# EOS R System: Experimenting with adapted lenses with mirrorless, thoughts? Experiences?



## cayenne (Sep 30, 2021)

Hello all,

First, I will disclose, I'm still on the sidelines with respect to the new R mirrorless system. I still am shooting my 5D3...with a good selection of EF glass.

I'm leaning towards the R5, but will wait a bit longer to see the R3 come out and maybe even see what rumors say about the mythical R1.

That being said, one thing that excites me about going mirrorless, is having fun adapting vintage lenses.

I have a couple of other mirrorless systems (GFX, M10M) and I have had fun with those. The focus assist on those helps my very bad and aging eyes to where even I can get sharp pics focusing manually.

So, first question, what is your opinion on the R focus assist (I assume it has this?)

What are the pros/cons you are finding?

Also, what lenses are you adapting and what are your thoughts? What is working for you?

Don't get me wrong, I love using modern lenses with almost clinical sharpness, but for portraits and well, just more artsy shots, I'm really enjoying older lenses...the swirl of the Russian Helios 44-2....the great looks I get from the Jupiter 9 m42 mount I recently acquired...I've even been adapting old Hasselblad medium format film lenses onto a GFX digital medium format camera and it gives a new aesthetic I find pleasing.

I have the new re-make of the Trioplan 100mm lens with the bubble bokeh coming in that I got a good deal on.

Anyway...I'm curious if any of you are adapting vintage lenses of various mounts onto your R cameras and what your thoughts and experiences are.

Maybe even post a pic or two?

I'm going for R in the near future and wanted to get a head start on thinking about lenses to adapt to it that I might buy before I get the camera body itself.

Thanks in advance and looking forward to hearing and seeing what you say here.

cayenne


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## Del Paso (Sep 30, 2021)

Hi Cayenne,

I too adapt vintage lenses, but to an EOS R.
My lenses are almost exclusively Leica M and R, mostly macro and teles. Leica M lenses "shorter" than 35mm are critical due to more or less pronounced magenta cast (on the sides). Retrofocus SLR lenses are unproblematic, as well as the latest Voigtländer VM 15mm III.
Focus peaking or the "triangles" method CANNOT be used, manual lenses being usually without electronic contacts. So, they do not communicate with the camera, but you can use the loupe function for super precise focusing.
No need for buying the control-ring adapter, no function with non EF lenses.
And, by the way, most SLR vintage extreme (15 to 24mm) wide angles are disappointing, newer rangefinder Leica WAs are superb, offering crazy sharpness and contrast.
PS: Zeiss with EF mount allow assisted focusing...and are (most of them) excellent.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 1, 2021)

I adapted a old Sigma Mirror lens to my EOS R just out of curiosity. I was hand holding it. I used the focus indicator in the camera but was disappointed. It was not nearly as accurate as just focusing with magnification manually. I don't recall putting the lens on a tripod as it should have been done, I was just curious. I was shooting some evergreen trees to look at detail of the needles.

I have not used my R5 much at all, and no experimenting. I've been busy on other projects, much of my vintage lenses and old photo gear is boxed up and not easily accessible. Maybe this winter, I'll have more time to try other lenses. I built a copy stand and would like to use it to photograph tons of vintage photos to compare results with my Epson V600 scanner. So far, lighting reflections have ruined any copied photos and I've not been interested enough to solve that.


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## cayenne (Oct 1, 2021)

Del Paso said:


> Hi Cayenne,
> 
> I too adapt vintage lenses, but to an EOS R.
> My lenses are almost exclusively Leica M and R, mostly macro and teles. Leica M lenses "shorter" than 35mm are critical due to more or less pronounced magenta cast (on the sides). Retrofocus SLR lenses are unproblematic, as well as the latest Voigtländer VM 15mm III.
> ...



Thank you for the reply.

Wow..that's interesting. Again, as I'd mentioned I'm not in the R line of cameras yet.

But with the GFX100 and M10M...when I turn on focus assist, I see dots around the areas of contrast to help focus. I find this with combination of the "loop" type zoom really help me focus old manual lenses.

There is no electronic communication on those lenses on the cameras I've mentioned, in fact the focus assist is there for the purpose of helping focus lenses that do not communicate with the camera body.

