Adapting lenses to the R52 (or any R system camera)....any experiences yet?

cayenne

cayenne

Canon Rumors Premium
Mar 28, 2012
2,903
803
#1
Hi all,
When they get back in stock...I'm likely to pull the trigger and finally replace my old, dearly beloved 5D3 (I'll find some use for it, maybe dedicated for scanning MF film).....with a new R52.

I have a good bit of EF glass I can use on it immediately, with the canon adapter.

BUT...in the last years, I've expanded out having a lot of fun with new and vintage lenses...many using the Leica M, or the old M42 and other mounts.

I find it a blast so far adapting mirrorless cameras I've played with (Leican and Fuji GFX) to vintage lenses which are giving me some looks I just really enjoy. Yes, I actually like images these days that aren't "clinically" perfect in every way.

I've not touched a copy of the R5 or R52....but I've heard they have a pretty good focus assist for manual lenses.

Can anyone give me some feedback on your experiences adapting lenses to the R system cameras?

One very recent article I read was about an upcoming Autofocus adapter for the R camera system for M lenses:

Megadap Leica M to Canon RF

I've seen videos of this company's version of this on Nikon cameras, like the Zf....and you basically set your lens to infinity and the adapter works with the autofocus of the camera which what appears to be good results.

Anyway, I know it's likely VERY weird to hear someone excited about getting the latest in camera body tech and wanting to throw on lenses from the 30's -> 60's on the front of it.

Hoping I'm not the only one tho....anyone else adapting lenses to the R system cameras?

Any images you could post?

Thoughts and experiences?


Thank you in advance,

cayenne
 
#2
The adapter looks like it can introduce small but uncontrollable tilt.

There is no triple-triangle manual focus assist on (at least) R5 for lenses without their own electrical contacts. Focus peaking and preview magnification shall still work. IBIS also works, but you will need to specify the focal length in the camera menus.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
#3
I have used an FD to RF adapter with some of my old FD lenses on my R5. Haven't gotten around to using them on the MKII yet but should be the same. The adapters are inexpensive and available from several companies. Works very well with focus peaking and exposure simulation. Nothing beats RF glass, but if you want the look of the old glass it's easy to achieve.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0
#4
Realize that when you focus by moving all the lens elements as a group, the way these adapters do or the way the simple helical focus did on older lenses, the amount you need to move the lens forward to focus is tied to the focal length. That means that while any lens will focus at infinity, the closest focus with these adapters using just the adapter's focusing mechanism is going to be great on a short lens and pretty minimal on a long lens. The rule is that the difference you get to go from infinity to 1:1 is the focal length of the lens.

You can partly get around this by prefocusing with the lens' manual focus ring and letting the autofocus motor in the adapter do the fine tuning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
#5
I don't know about other types of adapters but the FD to RF adapter has no focusing element built in. You are strictly using the manual focus ring on the lens. I would imagine it to be the same for other manual focus lenses.

PS, you also use the manual aperture ring.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
#6
rbwillnj said:
I don't know about other types of adapters but the FD to RF adapter has no focusing element built in. You are strictly using the manual focus ring on the lens. I would imagine it to be the same for other manual focus lenses.

PS, you also use the manual aperture ring.
Click to expand...
Oh by far, the majority of my lenses I'm adapting..will be "dump" adapters...and I will be manually focusing the lens itself and setting aperture (I really prefer do do this manually ON lens)....

This auto-focus adapter for the M lenses just looked fun to experiment with, but most everything will be manual.

I am a bit disappointed to hear that one of the focus assist tools the "3 triangles" won't work without electrical contacts.!?!

I wonder why?

Anyway...thanks for the feedback, looking forward to playing with this....when the R52's get back in stock...

cayenne
 
Upvote 0
#9
cayenne said:
I guess possible...I thought it was just doing a contrast comparison or something?
Click to expand...
Contrast comparison cannot show the direction of defocusing, neither distinguish defocusing from lack of local contrast.

It uses dual-pixel phase shift information. In order to convert phase shift amount into a useful distance scale for the triangles, it likely needs information about the lens aperture.
 
