Zeiss and Leica on a Canon body

Hi guys

I was wondering if there are any adapters that enable using Zeiss and Leica lenses on a 30D body? For those of you who have used both on a 30d body could you notice the difference? What is the f stop loss? From people’s experience where’s a good place to buy such lenses?

I know it might sound like a dumb question but it’s very hard to find any reference material on this topic.

Hi there,

I use Zeiss lenses on my 5D, occasionally on the 10D. There are many adapters available, some of the most well-known are:

Cameraquest
Fotodiox
Pham Minh Son
Bob Shell

There is no f-stop loss, the lenses are capable of their full aperture range. You lose auto-exposure, though, meaning you need to focus, stop down, meter, then shoot, manually. The only thing that works automatically is metering.

A good place to buy is Fred Miranda Buy & Sell forum (free registration required):
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/board/10

A tip for you: don't ask people here (dpreview) if they believe it's better to use Zeiss/Leica over Canon lenses, you'll start a huge argument. Best advice is to just try it out on your own and decide for yourself if the trade-offs are worth it to you.

Good luck,
-Rob

Mr EG said:

Hi guys
I was wondering if there are any adapters that enable using Zeiss
and Leica lenses on a 30D body? For those of you who have used both
on a 30d body could you notice the difference? What is the f stop
loss? From people’s experience where’s a good place to buy such
lenses?

I know it might sound like a dumb question but it’s very hard to
find any reference material on this topic.

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pinciuc.com/photos/
You see, the thing is, I'm an absolutist. Well, kind of... in a way...

Photodiox adapter and it works fine. Just make sure that you get an adapter that allows focus to infinity.

I'm assuming that it will work on my 1DII without issue.

Right now, I think the 5D is the body having mirror clearance problems with exotic lenses.

--
10D
1D Mark II
Some Lenses
Lots of debt
Not enough time

Madness is the gift that has been given to me...

thanks for the tip

Out of curiosity do you have any? How do you find yours to be?

doug572 said:

Right now, I think the 5D is the body having mirror clearance
problems with exotic lenses.

Click to expand...

A good place to learn which Zeiss and Olympus lenses work on the 5D with adapters:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/306575

Cheers,
-Rob

--
http://www.pinciuc.com/photos/
You see, the thing is, I'm an absolutist. Well, kind of... in a way...

I use Olympus 21/3.5, and Zeiss 28/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.7 and 85/2.8. I enjoy them all, the image quality is excellent in my opinion, they are of excellent construction, are small, and lightweight despite being made of metal. Focus and aperture mechanisms are well-damped and smooth. All are very contrasty and have colours that I enjoy.

The Zeiss 28/2.8 and 35/2.8 are clearly best at f/8 and f/11, and have only the smallest bit of barrel distortion. The Zeiss 50/1.7 may be my sharpest lens, in particular between f/2.8 and f/5.6. The 85/2.8 is very good at f/2.8 where I use it for concerts, and is excellent at f/4 through f/8. The Olympus is best at f/8, where it achieves a very large depth of field and very good contrast and resolution with almost no barrel distortion, for wide landscapes.

I use Cameraquest adapters on all the Zeiss lenses. The CQ adapters are excellent, high-quality and precise, and I get infinity focus on all of the lenses on my 5D. The Oly 21/3.5 has a no-name adapter than I'm going to replace because it is of poor quality.

I also use a Brightscreen Proscreen #2 (p232) with large microprism spot centre for manual focusing.

I should say, though, that had I not switched to the 5D, I likely would have kept and continued to use the Canon 17-40/4L that I thoroughly enjoyed on my Digital Rebel. It did not, however, perform as well at the edges and in the corners as I'd hoped it would on my 5D.

This is all just one man's opinion, your mileage may vary, and there are people who will disagree with my subjective findings. I don't really care, I use what works best for me!

Cheers,
-Rob

--
http://www.pinciuc.com/photos/
You see, the thing is, I'm an absolutist. Well, kind of... in a way...

do you mind if i ask why is it not used often on the 10d?

I just had a look at your gallery and I must say you have many excellent shots (I love the sharpness on the dragonfly)

I've read through that great compilation, but I could not find it before my post.

Thanks for the link, will bookmark this time.

--
10D
1D Mark II
Some Lenses
Lots of debt
Not enough time

Madness is the gift that has been given to me...

The Leica and Zeiss lenses are pretty expensive compared to their Canon counterparts. On a cropped camera, you crop away much of the advantage of a high-end exotic, namely, corner sharpness. You still retain the great contrast and color saturation, though.

Since I don't have Canon primes in the 21mm range, I cannot compare center sharpness against my Distagon 21mm.

--
10D
1D Mark II
Some Lenses
Lots of debt
Not enough time

Madness is the gift that has been given to me...

I love playing with my Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 on my Canon 5D. For a guy that never really used film much at all and relatively new to the world of photography I find that I learn much more about photography using these manual lenses.







I also have a Carl Zeiss Flektogon 35mm f/2.8 and a Jupiter9 85mm f/2 lens, which are great fun as well.

Johnny

great thanks

i love the 2nd shot

--
http://www.pinciuc.com/photos/
You see, the thing is, I'm an absolutist. Well, kind of... in a way...

Yeah strangely it's no longer a sticky thread on the forum. I guess they figured it's not referenced much any more, everyone's got their kits together or whatever.

Cheers,
-Rob

--
http://www.pinciuc.com/photos/
You see, the thing is, I'm an absolutist. Well, kind of... in a way...

If you mean why I don't use it on the 10D much, that's because I only recently acquired the 10D, and it's just my backup body.

The other poster mentioned why you probably don't need Zeiss on a cropped sensor though, and I agree, I would have kept my 17-40/4L if I went with the 30D instead of the 5D. It was awesome on my Digital Rebel.

Cheers,
-Rob

Mr EG said:

do you mind if i ask why is it not used often on the 10d?

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pinciuc.com/photos/
You see, the thing is, I'm an absolutist. Well, kind of... in a way...