EF-to-XL1 adaptor for general uses (without 7.2 magnification factor)

[Jeff Jassky]

First off, I'm somewhat new to DV and photography as well. I currently have an XL1 with the stock 16x zoom lens, and the 3x wideangle lens. I also have (for photography) a 5 mp Canon G5.

I want to upgrade my digital camera to a 20d (or some other amera that supports EF lenses) sometime soon.

Basically, I just want to know, final conclusion, are there ANY adaptors to use EF lenses on an XL1 WITHOUT having the huge 7.2 magnification factor in the $300-$500 price range? I want to use the XL1 for general purposes, not something that uses insane zoom power like wildlife watching. I'm not donald trump here, and I'm trying to save some money by being able to use the same lenses on both of my cameras. So bottom line, is there a way to do this without spending thousands of dollars on an adaptor? I want to buy two EF lenses for general use (one with similar zoom/magnification to the stock 16x zoom lens, and one similar to the 3x wideangle lens. I'm not that picky.) Basically, one more time, I'm trying to figure out how to have two regular acting (not some kind of super telephoto cameras) cameras, one being my XL1, And another being a canon 20d, or another similar model, and save money by useing the same lenses on both.

Thank you all for your time! You can email me at Jeff@embraced-dc.com of contact me on AIM with the screen name JeffEmbracedDC. Thanks!

-Jeff Jassky

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Hi Jeff, and welcome to the forum.

To answer your question simply...NO. Unless you want to spend insane money on the Mini35 adapter, then there is currently no lens adapter for the Canon XL series that maintains the field of view of the 35mm SLR lens. ALL adapters (in your price range)give around 7X magnification factor.

I use the Nikon to Canon XL adapter, mainly for wildlife /sunset/moon filming using fast ED-IF lenses (this also gives a magnification factor).

[Jeff Jassky]

Tony - Thanks for your prompt reply. After I posted this last night, I ran across the pappas system article (http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/article21.php). If you read the first part of this article, you can see the work-around that they came up with. This sounds like a great idea! If you guys can think of any pitfalls of useing this method of getting a wide(er) angle picture with the EF adaptor, please post them! I'd really like to find out as much as I can about this before I go out buying and selling anything. And once again, I am a novice to different lens options and setups.


Would I need to buy a certain size WC(wide angle converter)? I realize that you can make pretty much anything fit with step-up or down rings, but would a smaller WC cause unwanted vignetting, or even show up in the picture when zoomed out?


Would I need to space the WC out with step rings to be a certain distance from the EF lens?


If anyone has tried this system and had either good, or bad luck with it, I would love to talk via email, AOL Instant Messanger, or even telephone would be best.


I would really really like to find a solution like this. This could be the answer to all the worlds problems. Well at least my lens problems :) thanks guys


email: jeff @ embraced-dc.com
AIM: JeffEmbracedDC
site: www.Embraced-DC.com
phone: 3 2 0 - 7 6 6 - 3 8 1 9


- Jeff

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

In my opinion, the papas system is more complicated and not as simple as using a 16X lens plus a high quality wide angle adapter screwed to the front, such as the Optex, Century, (and possibly the Red Eye).
For wide angle footage, I prefer lenses that will give an equal view to 35mm SLR lenses in the 20mm-28mm ranges. Fitting all the different parts together shown in the Papas system, just to obtain a similar view to the widest angle obtained by my straight 16X manual zoom without a converter, does not seem a great idea. And I'd have my doubts if anyone could see an improvement in quality shown on a large screen during playback.
The papas system was mainly to achieve rack-focus focus and overcome the lack of focus marks with the AF 16X lens, and not simply to aproduce a wide angle view with a 35mm SLR lens on the XL body.

At the moment, the best options to go wide are still either the X3 Canon, or a wide angle optic fitted to the front of the main 16X or 20X lenses.

[Jeff Jassky]

Well I realize this, though my entire reasoning for wanting to do this, is because I wanted to have lenses that could switch between an XL1 and a digital SLR (like the 20D). There's no way to retro-fit XL lenses onto an SLR body, so I thought I would go with EF lenses that would work on both cameras as long as I got the adapter for the XL1. When I learned about the 7.2 magnification factor, I was searching for either a different adaptor, or a work around for it. This is what I wanted to do. Maybe this isn't as good of an idea as I thought. Basically, I can't afford to upgrade to an SLR unless I'm able to use the same lenses. I can't afford to have two different lenses for each camera. I realize it would be best if I could, but I can't. This is why I'm loking for realistic work arounds. I sent an email to Michael Pappas asking for any assistance he could provide or direct me to about this work around. I would really like to use EF lenses for more versatility with other lenses, filters, being able to achieve rack-focus, and focus marks, and all of the other benifets to switching. The only major downside I can see to switching is the 7.2 magnification factor, and if I can work around this decently, then there are no major downsides, but many benifets. So that's what I'm trying to do. Thanks for your help and ideas so far Tony! But lets see if we can't work around this, and save me money when upgrading my camera :) Thanks alot.

-Jeff