Readers of my blog (the old ones) will know that I've regularly used FD lenses on my m43 camera; these require an adapter to allow the FD lens to fit onto the m43 mount.
The same is true for a Sony A7 (E mount).
So as I have a small collection of FD lenses already it made sense to get a adapter; naturally I chose my favorite maker.
Now I'm a bit perplexed that this guy (from Poland) who makes without doubt the best "non electronic" adapters is somehow not yet "famous" on the internet, given that he's been making FD adapters (and many others) since at least 2009.
So without further preamble here's a quick look at my new Ciecio7 FD adapter
As always the workmanship is first rate, and being machined from a single billet of Aluminum its not only solid, but accurate. Indeed I believe there is more "play" in the nFD mount (with its screws) than there is in this adapter.
Myself I've found these to be far more satisfying and robust than any of the other makes I've ever used.
With the adapter on the camera the front of the camera becomes the same as the front of an FD camera and the lens is easily attached (well if you're used to nFD lenses)
It fits nicely and to be frank, "fits like it was made for it" ... which is more than I can say about some other adapters I've tried (even on E mount).
dismounting it you can see that its just a beautifully made bit of gear and looks great.
From this angle you can see there are two red dots which makes the process of mounting any FD lens easier ....basically you bring the lens to the adapter with the lens Red Dot matching the left (in this picture) red dot. Then you (keeping them together) rotate the lens around to match the second red dot (on the right) and the lens "falls onto" the adapter (as it goes into that groove).
You then rotate the lens to "lock it" in the normal way (Leftie Loosie - Righite Tightie) till it clicks.
In the shot above you can see the "tangs" which engage the aperture control (on the back of the lens), they too are machined ... its just beautiful work (no screws through the side here).
So now I can fit my FD 50f1.4, 100f2.8, 200f4 and 300f4 to my Sony A7 body.
Every time I buy another one of this guys adapters he's put effort into iterative improvement and development. He deserves better recognition than he gets IMO (and no he and I have no relationship, indeed we barely communicate except for me ordering adapters off his eBay store now and then.
I strongly suggest if you're in the market for an adapter to go sus his site out on eBay (link).
A link to all my other articles about this guys adapters is here.
While things may seem to have slowed down a little on the micro 4/3 front it seems that at least one maker of adaptors is iteratively developing his line of adaptors.
As it happens my first adaptor for my G1 was the FD adaptor. The first one was a simple affair which just did the functional job of allowing me to put FD lenses onto my G1. Mounted using this adaptor they could focus and had (manual) aperture control. Don't forget being manual focus lenses they focus manually too ;-)
I wrote a post about that first one here and then wrote about the updated "second series" one here.
the mask
Back some time ago there was a discussion that the Rayqual adaptor had a "mask" in the back of the adaptor to shield the internal of the camera from the extra light that would be falling around when using adapted 35mm lenses.
If this is a new idea to you, then essentially its about the concept that the image circle of 35mm lenses will be way larger than the 4/3 sensor.
If you look at this diagram I've drawn in blue the tightest circle that a lens can throw and evenly illuminate a 35mm frame / sensor (which I've indicated in blue). As you can see this is way larger than needed for the 4/3 sensor (and a reason why I'm very interested in a tilt adaptor for the 4/3 system as there is plenty of coverage).
Well, so what?
As it happens having all that extra illumination in there has the potential to increase the amount of internal reflection and thus reduce the contrast of the lens by having stray light reflecting around in the area between lens and sensor. Its the reason (incase you never thought of it) that the area behind lenses in SLR cameras is painted black.
I never thought it was an issue, but didn't give it much more thought before that discussion. I wasn't about to pop the bucks for a Rayqual adaptor, so it was essentially a question I could not answer ...
Well, when I saw that Ciecio7 had a new adaptor out which had just such a mask (like the Rayqual one), I asked if he would send me one for evaluation, which he very kindly did.
So I thought I would compare his "series 2" with this new one (should it be the series 3?).
Bottom line early
couldn't see any difference in images, but the adaptor is really nicely made. His stuff gets better every time I see one.
This in itself is a good thing and I personally prefer this adaptor over any other I've tried.
