocus EF system. Many, particularly those made in the late 70s and early 80s, offer excellent optical quality, have smoothly-operating metal barrels and are available quite inexpensively on the used market. So the obvious thought comes to mind - can such lenses be attached to EOS cameras?
Unfortunately the lens mounts used by the two systems are completely incompatible. FD lens mounts are smaller in diameter, have a different lens register from EF lenses, rely on mechanical levers to control lens aperture, are of a breech-lock design (rotating pressure ring) and never contain autofocus motors.* EF lens mounts are larger in diameter, are of a bayonet mount design (put lens into camera and rotate partway to lock), support electronic control of the lens aperture and the lenses usually contain autofocus motors.
So. When it comes to adapting FD lenses to EOS cameras the key difference here is the lens register incompatibility. Adapters for Canon FD-mount lenses, including the two adapter models that Canon themselves sold at one point, must deal with this incompatibility somehow. Either they contain optics (glass lens elements) to compensate for the register difference and retain infinity focus or else they don’t contain optics and don’t retain infinity focus. There’s no way around this.
Canon’s optic-containing FD-lens-on-EOS-body adapters were basically small teleconverters (1.26x) and only worked properly with a number of their longer telephoto lenses - effectively transforming them into longer slower lenses - you lost 2/3 stop. The full official list of compatible lenses is:
FD 200mm 1.8 L
FD 200mm 2.8 RF
FD 300mm 2.8 L
FD 300mm 4
FD 300mm 4 L
FD 400mm 2.8 L
FD 400mm 4.5
FD 500mm 4.5 L
FD 600mm 4.5
FD 800mm 5.6 L
FD 50-300mm 4.5 L
FD 85-300mm 4.5
FD 150-600mm 5.6 L
The adapters can’t be used on other lenses because they have large protruding front elements which physically interfere (collide) with the rear lens element on other FD lenses. They were known as the “Canon Lens Converter FD-EOS” and were not sold to the public - only accredited professional photographers could acquire them through Canon Professional Services. Apparently they were intended to help pro photographers who had a big investment in huge Canon FD telephoto lenses make the transition to the EOS system. These adapters are thus quite rare, specialized and hard to find today. When they appear on auction sites they tend to have rather high winning bids.
Third parties have made similar glass-containing adapters, but by contrast their optics are usually poor and thus image quality tends to be generally low.
Canon and others also made FD lens to EOS body adapters which do not contain optics, but as noted above, you lose infinity focus and so such simple metal ring adapters are really only useful for closeup applications. In fact, the Canon model (which was sold to the general public) was marketed under the name “Macro Lens Mount Converter FD-EOS”. There’s also a more subtle metering isue with this sort of adapter - see the potential problem section below. If you’re interested in this approach you could always cobble yourself together an adapter using old body caps and other parts.
But in short I don’t think that adapting a Canon FD lens to an EOS camera is worth the trouble for most situations. If you have a really expensive FD lens already I’d probably be more inclined to use it with an FD-compatible body such as a nice used T90 or A1, unless you really need some unusual function supplied by EOS bodies. Or you might want to do macro photography with your digital EOS camera using old FD lenses.
So ironically enough, EOS cameras usually work better with non-Canon manual-focus lenses than with Canon manual-focus lenses. A shame, because Canon did build some very nice FD lenses years ago, many of which are available quite cheaply these days because the FD system was effectively orphaned by the introduction of EOS.
* Yes, it is true that Canon developed three “AC” series lenses which were basically FD mount lenses with autofocus motors built in. However, these lenses worked only with the Canon T80 camera and were essentially an evolutionary dead-end. So it’s not entirely inaccurate to say that all actual FD mount lenses are manual focus only.
Focussing.
Anyway, once you’ve got the lens attached you’ll obviously need to focus it. Unfortunately, Canon EOS cameras were never really designed with manual lens focussing in mind and so come equipped with focussing screens which lack any form of manual focus assistance. By contrast, many cameras from the 1970s and 80s featured split-circle and microprism focussing aids that simplified focussing a great deal.