Upvote 0
#10
Manual focus with focus peaking works pretty well, but darn near impossible to get eye focus with focus peaking. Fun to play with, but you don't buy a MKII to use vintage lenses.

By the way on the adapters I have used, because there are no electrical contacts, you have to set the camera to release shutter with no lens. The R5 has that setting in the menu. I haven't looked for that setting in the MKII yet. Just checked, it's in the last page of the last menu.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
#11
Kit. said:
Contrast comparison cannot show the direction of defocusing, neither distinguish defocusing from lack of local contrast.

It uses dual-pixel phase shift information. In order to convert phase shift amount into a useful distance scale for the triangles, it likely needs information about the lens aperture.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the explanation....that helps my understanding a bit.
:)

cayenne
 
Upvote 0
#12
rbwillnj said:
Manual focus with focus peaking works pretty well, but darn near impossible to get eye focus with focus peaking. Fun to play with, but you don't buy a MKII to use vintage lenses.

By the way on the adapters I have used, because there are no electrical contacts, you have to set the camera to release shutter with no lens. The R5 has that setting in the menu. I haven't looked for that setting in the MKII yet. Just checked, it's in the last page of the last menu.
Click to expand...
Actually, believe it or not...my primary usage for the R52 WILL be for vintage lens use...and other manual lenses maybe not so vintage.
I have EF glass for auto focusing....so I don't see RF glass on my needs list for awhile.

But for example, I love shooting anamorphic glass for stills......and video too. I'll also be shooting video with vintage glass, as well as a couple new old style lenses from Light Lens Lab, especially the Cooke Speed Panchro II clone they came out with recently and soon to have another one at 75mm one soon (I hope).

But I'll also use them for stills. My style of shooting has changed a bit over the past years....more stylistic and artistic than clinical reality.

Don't get me wrong, I'll likely get maybe a RF 24-70 or the like.....but no immediate need for RF glass after I get the body. I just want the mirrorless so I can adapt lenses which I can't do with the old 5D3....due to the mirror in the way.

I do hope Canon does work on this a bit....like I said, the competition seems to want to help lens adapters a bit more...Fuji GFX, Sony, Panasonic...etc....I'm hoping Canon jumps into that bandwagon too a bit....

I know I'm a minority....but there does seem to be a growing number of folks out there, finding good use for old classic glass....

cayenne
 
Upvote 0
#13
I have a large collection of M42 glass that I adapt to the R5II (and R5 previously). When I'm not zone focusing I use peaking which works very well. used to do this in the DSLR days, too. There were only a few M42 lenses that caused mirror slap and some like the MIR 1B could be modified to avoid it. I did try some AF adapters with mixed results. In the mirrorless world the peaking is much better IMO.
 
Upvote 0
#14
cayenne said:
But for example, I love shooting anamorphic glass for stills......and video too.
cayenne
Click to expand...
I thought that Anamorphic lenses were designed so that landscape orientation image was “squeezed” to make more efficient use of the surface area of the film, resulting in a higher resolution image that could then be projected for viewing with a reverse anamorphic lens (or whatever it was called), to give the wider, undistorted image.
So I’m unclear of what the point is with digital, which has a much higher resolution per area than film ever had.
It’s interesting though, that in the film days people clearly felt that a distorted but larger surface area ultimately gave better quality output when stretched back out again. Makes me feel a little better about these modern mirrorless lenses that require digital correction.
 
Upvote 0
#15
I'm often using vintage lenses, mostly Leica R macros, for focusing I never rely on the peaking. Not precise at all.
But the loupe function is great, have assigned it to the Mf-n button.
 
Upvote 0
#16
I guess we all have our experiences.

I’ve had no issue using MF assist with EF glass on the R series. I’ve also adapted some Mamiya lenses to the R5 and used focus peaking. I don’t remember if I used the focus guide or not.