Findings
The first thing which bears a mention is that this new adaptor is not just a series 2 with a mask added. Its subtle but there are other differences. Clearly he's been making a few tweaks to the design.
The first thing I noticed when putting the adaptor onto the lens was that he's snuggled the "grip" area closer to the lens.
which becomes clearer when you compare this to the series 2:
It does make the adaptor look much nicer now.
It helps to cover up the back of the FD lens attachment system (which is normally mounted hard against a camera), this is something I made reference to in my first review of these adaptors. It may be a point of entry for dust, but at that time felt it wasn't anything to get worked up about.
The new adaptor has the alignment dots on the outside and they're nicely placed. The extra dots on the case make it easier to align the adaptor to mount it and the lens. I see that he has now added a youtube video of how to do this on his ebay site so I didn't have to do that one myself.
Anyway, back to the adaptor.
I took a few images using RAW and examined them to see if there was any difference. I used my 28mm and my 50mm lens and took images at f2 and f5.6 to see if there was any effect noticeable as a result of wider angles or aperture. I found nothing different. Here is one sample:
The 50mm test image
And two 100% samples from it. The taking conditions are outside in full sunlight, with the lens well shielded from stray light.
series 2
series 3
I had thought to find some more difference than I did, but I didn't ... so as the old saying goes:
Why is it so...
Well the first thing which comes to my mind is that there is perhaps very little internal bouncing around inside the micro 4/3 "mirror box" in the first place .. probably because there isn't one!
I mean you can probably go grab your micro 4/3 camera and look, but as you can see here from where the lens or adaptor mounts onto the camera there is only a few mm for light to bounce around in.
There is a nice stepped area around the shutter (reduces reflections) and very little other opportunity between the sensor and the back of the mount.
So if there is to be any light bouncing around in there it will most likely have to be between the back of the FD lens and the inside of the adaptor.
This is where the Ciecio7 adaptor perhaps has an advantage.
The first series of the Ciecio7 and most of the other adaptors use a simple pin to engage the lens's iris engagement pin. However from the second series the Ciecio7 uses a gap in an internal system which is essentially a baffle.
You can see this in the image below (which is one of the images Ciecio7 has on his eBay page)
Apart from a few gaps to allow lens components in it essentially is a baffle that runs around the interior of the lens.
Mask (shown here) has far less to do than similar items on the backs of 35mm lenses.
Series 2
Series 3
So looking at them like this it seems that there really isn't much for the "mask" do to in cutting down on internal reflections ... is there?
So, what's the advantage? should you buy the new one?
If you already have the series 2, then probably no. If you don't have an FD adaptor or are after another one, then this adaptor is one of the best made you can get on the market for any price. Compared to many other adaptors its carved from a single billet of alloy and you won't be getting any issues of screws being or coming lose (as I had on the RJ Camera one).
The construction of this adaptor is excellent. The sample I had fitted all my FD lenses perfectly and infinity focus was spot on with 28mm and 50mm lenses (length is more critical with the shorter focal length lens).
Another advantage is that the price of this new adaptor is slightly less than I paid for the series 1 adaptor. The seller is actually the maker (as I understood things) and so you're not just buying something from on-seller. As I've stated on my blog before, I'm a big fan of the free market and supporting that with information to help that along. So like Adam Smith wrote:
By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
So buying a well made product that does the job well at a good price (way lower than a Rayqual) you not only get a better bit of gear, you essentially vote for a business who was among the first to make this kind of product, but also one of the few who keeps trying to make it better (unlike many of the el cheapo eBay sellers).
Right about now there is a lot of interest in the micro 4/3rds format with enthusiastic amateurs and perhaps some professionals looking at using legacy lenses on these cameras. Not only is this a cost effective in terms of accessing some fine optics but the adapters are not being made by Panasonic but by many third party groups.
I think this is great as both the photographic community and specialist makers are getting involved in expanding this system. Now not that the makers produce lower quality stuff (in fact quite the opposite) its just that they don't always have the imagination or the inclination to cater to markets like this.
So, here is the adapter from Ciecio7, he's an ebay seller.
