I bought a lens of ebay and I dunno much about slr lens. When I turn the aperature ring the iris doesn't change. Also, there is a little A button on the aperature ring. I'm guessing that means auto. Maybe it needs to be connected to the camera to work. Do I need one that's just manual only or is this particular lens busted?

Here's the link btw. I have a few days to return it so I'd appreciate a quick response. Thanks.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7604395968&sspagename=ADME:L:AAQ:US:1

Hi,
This is normal for a Canon FD lens. There is a pin on the back of the lens that needs to be pushed all the way over to enable manual aperture, and also it will only work once the lens is attached to mount.

http://208.186.78.36/zeffphoto.com/ebaypics/CONS09592L-2.jpg

Its the longer lever on the left

Also this image provided by Quyen Le: http://letus35.com/type1.JPG

Some lenses, the lever will stay on its own, others need to have something jammed in there to keep the lever over.

whew.. good to know that. What about if I put the back lens cap on? I'm planning on making a ghetto adapter, not for any serious work but just to play with. I was going to drill a hole through the cap instead of buying a lens mount. Would it function correctly that way?

thanks wayne

Min,

Yes it will work that way, however most rear lens caps dont allow the breech lock to rotate all the way through its travel, so you will have to sand the 3 bayonet lugs on the plastic cap to make them 'thinner'

I would suggest buying some cheap Canon FD extension tubes from ebay. Here is an example:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=fd+extension+tube&category0=

There are loads of these available cheaply. They are metal so nice and solid, and is easy to canibalize and attach to an adapter. I just did the same for a 'custom SG35' shown here:

http://www.sysmicfilms.com/wayne/04.jpg

Hope that helps,

I personally recommend making a ghetto adapter. It's 90% of the work of making a really nice adapter that's totally usable. With a ghetto one, you can hardly use it since it'll be unstable and the image quality will be annoying. I'm not sure what you have in mind but I imagine that with a lens cap as a mount, when you go to focus, things will be flexing and slopping around. And not very stable to be hanging a heavy piece of glass off of!

Making a static one with emptied-out filter rings and extension tubes is very easy and a great way to start.