Adaptimax F3 to Nikon and Canon adapters

[Alister Chapman]

I was sent a couple of Adaptimax lens mount adapters to test on my PMW-F3. I have used some of their EX3 adapters in the past and these worked very well. The new PMW-F3 adapters are finished with a very nice hard black anodised finish and look very smart indeed. I had 3 adapters to try, one F3 to Canon and two F3 to Nikon adapters. The Canon adapter is a "dumb" adapter, so there is no way to control the lenses iris. If your using Canon lenses this means using a DSLR body to set the iris before using the lens on the F3. Obviously this is not ideal, but you do have to consider that there is a massive range of lenses that can be used with this Canon adapter via a secondary adapter ring.

Canon's flange back distance (the sensor to lens distance) is the shortest in the DSLR world. So this means that there is space to adapt to other lens mounts with longer flange back distances such as M42, Nikon, Pentax, Pentacon etc. This opens up a whole world of possibilities as now you can use those nice M42 Zeiss lenses that can be picked up cheap on ebay by adding a cheap M42 to Canon adapter.

If you have already invested in Nikon fit glass then you can use a Nikon to Canon adapter or you can use one of Adaptimax's purpose built F3 to Nikon adapters.

There are two varieties, the original Adaptimax and the Adaptimax Plus. The Plus version includes a long screw that pushes the iris pin on the rear of the lens to give you iris control even when the lens does not have an iris ring. While this is not as elegant as MTF Services rotating adapter barrel, it works and the simplicity of the design means the adapter is a little cheaper. The standard version has no iris control, so you need to ensure your lens has a proper iris ring.

[Morton Molyneux]

Hi Alister,

I received Adaptimax’s F3 to Canon adapter last week. Nice product, I tried it out with a range of Nikkor lenses I have for the 5D with Canon adapters from 24mm to 300mm including a 55 macro and all worked fine. The 20mm Nikkor needed some back focus adjustment. Nikkor 80 to 200 f 4 zoom works but must be re-focused from 200 to 80. Which I thought strange as the lens keeps focus on the 5D.
I also have a Bower 14mm with Canon mount for the 5D. It would not work at all on the F3 with the Adaptimax. Only way I have found so far was to focus the lens at it’s closed focus point and crank the back focus of the F3 all the way out then everything seemed to snap into focus.

cheers
Morton

[Alister Chapman]

That's very strange. I've used all kinds of lenses on mine, Tokina and Pentacon M42 mount, Nikon and Tokina Nikon mount (including zooms) and a number of Canon EF-S lenses and have not encountered any focus issues.

The back focus distances for all your Nikkors should be the same so they should all work or all not work. Have you tried any other Canon mount lenses other than the Bower?

To be honest I would not expect the Nikkor 80 to 200 f4 to hold focus it isn't a parfocal lens anyway.

[Morton Molyneux]

Yea very strange. I thought they should all work as well, just like they do on the 5D. I wonder if the Adaptimax that I received could be off?

The 20mm Nikkor will not focus to infinity. but like the 14mm I can set it to the closest focus distance and crank the back focus out a couple turns and everything comes into focus.

I have the Canon 24 to 105 that came with the 5D but have not tried it. I’ll try it tomorrow if I get the time. I could also borrow some other Canon lenses. I’ll let you know.

cheers

Morton

[Morton Molyneux]

A quick update:

I contacted Adaptamax re using their Canon to F3 adaptor with Nikkor lenses fitted with Nikkor to Canon adaptors and was told, "you cannot use a Nikon to Canon adapter on our Canon EF adapter as it would mess up the focal plane and you would struggle to get focus with Nikon lenses. It is manufactured to work with Canon EF lenses on a PMW-F3 only, and nothing else."

Strange as the same adaptors work fine when mounting Nikkor lenses on the Canon 5D. I have an adaptor fitted to each Nikkor lens and was hoping to swap between the 5D and F3 with out having to remove them.

So I ordered an Adaptmax Nikkor to F3 adaptor. It works fine with all my Nikkor lenses, The 80-200 even holds focus from 200 to 80. Focus distance markings are close on the Nikkors but not as exact as the 3 Sony primes.

cheers

Morton

[Michael Power]

I've now worked a bit with the Adaptimax Plus adapter for Nikon lens with and without iris rings.

It seems fine except that on a cosmetic level the adapter positions lenses so the barrel markings face not straight up within easy vision of the left side where you operate the camera from, but off to the right. Put another way, if you're looking into the lens and up is north, the lens markings face west. This means if you're pulling focus on the lens, or changing frame size on a zoom or aperture on a lens with iris ring, you can't see where you are according to the calibrations. Tricky.

[Hornady Setiawan]

Hi Alister and all,

I'm considering to get this adapter. But considering the cons Michael has wrote, is there any workaround? or maybe other brand than Adaptimax?
Is the MTF's better? And what about magnification factor?

I'm planning to get 1 superwide glass about 10-16mm (zoom or fixed) and 1 tele zoom about 100-300mm for the F3.
I have searched around and found these lenses:
- AF Nikkor 14mm f/2.8D ED
- AF Zoom-Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED
Any of you guys know if these lenses has shortcomings?

Thanks!