I was expecting the Canon R line of cameras would have the same functionality?!?!? If this isn't there, that's VERY disappointing to me.

I need to investigate this more....to me that's a huge thing to be missing on a modern mirrorless camera...?!?!

cayenne


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## Sporgon (Oct 3, 2021)

cayenne said:


> I was expecting the Canon R line of cameras would have the same functionality?!?!? If this isn't there, that's VERY disappointing to me.
> 
> I need to investigate this more....to me that's a huge thing to be missing on a modern mirrorless camera...?!?!
> 
> cayenne


I adapt vintage lenses to my RP and the focus peaking works perfectly. In fact it’s very good; good enough for pretty critical focus. Of course magnification is still the most accurate way, but not always practical.

There’s nothing to stop anyone adapting vintage lenses to the EF mount, though unlike mirrorless leaving the lens stopped down for focus / viewing isn’t practical as the viewfinder gets very dark.

I’m still undecided between the principle of mirrorless vs reflex. If the dslr didn’t have live view then it would be no contest but of course they do.


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## cayenne (Oct 4, 2021)

Sporgon said:


> I adapt vintage lenses to my RP and the focus peaking works perfectly. In fact it’s very good; good enough for pretty critical focus. Of course magnification is still the most accurate way, but not always practical.
> 
> There’s nothing to stop anyone adapting vintage lenses to the EF mount, though unlike mirrorless leaving the lens stopped down for focus / viewing isn’t practical as the viewfinder gets very dark.
> 
> I’m still undecided between the principle of mirrorless vs reflex. If the dslr didn’t have live view then it would be no contest but of course they do.



So, do the focus assist markers not show up while magnification is on too?

C


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## Sporgon (Oct 4, 2021)

cayenne said:


> So, do the focus assist markers not show up while magnification is on too?
> 
> C


I’m up in the far North West of Scotland at the moment, and apart from having had too many beers to check, all my RP batteries are flat, which I am fast discovering is the bane of mirrorless. Anyway, I’m pretty sure focus peaking does not work when magnifying. But honestly, why would you want it to ?


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## Nemorino (Oct 4, 2021)

Indeed, no focus peaking and magnification. Neither the Eos R nor the R5 ( the cameras I use).


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## cayenne (Oct 5, 2021)

Nemorino said:


> Indeed, no focus peaking and magnification. Neither the Eos R nor the R5 ( the cameras I use).


Ok wow...that sucks.

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm coming from using the GFX100 and M10Monochrome and both have magnification with focus peaking, so I was assuming this was standard.

I should think that Canon could fix this with a firmware update?

It just seems like so basic of a utility......

Hmm....well, as I mentioned, I've been on the sidelines for Canon mirrorless....mostly likely getting a R5, but looking that I can easily wait a bit to see what R3 and possibly what rumors of R1 hold in store.....but I will readily admit much of my enthusiasm for mirrorless has been adapting vintage lenses.

But with my bad eyesight which age is making worse...for a manual focus lens I HAVE to have high quality focus assist, especially with fast lenses and capturing the vintage bokeh/blown out backgrounds while keeping the subject sharp.

Wow...this is a *HUGE* surprise to me, I cannot express how surprising this is.


cayenne


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## EricN (Oct 14, 2021)

cayenne said:


> Ok wow...that sucks.
> 
> Thanks for the heads up.
> 
> ...


I have bad eyesight too and I don't think you need focus peaking with magnification, but that's me. Why don't you rent an R5 from lens rentals (or is there an alternative place?) ?


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## cayenne (Oct 14, 2021)

EricN said:


> I have bad eyesight too and I don't think you need focus peaking with magnification, but that's me. Why don't you rent an R5 from lens rentals (or is there an alternative place?) ?


That's actually an excellent idea!!

I think I will rent one maybe in the near future and play with it.....

Yep, Lensrentals and Lensprotogo ....they're actually owned by the same company, but they often have different sales/.coupons going so it pays to shop between them.

Sometimes one has items the other does not...and one factors in shipping in the price while the other does not, so, it pays to compare the total pricing between them with whatever coupon(s) are out.

C


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