Its a nice tidy unit and looks quite nicely made. These adapters are really quite simple animals, and essentially simply stand the lens off from the camera to the right distance. This is because the micro 4/3rds system requires the lens mount to be 22mm from the sensor while other cameras require a bigger distance (called flange distance).
The first thing I noticed when I put on my OM lens was how bloody stiff it was to turn and lock the lens. I mean really. I needed to turn the lens focus all the way round and get a grip on the rubber focus grip strongly. I thought I was going to rip it off.
Once mounted I checked infinity focus (with my Olympus 21mm f3.5 lens) and found that it was off by a bit on the scale. Infinity was at 3 meters on the scale. Now the shorter the focal length lens the more effect that any accuracy of the above flange distance comes into play. With a 21mm lens I reckoned this was about 0.09mm
So I had now two reasons to pull apart the adaptor:
fix that tightness
fix the infinity focus
Fixing infinity focus
Infinity focus was easy to fix, I put a small sheet of shim material of the right thickness between the chromed plate and the black tube surface it screws to. His design makes this easy to do this.
Fixing the tightness
This proved a little more challenging, and required me to understand what the problem was.
If you look carefully at the mount you can see that the flaps on the back of the lens bayonet mount slide under some wing rails on the inner part of the mount.
This holds the lens from falling off the camera and also allows the lens to be tightened down against the front surface of the mount.
For it to tighten down it needs some spring to pull it against the inner surface of the lenses flaps.
if you look carefully at the mount to the left you can see that he's incorporated that into the mount.
I've removed the metal front mount (undo those 4 screws and pay attention to orientation) and you can see it more clear in this closeup of the metal part.
perhaps you can see that what he has done is to split the inner coupling flange and bend it down to provide a a spring as the lens bayonet flap moves under it from left to right (as you rotate the lens on the mount). From this angle you can see the delicate side cut he's put into the ring to allow it to be bent down.
But this is the problem, because this provides way too much spring power and friction. Its not needed and makes the lens so difficult to attach and remove I'm genuinely afraid of damage.
How is this done on the camera? Well since the OM mount method is quite similar to the Panasonic (only the sizes vary a little) I thought I'd just show you how the Panasonic does it. You can see below that a small curved bit of spring metal is inserted in a carved out part.
this applies a more delicate but sufficient force to properly tighten the system. Something else you'll perhaps noice is the red flecks of paint in there. This is something I've found with his other adaptors that the red paint he uses for marking the orientation points for mounting the adaper on the camera are not sufficiently countersunk and bits are cut off by the process. You can guess that these end up inside the camera. I think that this needs reviewing in his design and manufacture as its not a problem with other makers adaptors.
So, placing this plate onto my lens (but I can't turn it) you can see here just how much spring force is applied. In my opinion it was way too much (even though its barely a mm).
partly this is because of the thickness and the width of the spring and partly its because its bent a bit too strongly.
My solution was to carefully lapp down the underside of the ring to make that spring less strong. Like this:
I did this carefully with "wet and dry" paper and checked it against my lens (cleaning carefully each time) before finally remounting with my shim (from above) in place.
Conclusion
While I think that supplying users with a selection of shim material for allowing owners to easily tune infinity focus. This is a good solution to the problems of manufacturing tolerances, however it may not be for everyone. However without doubt this level of "owner adaptation" to get the mounting plate to interface with the lens is just too much to ask.
I would urge Ciecio7 to reconsider his design and either provide a smaller spring tension (by bending it less strongly) or reduce the thickness of the bent component (making it less stiff).
I'd also suggest that he consider more appropriately recessing the red dot so that it doesn't wipe off on the inside of my camera. This is not confined to just this adaptor either, as looking at my FD adaptor from him you can see the same thing happening there too
So there you have it.
Right now Ciecio7 is (as far as I know) the only maker producing an OM to micro 4/3rds adaptor which is one part, so this alone makes his adaptor worth looking at. If you don't mind it being 2 pieces, Jinfinance on eBay (known also as RJ Camera) presently makes a system which allows you to cover 2 lenses in one go. There might be advantages to that, but then again more joins means more likely hood for inaccruacy to me.
