I just did a test using two old photograpic lenses on the xl2 body (i'm one of those guys that don't understand how a thing work until i saw it) Since i have no adapter i hold the lenses by hand (focusing on subject by adjusting the lens-ccd distance).
The Rollei lens is a 50(47mm diameter), , but the iris ring seems not working so i had to adjust the exposure using a high shutter speed. The Yashica is a 28-80 zoom (58mm diameter), the iris is working but even full open is much darker than the Rollei. I. ex. the shot of my father with the rollei was taken with 0db gain and a shutter speed of 1/500, while the Yashica took a +6db gain and 1/50 shutter.
Both sometimes (i guess under strong daylight condition) shows some kind of softness.

The first two frames are from the Rolley, the 3,4,5 frames are from the Yashica lens; the latest 3 are from the standard lens

Good afternoon,

I am amazed you have got that good of an image holding the lens!!!!!

What are you actually trying to show here?

I have used several old lenses (canon FD) on a non lensed adapter available on ebay for a song and it is quite surprising the quality of images you can get!! I used an fd macro and it does great.


dale

Oh, well, nothing in particular. Is just that after reading all the post about photographic lenses/adapters on the xl2 i still did'nt understand the drifferencies with the stock lens, so i tried myself to see the results. Plus in case i swith to the xlh1 i see if i can buy a adapter (not the eos one). i mostly shot music videos and short/features but in case a documentary or something similar those lenses might be useful (or maybe for a particular effect like a vintage/dreamy style look)

this is very interesting! i was under the impression that lens adapters could only be fabricated by rare tibetan wizard gnomes thus making them all terribly expensive!

Dale, do you happen to have a link to the adapter you use? or any similar budget adapters that will work with the xl2?

like Michele, i learn from doing. i have a lot of old lenses & adapters and come across long forgotten glass in thrift stores all the time. it would be a great learning opportunity to be able to experiment with various lenses and experience the results first hand (good or bad) for a minimal investment! cheers!
-jc

I did not use any adapter, i just hold the lens by hand. Anyway here is:

Adriano Lolli (http://www.adrianololli.com/listino.asp?CAT=VID&SUB=D)

It can be purchased for EOS lens or Contax/yashica or Pentax lens with a small diffrence in price. They sells also through ebay

Found this with a short web search.

New and used canon xl2 adapter, Cameras Photo on eBay.ca (http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?_nkw=canon+xl2+adapter&_armrs=1&_dmd=2&_from=&_ipg=)

I could not find the original Adapter place or adapter guy i got mine from.

I got my FD one on ebay for 39 dollars.