But I’ve enjoyed the images with the Mamiya glass.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
#17
Sporgon said:
I thought that Anamorphic lenses were designed so that landscape orientation image was “squeezed” to make more efficient use of the surface area of the film, resulting in a higher resolution image that could then be projected for viewing with a reverse anamorphic lens (or whatever it was called), to give the wider, undistorted image.
So I’m unclear of what the point is with digital, which has a much higher resolution per area than film ever had.
It’s interesting though, that in the film days people clearly felt that a distorted but larger surface area ultimately gave better quality output when stretched back out again. Makes me feel a little better about these modern mirrorless lenses that require digital correction.
Click to expand...
Well, I like shooting panoramic images...

Yes, the digital image is squeezed....I then De-squeeze the image into the panoramic final image....

Yes, there is some distortion there, but I like that much like I like some of the "faults" and distortion of vintage lenses.

But today, movies are still shot with anamorphic lenses. and they have to be de-squeezed too...I just also like to do the same thing, but for stills images.

I shoot film for pano too....I have a 6x17 Shen Hao view camera that uses 120 medium format film to get a true panoramic image...no stitching...for digital equivalent I use anamorphic lenses.

I guess until they come out with a panoramic sensor..this is where I'll be...

ALTHOUGH, I do hear rumors, that perhaps in 2026, Fuji may in fact be releasing a digital "XPan" camera with a sensor that is pano......I'll be in line with my money for that one.

C
 
Upvote 0
#18
cayenne said:
Well, I like shooting panoramic images...

Yes, the digital image is squeezed....I then De-squeeze the image into the panoramic final image....

Yes, there is some distortion there, but I like that much like I like some of the "faults" and distortion of vintage lenses.

But today, movies are still shot with anamorphic lenses. and they have to be de-squeezed too...I just also like to do the same thing, but for stills images.

I shoot film for pano too....I have a 6x17 Shen Hao view camera that uses 120 medium format film to get a true panoramic image...no stitching...for digital equivalent I use anamorphic lenses.

I guess until they come out with a panoramic sensor..this is where I'll be...

ALTHOUGH, I do hear rumors, that perhaps in 2026, Fuji may in fact be releasing a digital "XPan" camera with a sensor that is pano......I'll be in line with my money for that one.

C
Click to expand...
Maybe you’d like this:
wideluxx.com

Home - WIDELUXX | The New Panoramic Paradigm | All Analog | Film Forever

WELCOME TOSilverBridges is recreating the Widelux... a panning, analog camera that bridges past and future, handmade to last generations.INTRODUCING THE The 2025 WIDELUX•X camera combines its iconic rotating lens with modern technology, delivering stunning panoramic images with vintage charm and...
wideluxx.com
The actor Jeff Bridges as formed a company to built a new version of a camera he has used for candid shots really, over his acting career.
 
Upvote 0
#20
Sporgon said:
Maybe you’d like this:
wideluxx.com

Home - WIDELUXX | The New Panoramic Paradigm | All Analog | Film Forever

WELCOME TOSilverBridges is recreating the Widelux... a panning, analog camera that bridges past and future, handmade to last generations.INTRODUCING THE The 2025 WIDELUX•X camera combines its iconic rotating lens with modern technology, delivering stunning panoramic images with vintage charm and...
wideluxx.com
The actor Jeff Bridges as formed a company to built a new version of a camera he has used for candid shots really, over his acting career.
Click to expand...
Wholly Crap...THANK YOU!!!

I've been trying to keep an eye out for this VERY anticipated camera.....I'd not seen this new site go up!!

Yep, to me, the new WideLux is one of those "PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY" type deals.

Much appreciated for the link!!

cayenne
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cayenne
Will the new R5 II de-squeeze anamorphic lenses...for Stills? Video?
Replies
13
Views
2K
cayenne
cayenne
photoy
I'm thinking of switching to the Fuji system.
Replies
18
Views
762
photoy
photoy
M
What do you use the control ring for? Is it worth the extra cost between the two EF adapters?
Replies
18
Views
3K
jdavidse
jdavidse
L
R7 strange lockup issue when reviewing images
Replies
4
Views
537
Bob66
B
Canon Rumors
Is Meike gearing up to offer autofocus lenses for the RF mount?
Replies
10
Views
1K
bn5fg
B
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Media
Menu