I have yet to get my hands on. It is more expensive than the one from Ciecio7 and I don't find having a two piece design ideal ... I'd rather have one adaptor for each lens. But then that's me :-)
I've been happily using an adaptor purchased from a fellow on eBay called ciecio7. As noted in a previous post of mine the FD lens adaptor is a little long (fractions of a millimeter) but means that turning the lens around to infinity does not exactly reach infinity (using a 50mm lens @f1.8 worked out to be somewhere around 50 meters away and using a 28mm more like 15 meters).
I brought this to the attention of cieco7 and he offered to send me aonther adaptor. In the mean time my solution to that issue was to carefully "lapp" the lens side of the adaptor to reduce the length. I've documented that here as an appendix in the above mentioned post.
I mentioned this to ciecio7 and suggested that he did not need to send me another adaptor (why waste postage?)
He wrote back to say that he would send me one which was slightly shorter anyway.
So, this is that adaptor. I'm writing this blog entry because not only is the adaptor perfect out of the box but has undergone a few modifications which I think make the adaptor a much nicer looking bit of gear as well as more functional.
Where there was an engagement pin there is now a ledge running right around the inside of the adaptor. It has a gap in it to engage the pin for coupling the Aperture IRIS.
To mate with the FD lens and make the lens aperture ring functional there is a small lever on the back of the FD lens which needs to be engaged by the adaptor.
This is done when mounting the adaptor onto the lens by:
bringing the adaptor to meet the lens at the red dot shown below, at first the adaptor does not feel like it properly engages
then, turning the adaptor to the other red dot on the left of the alignment dot.
at this point the adaptor can be felt to 'drop in' to the mount now, and you turn it all the way till it clicks inside the lens (IE mounting an FD as one normally does).
Below is the older system (which has a pin instead of the ledge the new adaptor has), and you can perhaps see that the pin may miss coupling with the iris lever this way.
In the past the adaptor was different to this one and instead had a simple pin arrangement to engage and activate the iris mechanism of the FD lens, as you can see on the image to the right.
This works, but allows you to incorrectly mount the lens leaving an inoperative iris.
The new system makes it impossible to mount the lens incorrectly, as if you don't go through the steps above then the adaptor won't fit on the lens properly. I'm sure he has had some complaints about this issue (indeed I contacted him about it when I first got the lens as it wasn't intuitive to me (not being an FD lens owner before).
So its good to see that he is not only making good products (at lower prices) but is also making them better in an iterative cycle of improvements.
So, why am I writing this?
I have always regarded the free market as kind of related to democracy. I vote with my cash and I pass on information about traders (good and bad). They say that bad reports travel 9 times faster than good reports, so here is my attempt at balance. I guess that this is my input into Adam Smith's Invisible hand.
In a harsh economic world which hardly ever caters for small markets and enthusiasts with specialist needs it is good to see a business which does not only cater for this need but a business which makes ongoing developments to its products rather than just sit there turning out the same thing. Having seen Nikon dis-continue the LS-V and LS-5000 film scanners (in what seems like a lot of demand at least in Europe) I am even more inclined to support those businesses which move photography more towards an "open source" method (which it once was) and away from the locked down proprietary (rip off) that it now is. For instance, tried buying a battery for your digital camera recently?
One of the great things about the Panasonic G1 (and probably all Micro 4/3rds if anyone else makes one) is the abiltiy to access lenses from almost any camera and mount it to the G1 by an adapter.
Shown to the left is my Canon FD 50 f1.8 which is essentially the same "nifty fifty" so popular among EOS camera users.
Actually while it lacks a few features that the nifty fifty (AKA the EF 50 f1.8 series one) it has a few advantages such as price (I paid US$6.00 for this one) and smooth manual focusing.
As you can see in the above image its more or less the same size as the G Vario 14-45 lens and infact weighs quite a bit less. In fact its 186g with the adapter vs 227g for the G Vario.
The neat thing is that you don't actually need more than one adapter if you stay with one series of lenses (and well ,the adapters aren't heavy or dear anyway).
