A tip on using Canon FD lenses on m4/3

[raid]

I tried using the Canon 17mm FD lens on the Olympus EP-2 via an FD adapter. The problem that I encountered was the aperture was always wide open. I did not have the "pin" to allow me to close down the aperture.
On the other hand, when used with Canon Adapter B, the lever at the back of FD lenses is pushed open with Adapter B, and this allows you to change the aperture when using it on the m 4/3. You would need a LTM-M adapter, plus M-m4/3.

I just thought to post it here just in case ...

 

[Dwig]

If you have a true "FD Mount" lens, chrome breech-lock mounting ring at the rear, then you should be able to push the diaphram stopdown lever slightly past its normal stopdown position and you will feel a "snap" and the level will stay in the stop down positon, help by a detent. You then have a "manual" lens that can be mounted on adpaters, tube, and/or bellows that lack a diaphram mechanisim.

If, instead, you have a "New FD" mount, the ones that bayonet onto the camera, then this older feature will not be present. Canon offered a small plastic attachment that would slip over the stopdown lever and hold it in the stopdown mode, but finding one now is all but impossible.

 

[raid]

Yes, this is correct. The 17/4 has the old breech mount, but I am unable to push the diaphragm stop down.

 

[Mackinaw]

Raid, you have to do two things to put a breechlock FD lens into full manual mode. Grab the big lever at the back of the lens and push counterclockwise until it locks. Then you mount the lens on the camera (or, with the lens off the camera, turn the breechlock mount counterclockwise until stops.....which mimics the lens being attached to the camera). Make sure the lens is not set to "A." This should do it.

Jim B.

 

[Godfrey]

The better adapters include a pin which automatically stops down the lens aperture.

G

 

[raid]

Raid, you have to do two things to put a breechlock FD lens into full manual mode. Grab the big lever at the back of the lens and push counterclockwise until it locks. Then you mount the lens on the camera (or, with the lens off the camera, turn the breechlock mount counterclockwise until stops.....which mimics the lens being attached to the camera). Make sure the lens is not set to "A." This should do it.

Jim B.

Thanks for the tip, Jim. I will try it.

 

[Al Patterson]

I wonder how the 35-105 f3.5 FD lens would work with m4/3.

 

[peterm1]

My FL/FD mount adapter has a pin and a rotating collar marked "open" and "closed". (Or is it "locked" and "unlocked")? You rotate the collar to shut the aperture down. This is the operating position. The other position is only used when mounting and un-mounting lenses.

I don't recall paying more than perhaps $20-$30 for the adapter and it works fine (Especially as the breechlock lenses mount very securely these work better than adapters for any other lens that I have tried). They are worth buying if you want to use an older canon lens as it removes this problem.

 

[Godfrey]

I wonder how the 35-105 f3.5 FD lens would work with m4/3.

Nearly any SLR lens works very well on Micro-FourThirds cameras. The Olympus Pen F lenses are particularly sweet as they are compact and light, designed for a format just a little bit larger. However they're getting to be "collectible" pricing these days.

Typically, longer focal length RF film camera lenses work very well too (say, 35-40mm, certainly 50mm, and up).

It's short focal length RF film camera lenses that struggle on Micro-FourThirds (and NEX, and Fuji X) sensors. And how much they struggle depends upon which lens design and which sensor you're using, and how critical you are about smearing, color shifting, and other artifacts off-axis.

If you've got a lens, and you've got an mFT body, the cost of an adapter and some experimentation will tell you everything you need to know. The adapters are not that expensive. 🙂

G

 

[raid]

I wonder how the 35-105 f3.5 FD lens would work with m4/3.

I have used the Vivitar 90-180 zoom (in FD mount) on the m 4/3. It works better than on an SLR since I get a 10X magnification for focusing plus IS with the m 4/3.

 

[Texsport]

I have used the Vivitar 90-180 zoom (in FD mount) on the m 4/3. It works better than on an SLR since I get a 10X magnification for focusing plus IS with the m 4/3.

Agree! Macros that you don't have to get on top of.

I use that combination as my walking around macro. The IS makes it all work.

Texsport