Is it possible to modify a EF mount camera to be PL mount?

[Seth Baldwin]

Hi,

Are there any companies or products that will allow the adaptation or modification of a Canon EF mount body to become PL? I would love to use PL glass on a Canon body.

[Philip Forrest]

Can't you just get an adapter?

Phil Forrest

[Seth Baldwin]

I know there's a PL lens to EF body adapter by fotodiox, but they only cover specific older PL lenses which have a max rear element of 14mm.

[Dom Jaeger]

2 minutes ago, Seth Baldwin said:

I know there's a PL lens to EF body adapter by fotodiox, but they only cover specific older PL lenses which have a max rear element of 14mm.

No it’s the protrusion past the mount flange that needs to be within 14mm not the diameter. How deep the lens goes inside the camera mount is the issue.

The PL conversions of EOS cameras like the 5D used to remove the mirror for this reason. Denz and Hotrod were a couple of companies that did it I recall. I imagine now you can get a PL mount C300 etc and many cine lenses in EF mount it’s not so desirable to butcher your camera just to be able to use PL lenses.

[Seth Baldwin]

I was planning on purchasing another Canon EF to modify it to PL for specific cases. I certainly want to keep one of them EF. If they removed the mirror, the shutter of the 5D still operated correctly? They'd just be shooting in the dark I assume.

[Satsuki Murashige]

2 hours ago, Seth Baldwin said:

If they removed the mirror, the shutter of the 5D still operated correctly? They'd just be shooting in the dark I assume.

Yes, the electronic shutter still worked. You could only shoot stills in Live View mode. Of course, with the mirror removed there was no way see to an image otherwise.

I think it is possible to put some PL lenses on an unmodified Canon DSLR with a straight adapter, but it really depends on the particular lens and camera model combination. I day-played once on a no-budget feature that Hiro Narita was shooting on a stock 7D with a PL to EF mount adapter. The lenses were Zeiss Compact Primes Mk1. I assume the AC before me had checked all of the lenses to make sure they cleared the 7D mirror shutter. We had no issues that day with clearance.

My guess is that a lot of vintage wide angle PL prime lenses that have protruding rear elements would not have cleared the mirror or the internal housing. But it’s possible that more modern style lenses with rear elements flush to PL mount would clear. For example, I’ve used my Canon Compact Cine Zooms (which are easily switchable between PL and EF) on my stock 5D Mk3. 

[Phil Rhodes]

The only PL lenses I've ever seen that were easily adapted to EF were the SLR Magic anamorphics, which had nothing protruding behind the mount; as Satsuki says, there are others but it's very much a case by case thing.

Can't recommend the SLR Magic anamorphics, either.