AF100 with canon lens
 

Hi,

have anyone try to mount AF100 with canon lens ?
Can you adjust the aperture setting with the body ?

There is a company called Birger that is coming out with an adapter that will function with the AF100.

They say it will available when the AF100 ships. And that it will even power IOS in lenses.

Here is a link to their WEBsite: Birger Engineering, Inc.

For older FD and FL Canon (with Iris ring) lenses there are many mechanical adapters. Novoflex is probably the best.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/646912-REG/Novoflex_MFT_CAN_Canon_FD_to_Micro.html

It doesn't look like it will be cheap though as their similar product for the RED costs $1285

Even this simple adaptor isn't cheap at $211.

I guess that I have got used to $10 adaptors for using Nikon lenses on the 5DII.

I think pricing will come down if there is a strong demand. But Birger solution is very complex with many features like preset focus point auto racking at various speeds and more. I have only talked to them once and they were not specific about everything the mount will do.

Jan Crittenden, told us how she had a Nikon lens just fall of one of the cheap Chinese m43 adapters, she then went out and bought the Novoflex. Does it really make sense to use a $10-30 adapter and endanger a multi thousand dollar lens, like the new 70-200 2.8L. OK maybe if you got an Ebay 50mm 1.4 Nikon for $75.00, a cheap adapter would be OK, but I plan on using some heavy glass on my AF100, so I want something really well made and out of strong metal.

I have the $211.00 Novoflex (for my Lumix that I am testing some old FD glass on) and it is built as well as the L lenses, it makes me feel confident.

Olof, Birger Engineering makes a great product. I owned of their Canon mount for my Red One and it worked well.

Agree, I would not be interested in putting my Canon EF L glass on anything but the best product for the job.

When you receive your AF100 you should take a trip to Boston and try the mount, if Birger is up for the test. Be nice to have your feedback.

Paul, I have already talked with them and I hope to have one of their first units. I am also really interested in their remote, they say the Canon version will actually have a screen.

Did you use the remote on your RED?

Think about that for a minute... There are only three possible failure points here:

1. The mount on the camera flexed and failed. Which would not be the fault of the adapter and the camera would have to be sent for repair.

2. The adapter flexed and failed. Essentially impossible since it's tight enough to form a lightproof mated connection to the camera

3. The Adapter was not properly mated to the lens. This is typically the scenario, and if you don't ensure the adapter has mated and locked bad things can happen. Same is true for a non-adapted connection.

Like??? Titanium? Because I can absolutely guarantee you that with the required mating thickness needed to get the backfocus right for a Nikon lens on a Canon EOS mount, unless the mount is made of aluminum foil, that lens is not going to be heavy enough to bend it. Assuming the lens is properly supported. Now if you tell me you put an Optimo 10:1 on the front of a 7D and didn't support it, then yea, I'd say you'd have problems, adapter or not. And you'll also have problems putting a 300mm F2.8 L on that same Canon body if you don't properly support it.


In the grand scheme, this is really what it comes down to.

No Olof I did not use the remote.

...And a fourth, and perhaps likely failure point:

4. Adapter is poorly made and does not securely hold the lens to the camera body.

I often find that the cheapest solutions are not made as well as the expensive solutions. It's not always true, but often true.

I would have no problem spending the extra money on adapter mounts made by Novoflex, because I can't afford to have equipment fail during a paid shoot.

While I am ABSOLUTELY in agreement on the idea of not using the cheapest solution, to be fair we are talking about a metal ring with 1 moving part. A spring-loaded tab. Given the requirements to get the adapter to mate to the lens, and further to mate to the camera, it should be nearly IMPOSSIBLE to screw it up so badly that the lens just falls off. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it would have to be spectacularly bad for it to happen. In fact, people actually UNLOCK their lenses from the body intentionally for light leak effects and the lens doesn't fall off.

But who knows. I wasn't there. However, in speaking with likely hundreds of owners with inexpensive adapters, I have NEVER heard of this happening. Not once. Have you?

Maybe it was just bad luck.

Perrone, I am not trying to dictate what anyone should do. I am only expressing my experience with metal.

