Type of 35mm Lenses being used with the adapter: Auto/Manual?

[Ari Shomair]

Are people using Auto or Manual lenses with their rotating/static 35mm adapters?

Any specific reason as to why you are using one over the other?

[Nicholi Brossia]

I'm pretty sure everyone is using manual lenses. From what I understand, automatic lenses are electronic and must have specific contacts to the camera which processes all the information and sends it to the lens. That's way more technical than I, or most others on the forum, want to deal with and really isn't necessary. Also, automatic lenses cost quite a bit more than manual, which is another reason to use the manual lenses.

[Joe Holt]

Manual Lenses are Way Cheaper!!! I know some who frequent this forum aren't fans of eBay but over the past 4 weeks or so, I've bought 4 seperate Minolta MD lenses for just over $100 total including the shipping. All of them were in nearly perfect condition. If you are using static lenses, you can really break the bank trying to buy used lenses from a local shop or even a national re-saler like B&H (no offense B&H I still spend too much there).

Here are some of the deals I've been able to snag. I think it was fortunate that I started building my adapters based on Minolta MD mount lenses. They seem to be considerably cheaper than Nikon and Canon. (even used) If someone is starting out with their adapter, and they're on a budget, I'd advise looking at Minolta MD Lenses.

Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm f1.4 lens $48.50
TOKINA RMC SL35 35mm f2.8 lens Minolta MD $25.70
Minolta MD 58mm f1.4 $21.95 (included busted SLR body)
MINOLTA MD ROKKOR-X 45mm @ F2 LENS $14.29

I'm looking for a fast 85mm and 135mm and then I'll consider my kit complete. So I better not find any of you bidding against joekayaker101 now that I've let my secret out :-) Happy hunting, Joe

[Dana Jan]

I'm new here, but I'm a photographer and have a good set of Canon EF lenses for my 35mm and digital SLRs.

My question is that while I hope I could use them on a homebrew mini35 adapter...would the autofocus and electronically controlled aperture be a problem in operating them on an agus or aldu system?

They all have manual focus modes on them switchable on the lens, but I wanted to know if these would be good candidates (I know the optics are superb)

Thanks,
-Dana

[Joe Holt]

Dana,

If you can control the aperture, and the focus manually and there aren't any wierd prongs, doohickies etc. sticking out of the lens making it difficult to mount, then your Canons are probably way better than my Minolta lenses. Fast lenses are the best. 50mm F1.4 seems to be the norm for Aldu 35 (static adapter). Lens speed is not as important with the spinning or vibrating ground glass models. Good Luck and have fun building your adapter.


Joe

[Dana Jan]

Joe,

I did some checking this evening, and here's what I can report, you let me know if I'm good, or not :) When the lens is detached from my camera body, the aperture opens all the way up. So, my 50mm f1.4 lens is wide open at 1.4 as soon as I take it off the camera.

When I shoot stills, I am always manipulating my aperture to control the DOF. A big question I have with the Agus/Aldu type setups is: do we adjust the aperture on our 35mm lens to control the DOF going to the ground glass?

If yes, then I may be in trouble since I can not control the aperture without the electronics of my SLR body.

If no, then I am fine. All lenses will be wide open, and I will control focus/zoom on them manually.

I would really LIKE to be able to control the DOF at the 35mm lens level...but I'm confused, and from what I've read I'm not sure if anyone else changes aperture on there 35mm lens?

Please enlighten me :)

Thank you,
-Dana

[Joe Holt]

I'll try to answer as best as I can.
I've built three different styles of adapters so far. You can check two of the three out here:

http://www.paddlefilms.com/35mm adapters.htm

With the static adapter (aldu 35) you want to have your lens wide open, creating a narrow depth of field. F1.4 is ideal. If you close the lens down, the depth of field increases but the image also gets darker and the grain in the ground glass becomes more noticable. This is unacceptable to most people. I know this to be true with my own Aldu 35. You can check out some recents frame grabs posted by myself and Frank Ladner in the original Aldu 35 thread. You will see the grain issue.

I have much more flexibility with aperture control with my lenses with my Agus 35 (spinning CD). The down side to that adapter is it is quite large compared to the static version and I noticed that the image has a softer focus compared to the Aldu 35. To me, it looks like I shot with a pastel filter. You can see what I mean if you check out my posted images on the above URL.

The good thing is that your lenses open up instead of closing when detached from your camera. It sounds like, unless you want to invest in some manual lenses, you will want to build yourself a static adapter since controling the depth of field will not be an option for you with the Auto lenses and the static adapter benefits from a wide open lens. The only way I know of for adjusting DOF with these adapters is through the SLR lens. Once the image is projected onto the ground glass, what you see is what you get. You'll want your slr lens as fast as possible with the static adapter. I also think that the static adapter is easier to build.

I hope this helps and good luck,


Joe

[Dana Jan]

Thanks Joe, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.

I hoped early on that a static solution would be the best for me. Size, and construction are pretty important to me, plus I didn't want to have another device requiring power!

I think you confirmed my suspicions tonight. I figured that stopping down with any of these lenses would have dire effects on the light level reaching the ground glass.

Great! I think you've solved it for me! You've been really helpful.

-Dana