Pentax Lenses on Canon Body

[fooby]

Hi, I'm planning on buying the Canon 50mm 1.4 for my 500d, but noticed my grandad has a couple of good lenses for his old film Pentax, not sure on the exact models, he has some kind of zoom and a 50mm. I've noticed you can get adaptors on eBay quite cheap, and was wondering if anybody has had any experience with them? I would love to be able to use the lenses as they haven't been touched in years and take some great photos, feel very solid too.

Cheers

 

[Big Mike]

Yes, with an adapter, you should be able to mount those lenses onto your camera. Keep in mind that even if they are auto focus lenses, you would be able to auto focus with them. Also, you won't be able to control the aperture from the camera, so you'll have to do that manually as well.

 

[Werra]

Fooby, Pentax made some nice quality prime lenses. It could be well worth getting an adaptor to try out the 50mm. The earlier Pentax mount is the M42 screw mount. That got replaced with the K mount around about the start of the 1980s. Most of the lenses from both periods are good. The 'Super' Takumars and the SMC ones have the better coatings. I have a 55mm f2 Super Takumar but I haven't used it for a while. I'll dig it out and give it a spin!

cheers

 

[fooby]

Thank you for the replies, I have the lenses now and they are both K mount. Can somebody please explain what AF confirm is? It seems to be an option on some of the adaptors. The lenses specifically are the Pentax-M 50mm 2.0 and a Centon 70-210mm 4.0-5.6.

 

[Dao]

AF confirm is the Red light inside the viewfinder telling you that it is in focus. So you turn the focus ring manually until that light (dot, or bracket or ...) turn red and beep. Just like AF except you turn the focus ring yourself.

 

[fooby]

AF confirm is the Red light inside the viewfinder telling you that it is in focus. So you turn the focus ring manually until that light (dot, or bracket or ...) turn red and beep. Just like AF except you turn the focus ring yourself.

Thank you, I think I'll go with that then as it could be quite useful, especially as I may try to use the 70-210 for action if I can keep up with manual focus.

Just to confirm, this will do the job?

 

[Werra]

Confirmed. Thats the one you need.

I read on wikipedia that the PK was introduced 1975. I thought it was a bit later.

cheers

 

[fooby]

Confirmed. Thats the one you need.

I read on wikipedia that the PK was introduced 1975. I thought it was a bit later.

cheers

Thanks! After trying a couple of test shots just holding it up I'm glad I went for the AF confirm, it's real hard to know your focussed at f2. I'll be sure to put up some shots when I get the adaptor in the post

Tells you something about quality when the 50mm alone is far heavier than my 18-55 kit lens.

 

[fooby]

On the subject of old lenses, has anybody had any experience with the Canon FD 50mm 1.4? They seem to go very cheap on eBay and if they're anywhere near as good as the EF 1.4 it would definitely be worth picking up, only worry is I've heard it isn't that sharp.

 

[tyler_h]

FD mount is not useful on EF without an optical adaptor which I believe were basically only make available to 'pros' when canon changed mounts. Not 100% on this but I believe the flange distance of the FD mount is longer so a mount can not be used to move the lens to the correct distance like with the m42 mount

 

[fooby]

FD mount is not useful on EF without an optical adaptor which I believe were basically only make available to 'pros' when canon changed mounts. Not 100% on this but I believe the flange distance of the FD mount is longer so a mount can not be used to move the lens to the correct distance like with the m42 mount

A quick eBay search shows plenty of these optical adaptors for about the same price as the AF confirm Pentax adaptors, doesn't the extra element in the adaptor effect the photos?

 

[tyler_h]

I was thinking of genuine Canon Adaptors. I can only assume the generic knock offs will be of lower quality, optically if not build-wise. Adding additional elements will always degrade quality. I'd stick to the AF confirm Pentax as there are a lot of old lenses available in the 35-60ish range.

I looked into them a while back and if you can live without AF there are a lot of savings to be made on some great lenses. Typically, corners will be softer with any old glass, but some have so very unique and nice looking bokeh.

Living in the UK there should be a lot more market and a lot more available in UK + conveniently located Europe. Shouldn't be too had to find some in near mint. I'd avoid any of the zooms though.

 

[Dao]

Because of the flange to focal plane of FD mount is shorter than EF mount, so optics is required for adapter so that the lens can focus to infinity. And the adapter will act as a multiplier so the focal length of the lens will be longer. It will also rob some light so that the f/# will increase.

I personally will not even try to buy a FD mount lens and then add an adapter. It is not worth is unless the lens is a stellar lens to begin with. If someone give me a FD 200mm f/1.8 or sell it to me for a attractive price, I don't mind finder a good adapter for it. But for 50mm, 135mm etc, I will not do it. I will rather get the M42 or K mount lens.

 

[fooby]

Because of the flange to focal plane of FD mount is shorter than EF mount, so optics is required for adapter so that the lens can focus to infinity. And the adapter will act as a multiplier so the focal length of the lens will be longer. It will also rob some light so that the f/# will increase.

I personally will not even try to buy a FD mount lens and then add an adapter. It is not worth is unless the lens is a stellar lens to begin with. If someone give me a FD 200mm f/1.8 or sell it to me for a attractive price, I don't mind finder a good adapter for it. But for 50mm, 135mm etc, I will not do it. I will rather get the M42 or K mount lens.

Thanks for the info, guess I'll stick to the Pentax lenses, they make a 50 1.4 that seems to pop up every now and then for around £80, with the AF confirm it's actually fairly fast to accurately focus so I'm not so fussed about the Canon EF 1.4 anymore. On another note, I just cleaned out some of the fungus in the Pentax 50, luckily it wasn't deep and came off easily, very easy to get to it too.