I believe that Jan's adapter did not hold the lens very solidly or give her feedback that it was on all the way. I think she is pretty good with lenses and cameras, so if this can happen to her it can happen to anyone.

Also I work a lot with metal. And there is a lot to metallurgy, there are dozens of different aluminums for example and many different ways to temper it. And that is just aluminum. I have seen many crack failures in cheap "base metal". The 7000 series of aluminum can be almost as strong as some steels.

I trust a German company charging hundreds for short run parts, much more than an unknown company making the same part for tens of dollars. I trust the German parts are within ten thousands or at least 1/2 thousands (machinist term for .0005"), and that costs a lot more to produce. I bet the Chinese parts are more like +- a couple thousands. And you can really tell the difference. And it is far cheaper to produce. I think the Chinese/Indian manufacturers can make really good parts, but they would have to cost more.

I may be completely wrong about this, but I know what adapters I will be using.

I understand Olof. You have to go with what you trust. My father was a machinist (made tight tolerance ball bearings for many years) and I started as a Mechanical Engineer. I have a great affinity for precision engineering. :)

As per anything in this business, go with what works for you. The $16 Kawa adapters are getting it done for me, day in, day out (though that is Nikon F to EOS not m43). If others feel more secure with a $200+ mount have at it.

And Guy gets the Door Prize as this is what was wrong. I am a fairly technical person and I can mount a lens on an adapter. But the catch was poorly made and it was too easy for it to become "uncatched." I know that isn't a word but you know what I mean.

Best,

Jan

Re: cheap adapter rings.
I own about 30 Nikon primes and an equal amount of cheap Hong Kong $10 ebay adapter rings. I've only had one fail, and similar to Jan's experience, was because I thought it was locked, but it wasn't. There are generally 2 versions of the cheap adapters, with different locking mechanisms. One is decent, the other... not so great. I caught the lens with my foot before it hit the ground thankfully.

I did have one other adapter break, but it fell apart shortly after I opened the package. Two issues in 30ish adapters over 1.5 years. I'm happy with that and will keep buying them. Btw, the biggest lenses I use these on are 180mm f2.8s which are pretty heavy. I have no doubt whatsoever that the adapters are plenty strong enough to hold them.

Just sharing my experience. Not one adapter has ever fallen off with a lens on it when properly locked. The problems I had were both with "latch" style vs tab style adapters.

Not super relevant of course if you are using Canon EF lenses as you'll need an electronic adapter for aperture control, wheras with the Nikon's any cheap adapter will do.

Did they manage to get the delivery up to speed in the end?

I know they had a development delay and other issues for example the RED warranty.

Delivery up to speed in the end? What are you asking? Delivery time for the product? I do not know how many they delivered. I know when I was there I saw hundreds of Red Mounts ready to go.

I received my Birger EF mount and it worked great. A couple of times I went back to help dialed in a few problems, but that is always the case with new product. Birger responded and corrected the problem.

The Red Warranty problem was not a Birger problem from my understanding. Red did not like the fact that someone beat the to the punch and had a mount that worked with Canon EF glass. They wanted to sell their glass. So they cut the string which was not very nice, but to be expected in the nasty world of business.

I'll assume they were able to met demand. Just there was a huge RedUser thread around the Birger mount, which seemed rather confused on occasions.

RED seems touchy about the IMS mount as well and it seems to have a less intrusive fitting than the Birger.

Brian I have no idea if they kept up with demand. It sure looked like they were ready when it finally hit the market. I know there was a long delay and no communication while in the build process.

I bet Red has done a nice job on all of their mounts. I have not stayed too in touch with Red, but will keep an eye on the Scarlet. Be nice to have high frame rate 2/3" to match my PMW-500.

And sometimes the expensive solution does not hold the lens securely to the mount either.

I bought a new Letus Canon FD mount, for their Letus 35 Extreme, that would not securely lock the breach mount ring on any of my half dozen FD lenses. The "locked" lens would cheerfully unwind as I handled the camera. And this wasn't a cheap adapter or a third rate vendor.

Before I lost a lens, I fixed the problem with a couple of careful hammer taps to one of the mounting ears on the adapter.

I guess the moral is - whatever you buy, test, test, test. Anybody can screw up sometimes.