Canon 7D with old stills lenses

samBAKER

samBAKER

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Sam
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Hi all,

I have a Canon 7D which I want to use for filming short films and music videosbut I want to use old lenses used on 35mm stills cameras. I was wondering if you could recommend different types of lenses that would be useful for what I want to do and what lens adapters I would need to make them work.

I'd appreciate any help possible, thanks!
Sam
 
Can't go wrong with the Heilos M42 len's, can be picked up for less than a tenner on evilBay. And the adaptor is cheap aswell
 
Excellent, cheers, any more suggestions would be useful for anyone else reading this thread! :)

Also, could you shed some light on different lenses for different shots, do you think I would need a telescopic lens for doing things like short films and music videos, I'm guessing I'd need a wide angle lens and maybe a macro?
 
Did someone call? ;)

You have lots of options with the Canon EOS system :)

Namely:

M42 screw mount lenses
Pentax K mount lenses
Olympus OM mount lenses
Contax / Yashica mount lenses
Nikon mount lenses
Exakta mount lenses
Leica R lenses
Prakticar PB mount lenses - these won't focus to infinity though
Tamron Adaptall / SP lenses
Old T-mount lenses

There are loads of great M42 lenses out there. Try a Carl Zeiss Jena 135/3.5 sonnar lens...it renders beautifully. Or a Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35/2.4 or 35/2.8 (but these are getting expensive). The Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50/1.8 is reasonably fast.

M42 Asahi Super Takumars are also great and generally better built than the East German Carl Zeiss Jena series. The 55/1.8 is always very cheap whilst the 50/1.4 is rising in price. There is a whole series of wider and longer prime lenses available too.

If you want something a little cheaper, try a Russian clone of the Carl Zeiss Jena optics e.g. Jupiter 11A and 37A are clones of the CZJ 135/3.5 and can be had for around £20. The Helios 44 already mentioned is a 58/2 CZJ Biotar clone and can be had for £10.

The Pentax K series lenses are also great value...I picked up a Pentax-M 50/1.4 for £35.00.

Olympus Zuiko lenses are pretty much all brilliant! The 50/1.8 is starting to increase in value but can still be had for £20.00 or so. The 50/1.4 is less common but can be found for about £50.

The Contax Carl Zeiss lenses are STUNNING! Grab any you can!! :D The Planar 50/1.4 is gorgeous with incredible "pop" whilst the 50/1.7 isn't far behind. The Distagon 28/2.8 is a cracker too, also with great pop. There exists a Hollywood 28/2 version but it's pricey! The 85/2.8 Sonnar is sharp from wide open, but the Planar 85/1.4 would be more useful for shooting indoor music videos. The Yashica ML series are also very well made, and whilst not as good as the Carl Zeiss lenses, are still extremely good performers.

Nikon lenses are plentiful and of great quality. The pre-ai lenses are less valuable as Nikon shooters can't meter with them / find they break their camera's metering prong, but they work fine and meter on Canon DSLRs.

And as for Leica...if you've got the cash...;)

Adapters can be found on ebay for very little. Sellers like big_is and jinfinance have all provided me with decent adapters over the past couple of years :)
 
Last edited:
samBAKER said:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carl-Zeiss-Fl...meraLensesFilters_JN&hash=item2eb44fe338#shId

would you recommend this lens?
Click to expand...

A good copy of a Flektogon is great fun to use as it will produce lovely colours and doubles as a near macro lens :) However, you won't know if you've got a good copy until you try it as copy variation was incredible! Typical faults are dodgy corners. Anyway, worst case scenario, you sell it on and don't lose anything :lol:

BTW, this lens has triped in value over the past 3 years. I picked mine up for £35.00 :eek:
 
So would you recommend anything else with a budget of say, £180/£200 or should I go with this Zeiss Flektogon 35mm f2.4 ?

Thanks so much for your help by the way!
 
A fast lens yeah as for focal range, doesnt need to be super high, kinda medium, I can't really say what specific size as I'm not completely sure hehe
 
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