For the green and newbie photographers (or simply those who cut their teeth in the age of automated every-bloody-thing) the lenses will loose all automation, meaning that they work in stop down mode only. I bought mine on eBay from a seller called ciecio7 (check him out on Toolhaus, personally I rate him very highly and I've been on eBay for nine years).
This is the pair sitting together. In the case of the FD lens mount (unlike say Pentax K mount or simple screw mounts) there FD lens is a little complex (to allow the camera to get aperture information and also to open and close the aperture to give 'wide open' focusing not stop down focusing).
The mount has to insert into the lens and then rotate part of the interior of the lens *(unlike most modern mounts, and people actually bitched when the EF mount came out ... folks it was worth the pain).
With the lens mounted to the adapter its now ready to pop onto your G1
I have friends who do machining work for a living, and I have to say that this is a top quality bit of work. Attention to smooth surface, beveled edges for good grasping ... its a quality bit of gear.
Have a closer look at this here in this close up:
You can see the nice job done on all things (even the polishing).
{by the way, these images are taken with my little trusty Coolpix 5000 ... a fantastic little digital camera and seemingly lost to obscurity of time. If you want an amazing value for money table top small product photography camera look no further}
This view shows up the only issue I have with this adaptor, and its as much related to the design of the FD lens and mount as anything. Because the lens is now not mating flush with a camera body that stainless steel mount is open to the air (as you can see) and will allow any dust / grit / whatever to get in there and gradually damage the mechanism.
Is this a problem? Heck it all depends on where you use the camera and how. I significantly doubt it would be a problem for water entry (like the rest of the camera would be a bigger problem ...) but it does look inviting for sand if you go to the beach.
Anyway I've passed this information on to the maker, so perhaps he will make iterative changes as time goes by.
So, this is what it looks like on the camera.
Attention to detail in manufacturing has meant that the focus markers and aperture reference points are right in the center on the top (where they should be) and (if you start with the lens mounted on the adapter) even the red dot on the FD lens works nicely as a line up indicator when mounting the lens. Just as in normal Canon mounting you start with the red dot to the top and turn clockwise.
The lens works nicely on the camera although I would say I'd prefer to have it easily fully open for focus then stop down for taking. Not because the view finder is brighter that way (unlike optical SLR's) but because the focusing works better.
The only problem I have encountered is that Infinity is just a teensy bit forward of infinity (meaning that I can't get to infinity). I've included an image below taken at f2.8 to demonstrate what I mean.
Keep in mind when viewing it that this is a 100% crop from a section of a 4000 pixel wide image from a sensor which is 22mm wide. The lens was originally used for 35mm photography (like in the 1970's) where the film is 36mm wide. So the magnifications of any failure in tolerance in lens build quality are very high. To put a perspective on it if this sort of image density was being pulled from a piece of 35mm film, it would be similar to a 4600dpi scan (since the image density is about 182 pixels per mm). Personally I think this is WAY BEYOND what anyone would have ever expected out of a (even at the time) cheap lens.
Bottom line
This is fantastic and gets me a better result than my 10D with the EF 50f1.8. Since I'm now using this adaptor with a FD 300 f4 (and soon an FD 28 f2.8) then its cost is divided across multiple cheap high quality lenses and puts it well into the bargain category.
After getting some extension tubes which were a very snug fit onto my adaptor (read I can barely get them on), I've just decided to have a go at making a small modification to the adaptor to make it more compatible with my lenses - shorten it.
I got some P320 wet and dry paper, and using a very flat laminex table top carefully lapped down the lens side of the adaptor. If you have no experience with manual arts working I don't recommend you to try this (but as I'm quite a tinkerer I thought I'd give it a whirl)
I worked in a careful circular motion (a mini version of the Karate kid's wax on - wax off) holding the adaptor evenly so as to not put uneven pressure on any part of the surface. I then changed grip every few circles to avoid unintentional uneven-ness.
After all traces of the front surface's anodization layer was removed I tried it on my 28mm lens at f2.8. There was a noticeable improvement in infinity focus.
I repeated this a few times (checking again after a minute or so of careful lapping) and its now so bloody close as to be totally satisfactory.
So, this seems to work in the case of the FD mount.
