Strange lens effects in photos

[Doublethink]

Hello friends, I've recently purchased a canon FD 28mm on eBay and took it out for a test drive during a weekend trip with a Fotodiox adaptor onto my canon 5DM2. I also gave it a good cleaning with my lens pen before departing.

The photos came out quite blurry, almost dream like in some of them. I'll link some photos below.

I don't mind this look and find it to add an interesting look to some of my photos, and I never expected this lens to be perfectly sharp because of its age. But I want to know what's causing this? Each photos looks to have a blurred version of it self layered on top, and the chromatic aberrations are strong in some. I find the effect to be amplified as we get away from the centre.

Can anyone diagnose what is wrong here?

PS. I shone a flash light through the lens in a dark room and the light on the wall revealed that the front lens had a lot of scratch patterns. Could they be the culprit?

Cheers,
D

 

[Doublethink]

Sorry to reply to my own post but I can't find the edit button and I think I screwed up on linking the photos, so here they are:

Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Imgur: The magic of the Internet

 

[john.margetts]

First thing to note is that the FD mount to film distance is less than the EF (EOS) Mount to sensor distance. This means that you lose infinity focus when mounting an FD lens on an EOS camera unless the adaptor has a compensating lens element.

The effect you are seeing is almost certainly the compensating lens element not being very good optically (assuming it is there in the first place).

Canon's FD lenses are very good - their age is not an issue. Marks on the lens front element will not have a major effect even if they are visible without shining a light through it, unless the glass is opaque. The weak point is your adaptor.

 

[john.margetts]

Looking at buyers' comments for this adaptor on Amazon, it always produces a lot of flare and chromatic aberration. Best to check reviews before purchase.

 

[Designer]

Hello friends, I've recently purchased a canon FD 28mm on eBay and took it out for a test drive during a weekend trip with a Fotodiox adaptor onto my canon 5DM2. I also gave it a good cleaning with my lens pen before departing.

The photos came out quite blurry, almost dream like in some of them. I'll link some photos below.

I don't mind this look and find it to add an interesting look to some of my photos, and I never expected this lens to be perfectly sharp because of its age. But I want to know what's causing this? Each photos looks to have a blurred version of it self layered on top, and the chromatic aberrations are strong in some. I find the effect to be amplified as we get away from the centre.

Can anyone diagnose what is wrong here?

PS. I shone a flash light through the lens in a dark room and the light on the wall revealed that the front lens had a lot of scratch patterns. Could they be the culprit?

Many possibilities here.

Adaptor: Any time you put something besides the lens in the light path, you're introducing stuff that wasn't ever intended to go there.

Scratches? I doubt they have an effect on the shots you posted. Scratches on the front element will show up as flare when shooting toward a light source.

Lens quality? I cannot say, but an online search for real-world reviews of the lens should tell you if that particular lens has inherent design flaws.

Used lens? Here is my best guess. The chances that this lens has received poor handling in its previous life are quite high. Internet sellers can be completely ignorant of their own mishandling mistakes, or they can be downright deceptive when trying to dump off a damaged lens.

I can't actually diagnose what, precisely, is causing any particular artifact, but I will assume that it may be a combination of factors. Such as: It wasn't the best lens in the first place, or possibly having received a severe bump in falling to the floor, or possibly having experienced excessive heat, or all of the above. A severe jolt can displace one or more elements, possibly deep down inside, and excessive heat can cause the adhesives used in paired elements to soften and shrink.

 

[480sparky]

 

[Doublethink]

The adapter I purchased is this one:
https://www.amazon.ca/Fotodiox-Mount-Adapter-Camera-Digital/dp/B003EB0AXY

It says it does compensate for infinity focus.

=(

 

[john.margetts]

The adapter I purchased is this one:
https://www.amazon.ca/Fotodiox-Mount-Adapter-Camera-Digital/dp/B003EB0AXY

It says it does compensate for infinity focus.

=(

But it compensates with a very cheap lens which is causing your problems.

 

[zombiesniper]

Looks at some of the reviews.

"Foggy and not worth the purchase. Fit well with no issues. But forget about using it. Completely disappointed. They should make this without the glass"

"tried on my 100-200 fd zoom. a high quality lens and the image is worse than my kit lens after going through the glass in this item. tried my 50mm fd and the shots have a horrible soft focus if you are lucky enough to get it in focus that is."

and there are plenty more that are having foggy photo issues with that adapter.