If your camera has interchangeable focussing screens and if you find yourself doing a lot of manual focus work you might want to consider investing in a screen that can provide you with useful manual-focus feedback. The EOS 600 series, EOS 3 and all EOS 1 series cameras support interchangeable screens and split-circle viewfinder screens are available. EOS 5/A2/A2E cameras supported interchangeable screens, but no split-circle or other manual focus screens were ever made. The same with the EOS 5D - it has interchangeable screens, but no manual focus screens are forthcoming from Canon. However, users of recent digital cameras (EOS 10D, 20D, 300D and 350D) may find that a third party screen from Katz Eye or Haoda Fu will work. I have tried the Fu product and have a review of it on my Web site. I have not tried the Katz-Eye products.
Without a manual focus screen you’re just going to have squint through the viewfinder and hope. Or buy an actual manual-focus camera that fits your lens. (or hack your camera to have a split-circle viewfinder screen if you’ve got a Rebel/EOS 1000 or Elan/100 camera) Note that the in-focus indicator in the viewfinder doesn’t work unless the camera can communicate with the lens electronically, so you can’t rely on that either, unless you’ve added a chip. (cloned versions of such chips are now available - a number of small retailers sell them on eBay, for those of a tinkering bent)
Finally, once you’ve got your picture composed and focussed you’ll need to set the exposure settings correctly, and for this you’ll need stop-down metering.
What is stop-down metering?
Normally your EOS camera will meter the light using the widest aperture possible for the lens. (ie: the aperture diaphragm will be fully open - f/1.8 or f/3.5 or whatever the lens supports) This lets you look through the viewfinder with the maximum amount of light coming in. When you take a photo the camera quickly stops the lens down to your selected aperture just before opening the shutter. Canon EF lenses rely on electronically-controlled aperture diaphragms, not mechanical ones operated by the camera body via a cam or lever. As soon as the shutter has closed again and the picture has been taken, the lens diaphragm pops back to the widest setting once more.
There are two exceptions to this mode of operation. First, if your camera has depth of field preview and you have it enabled, the camera will stop down the lens aperture to whatever you’ve set it to be. And second, if you have a lens installed that doesn’t have an electronically-controlled aperture diaphragm the camera will operate in stop-down metering mode - it’ll meter whatever the lens is currently stopped down to. Hence “stop-down metering.”
All Canon EF lenses contain a computer chip and various electrical connectors that allow the lens computer to communicate with the camera’s computer. Most third-party lenses for EOS also have EF-mount compatible electronics. However, if you buy a lens designed for another camera system and attach it to your EOS camera using a lens mount adapter you’re obviously not going to get the full electronic control you’d get with a true EF lens. In particular, if there are no compatible electronics then neither autofocus nor electronically-controlled apertures will work.

 

[Ken Willinger]

Andi,
That info is all about using the FD lenses with an EOS adapter. The mount Optitek is making is a direct FD mount. EOS doesn't come into play so none of the issues in your post are relevent to the FD mount for the Epic/Scarlet.

 

[Andi Loor]

Yes, I understand. Please regard it as general info regarding adapters. It's just that I'm searching for a viable way to use all those FD lenses that I still own. But I take your point.
Andi

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

Andi We put a mechanism inside that simulates auto iris from FD camera.
It's strictly mechanical and activates iris on FD lenses

 

[Michael Panfeld]

Jacek: any word on RED approval and/or availability of the FD mount for EPIC?Scarlet?

 

[Clint Lealos]

I'm also very interested in that FD mount by Optitek. Can you give us an update Jacek?

 

[Maik Müller]

Will get my hands on a few FD lenses soon, so i'm interested too. Any news about this mount?

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

Email me for the update and info.
Use the email below:emote_hippie:

 

[Henry Ceiro]

Any update on this? Or any other Red FD mounts that will work without damaging the camera?