Nikon to Canon adapter problem

[Bruce S. Yarock]

I got the fancy one from fotodiox and put it on my nikon 24mm f2,8 lens. I bought the model with the chip, which lets you use an af assist. It worked well. They told me to put the adapter ring on the lens first, then attach the lens to the camera. When I put it on, it seemed to slide ariynd when I used the aperture ring, and didn't really fir snugly. i tried ro tighten it a bit, and then it fit more snugly and didn't move around.

After some test shots, I wanted to try some of my other primes. I removed the lens, but am unable to get the adapter off of the lens. I didn't want to force it, so I'll go to the camera repair shop Monday( and call fotodiox). Has anyone else had this problem?
Bruce yarock
yarockvideo.com

[Ray Bell]

If you look at the adapter after you take the lens off of the camera you should
see a small piece of metal that you just push down and it will release the adater so you
can twist it off... hard to explain, but I will try... the small metal piece is actually a lever
and when you push it down it pulls a pin out of the camera lens body, that is the locking
pin... so you push on the lever and then rotate the adapter off of the lens... remember
Nikon lenses rotate backwards... try playing with it a little more, push the lever and try
to rotate the adapter until you feel it move... just take your time with it... once you
get it figured out it works every time.. :-)

after you get it off, push the lever several times and watch how it lifts the locking pin...

[Bruce S. Yarock]

Rhanks, Ray-
I figured ot our. Rhat ring is on pretty tight, though.
At Fotodiox, they told me to put the ring on the lens first. Is that how you do it?
Bruce yarock

[Bruce S. Yarock]

Ray,
Do you think these rings can damage the camera? I was reading ken Rockwel'ls info on these adapters and he says to use at your own risk, becayse they can damage you lens or camera.

[Ray Bell]

Bruce... I normally put the lens adapter on a lens and leave it that way.. I bought them to use with a 35MM adapter for my HV20...
the 35 mm adapter does not have the same elements as any DSLR would...so there is no risk using the lens adapter on a 35mm adapter

The lens adapters where made to work with DSLR bodies so I think
the only danger would be if you tried to mount a lens that when mounted on the camera it would extend too far into the body and possible to cause some damage that way.

I know some folks shave the back of some lenses to keep parts of the lens from going too far into the camera and causing damage to the mirror... so maybe that is what Ken was referring to when he made
the statement.

Its best to use the proper Canon lenses on a Canon body.. if not you are missing out on a lot of the lens/body interaction.. like focus sensors, the micro lens adjustments and such...

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by Bruce S. Yarock

Rhanks, Ray-
I figured ot our. Rhat ring is on pretty tight, though.
At Fotodiox, they told me to put the ring on the lens first. Is that how you do it?
Bruce yarock

Yes. That way you can watch as the "pin" on the adapter moves to and "locks" in the hole at the back of the lens. You can also observe the fit of any AI "flange" into the groove machined for that.

I bought the $8 KAWA adapter which is simply a metal ring that takes the Nikkor lens and then mounts to the camera. The first two they sent me had grooves that were not machined deep enough and the 50mm F1.8 Nikkor AI-s flat would not fit (they are literally "churning" these things out in China) so I sent them back. After sending the second one back, the vendor chose to refund.

In the meantime a forum member here took pity on me and sent me a spare (same model) he had and it fits perfect. Only thing is the lens "back focuses" past infinity.

Ray Bell's advice on using Canon EOS lenses on EOS body is "spot on". I had come to that conclusion and will definitely do that with my 7D. I may continue to use the 50mm F1.8 AI-s Nikkor on the T1i for night work as it is faster and simpler to use the aperture ring for exposure changes than to go through the "unlock" procedure for each aperture change with the T1i.

But the Canon EF 50mm F1.8 works like a dream on the 7D body with no "unlock and slight twist" to deal with.

[Keith Moreau]

I just got the KAWA adapters and they seem well made, especially for $8 each and worked fine with my older Nikon lenses (AI models) that I had gotten for my Letus. They shipping speed from KAWA was pretty fast too. A really old pre AI lens I had was a little jiggly, not sure why, but mounted fine. Seems to fit the Canon without any damage and fits nicely on the Canon bayonet. I will probably eventually move to Canon EF-S or EF lenses eventually but it was nice to just invest about $30 and get to use some fast primes with my 7D without having to spend hundreds more dollars, at least not right away.

I'd recommend getting a separate KAWA adapter for each of your Nikon lenses you plan to mount. Also get a Canon EF end cap for each one as well (you can get them cheap on eBay). I forgot to and now I have a bunch of exposed rear elements but I did order some.

When I first put the adapters on the Nikon lenses I couldn't figure out how to remove them. I did a little investigation and found a little spring-loaded tab on the KAWA's that fits into the detent on the Nikon lens back. Lift the tab up and you can remove the KAWA. Whew!

As far as the image quality using the Nikon lenses, jury's out on that. I shot some stuff tonight with an old Nikon manual zoom, cause it went up to 200mm, and it was a bit soft, but it's not the best lens. I haven't shot anything on my better 1.4 and 1.8 50mm primes yet.

For a quick stop gap until you can replace all your Nikon glass with Canon, I say go for it!

[Bill Pryor]

Hey, Bruce--I've read that 24mm Nikkor lens might protrude too far into the camera and damage the mirror. Have you used yours yet? I have one and noticed that it does, indeed, have a flange that sticks out quite a bit more than on all my other Nikkor lenses. I've bought adapters for the 105, 200 and 35 and would really like to use the 24, but I've been hesitant to try it because of that flange.

[Bruce S. Yarock]

Bill,
I got scared when I read that, and haven't used mine since on the 7d.
Because I also do some event photo gigs, I had to replace all of my original Nikon gear with Canon ( still kept the old manual primes to use with the Letus). I replaced the Nikons i had with Canon versions-17-55 2.8, 70-200 2.8,50mm 1.4 and a tokina 11-6 2.8. Since the Nikon prime is only a 2.8, I don't need it with the 7d, since i have the same speed with the 17-55 or the Tokina. The fotodiox fancy adapter with trhe chip does work really well and does have a focusa assist function.

The older nikon primes do look great with the Letus..

Bruce Yarock

[Bob Hart]

If you have a Nikon to Canon adaptor in which the Nikon lens becomes incrementally tighter with a sometimes rough feeling to it, check the four little screws holding the Nikon ring to the Canon ring. If these work loose they stick up and bind against the back of the Nikon lens flange face.