canon fd lenses on 16mm camera

[Giray Izcan]

Hi, I just purchased couple of Canon fd lenses (old school manual ones), and a c mount to canon fd lens adapter; however, the guy told me that I would only have use the lenses at wide open. I guess there is now way of changing aperture with these lenses on 16 cameras. So I canceled the order, but I see many great looking, sharp shots on vimeo, etc using fd lenses. I am pretty sure they changed aperture settings during those shots. My question is, can I change aperture while using fd lenses on 16 cameras? If not, is there way to make it work? Btw I couln't find that manual diaphragm adapter anywhere. Thanks.

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

Hi, I just purchased couple of Canon fd lenses (old school manual ones), and a c mount to canon fd lens adapter; however, the guy told me that I would only have use the lenses at wide open. I guess there is now way of changing aperture with these lenses on 16 cameras. So I canceled the order, but I see many great looking, sharp shots on vimeo, etc using fd lenses. I am pretty sure they changed aperture settings during those shots. My question is, can I change aperture while using fd lenses on 16 cameras? If not, is there way to make it work? Btw I couln't find that manual diaphragm adapter anywhere. Thanks.

 

 

Of course, you can change aperture with FD lenses.

Whoever told you that, was probably confused with EF and EFS lenses where the aperture is only controllable via the Canon camera.

 

Cheers,

Jean-Louis

[Daniel Klockenkemper]

There is a nuance to the Canon FD lens mount which might cause some confusion. With the lens removed from a camera, the aperture ring on an FD lens does not change the aperture. The lens mount on a Canon FD camera enables the aperture ring. In principle, an FD -> c-mount adapter should do the same thing. If your adapter is not properly constructed, it may not be activating the aperture ring on the lens. This is easy enough to test; mount the FD lens onto the adapter and see if it works.

[Giray Izcan]

There is a nuance to the Canon FD lens mount which might cause some confusion. With the lens removed from a camera, the aperture ring on an FD lens does not change the aperture. The lens mount on a Canon FD camera enables the aperture ring. In principle, a

n FD -> c-mount adapter should do the same thing. If your adapter is not properly constructed, it may not be

activating the aperture ring on the lens. This is easy enough to test; mount the FD lens onto the adapter

and see if it works.

 

Yea, test is probably the best option. I was about to purchase 1 from bhphoto for 35 bucks, but then I didn't. One of the customer reviews on it mentioned that lenses stay wide open. To me that is useless. There is another model there and it costs 67 dollars sth like century optics or whatever brand. I wonder if that is a better option? Or do you know where I can get a proper adapter? Thank you.

[Charles MacDonald]

Suggest you check with the seller on that point, and demand a return privilege if the adaptor you buy does not work with that style of lens. The FD lens mount does have that quirk, the one FD lens I have actually seems to stay about half open when not on the camera.

[Giray Izcan]

Suggest you check with the seller on that point, and demand a return privilege if the adaptor you buy does not work with that style of lens. The FD lens mount does have that quirk, the one FD lens I have actually seems to stay about half open when not on the camera.

Thanks for your response. I actually just purchased a c mount to ef mount adapter, because I have a zeiss jena 50mm 1.8 and a Rokinon 35mm 1.4 that are fully manual. Rokinon has that Zeiss contrast and sharpness(almost), and considering 16 only uses the mid portion of the lens, it should yield pretty good results. Rokinon/Samyang also has 24mm 1.4, which I will get later on. Right now I have Switar 10 and 16mm Rokinon 35mm and a Zeiss Jena 50mm 1.8. I am only missing 24 to complete my prime set.

[Jeremy Rumas]

hi Giray,

 

I use a C-mount to FD adapter. I had to modify mine to be able to engage the lever on the rear of the lens which enables the aperture ring to work properly. It was quite easy really. I have an adapter that looks just like this:

 

My link

 

You'll notice the adapter is made of two pieces held together by a few set screws. I took apart the two pieces, and inserted a small metal tab between them on the inside of the adapter, then put the adapter back together. I cut a small piece of thin sheet metal for this. I positioned the metal tab so that when the FD lens is mounted and turned into place, the metal tab engages the lever on the rear of the lens. It took just a bit of experimenting to get it in the right position, but it works perfectly.