# Focus confirmation on Samyang lens?



## Artifex (Mar 21, 2013)

Hello! 
I own both Samyang 14mm f/2.8 and 35mm f/1.4 and really love these lens! However, I got to say that I do miss having the focus confirmation. While looking for a way to enable it on these lens, I saw that a few people literally glued AF-confirm chips to the very lens. Even though it seems to work well, I got to say that I don't like that much the idea of gluing things to the lens. Moreover, I am not a very manual guy, so I don't really trust myself with superglue near my glass! 
Does anyone knows of another way of being able to use focus confirmation with manual focus lens? If not, have anybody already glued a chip to a lens? Is it safe? Does it really work? 
Thanks a lot for the help!


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## wickidwombat (Mar 21, 2013)

funnily enough i did this to 2 lenses the other day

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=13526.0

works great
let me know if you have any questions

edit DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!!!


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## dr croubie (Mar 22, 2013)

wickidwombat said:


> edit DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!!!



I used superglue and it worked fine.

Except that I unscrewed the lensmount from the lens first, so no chance of getting glue on the elements. I did get a bit of glue on the contacts of the AF chip, nothing that a bit of IsoPropyl Alcohol can't remove (and I used to work in Electronics Repair, so I knows what i does).

Easiest way, of course, is to just sell the lenses you have, buy the same thing in Nikon Mount, then buy pre-made Nikon-EF adapters with AF Confirm Chips already on.

I definitely recommend the Lithuanian adapters, that's what i've glued onto my Samyang 35 and various others.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 22, 2013)

Since your 14mm lens is in focus from 3.5 ft to infinity, why would you need a AF chip? I've found that there is so much tolerance in AF lights that its worthless to use for critical focus, just gets me to a slightly blurry image.


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## Artifex (Mar 22, 2013)

wickidwombat said:


> funnily enough i did this to 2 lenses the other day
> 
> http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=13526.0
> 
> ...



I don't know how I missed this post! 
Thanks a lot for the information. Does the installation require much manual skills? Is the epoxy glue strong enough to keep the chip still, even with heavy use? Does it make any mess on the lens?

Thank you very much for your help!


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## Artifex (Mar 22, 2013)

dr croubie said:


> wickidwombat said:
> 
> 
> > edit DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!!!
> ...



I also though of selling them both and buying the Nikon version, like you suggested. However, I fear it might be difficult to sell lens from a mostly unknown and all-manual lens. I fear I might loss too much money by doing so. If only I though of that before buying...


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## Artifex (Mar 22, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Since your 14mm lens is in focus from 3.5 ft to infinity, why would you need a AF chip? I've found that there is so much tolerance in AF lights that its worthless to use for critical focus, just gets me to a slightly blurry image.



I'll be honest, I also don't have much problem with the 14mm; working with hyperfocal is easy enough. It is more with the 35mm that it gets annoying, but since the chip cost about 5-20$, why not upgrade both!


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## wickidwombat (Mar 22, 2013)

Artifex said:


> wickidwombat said:
> 
> 
> > funnily enough i did this to 2 lenses the other day
> ...



super glue dries too quickly, is britle and has nasty vapour ie high risk

the epoxy glue has a slightly longer drying time and goes through a tacky flexable stage which allows minor adjustment of position it takes alot longer for it to achieve 100% strength so after its glued you will need to wait maybe 4 hours before mounting for programming the chips.

expoxy glue is also stronger, more durable and has a higher temperature range resistance than super glue
this is what I used http://www.selleys.com.au/adhesives/household-adhesive/araldite/five-minute-everyday

its 2 part so you mix equal quantities on a piece of cardboard or something with a toothpick and then apply with another clean toothpick as that allows nice control over how much gets placed

the AF chips are also nice because they make the exif data in your files read correctly for the lens instead of 50mm and aperture 00

i would also recommend cutting a piece of paper or thin card into a circle to pop over the rear lens element while glueing so just in case there is a rogue drip it cant do any damage.

the chips i used come with a guide template to allow getting the chip in exactly the right spot and they also come with some little plastic spacer / filler pieces (little curved pieces of plastic) which can be trimmend to suit the lens with a razor blade and fine sand paper. tehse chips are designed and sized to sit exactly flush with the back of the lens mount so not modification of the mount is necessary.

hope that helps


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 22, 2013)

Artifex said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > Since your 14mm lens is in focus from 3.5 ft to infinity, why would you need a AF chip? I've found that there is so much tolerance in AF lights that its worthless to use for critical focus, just gets me to a slightly blurry image.
> ...


Many of the cheap chips are not worth the cost of the epoxy. They seem to fail or be DOA in a lot of cases. If you are going to get one, get a good one.


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