FD lens adapter help

Can anybody please help on mounting my newly purchased m4/3 lens adapter to my Canon 50mm 1.8 FD lens?

I tried by lining up the red indexes and turning the lock ring on the adapter but they just would not mount properly.

Any help is appreciated.

should be easy, just take care to catch the metal pin from the lens with the metal pin from the adapter.

When you mount make sure that the pin on the adapter is clockwise wrt to the big protrusion on the lens (this is aperture control pin). Then rotate adapter counterclockwise until the red dots align. Hope this makes sense.

With the adapter aperture ring in the Open position, place your lens on the adapter matching the red dot on the outer surface of the lens mount to what should be a red dot on your adapter somewhere near the Open position (or just match the lens red dot to the bayonet slot by the Open position in the absence of the red dot). Twist the lens in place until the lens release button clicks. Your lens is now fixed to your adapter.

To enable the lens aperture control, rotate the aperture ring on the adapter to the Closed position. You should now be able to see the lens aperture blades opening and closing as you manually adjust the aperture. You can now attach the entire stack to your camera matching the red dot on the bottom of your adapter to the red dot on the camera mount.

Good luck!

Lock means aperture lock, not lens lock. You use it after you mount the lens to switch between wide open and stopped down. To mount the lens, just twist the lens itself.

I have run into a few lenses that just wouldn't fit onto my FD adapter. It's like the adapter is of a slightly wrong size. It's also possible that the real FD mounts have spring-steel parts while the adapter doesn't, so has to try to be 'tight', but sometimes ends up being too tight?

Thanks to all the responses but I'm still having trouble. I made a video hoping you'll find something wrong that I'm doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqqx54nXNk

Thanks again!

Hi - I just viewed your video. I believe that you have the FD adapter aperture control ring in the closed rather than open position needed to be able to mount the lens to the adapter. When viewing the FD side of the adapter, the aperture control needs to be rotated fully to the left. This will cause the pin that is visible inside the adapter to be in the right-most upper position with respect to the red alignment dot. Using an analog clock face for reference, when the red alignment dot is at the 12 o'clock position, the pin that engages the lens aperture lever needs to be set to the 5 o'clock position. If the control ring is in the closed position this pin will be at the 6:30 o'clock position and will interfere with the mounting of the lens to the adapter. Make sure the aperture control ring is turned fullly left and the pin will be in the correct position for mounting an FD lens.

Yes, this. I have basically the same adapter as you do and you must begin with the ring on the adapter in the open position. Then mount the lens, use a good bit of force to press the lens to the adapter, then rotate the lens clockwise until it locks into position.

ColnagoRider said:

Thanks to all the responses but I'm still having trouble. I made a video hoping you'll find something wrong that I'm doing.

Click to expand...

Try pushing the lens locking button while you're locking it in place, see if that helps twist the lens around the adapter. Looks like you know what you're doing otherwise.

Thanks again for the replies, here's another video with the pin on the 5 o'clock position relative to the red dot being 12:00. Do you think I even have the correct adapter for the lens? Also, when I press that silver release button on the lens, I do not see anything retract or move.

Sorry for some OOF, it was very hard to stay on the same plane while demonstrating this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I1hennjzYo

From viewing your 2nd video it appears that you have the FD adapter set correctly for mounting an FD lens. It appears to be an FD adapter as the pin inside the adapter is located to engage the aperture lever found on all FL and FD series Canon lenses. I suppose it is possible that the adapter was assembled with the wrong style lens mount for an FD lens, but the Canon bayonet lens mount was unique, as far as I can I recalll, unlike the lens mounts of other any of the other Japanese camera manufacturers.

Since you only have this one FD lens example and do not own a Canon film camera made for this style lens, I suggest taking both the lens and FD adapter to a local camera shop in your area. They might be able to help you. If the shop has some used FD lenses in their inventory ask to try out one of these lenses on your m43 camera using the FD adapter. If you are unable to mount any other FD lenses using this FD adapter then you should return it to the seller for an exchange or a refund. If you are able to mount an FD lens then you know the problem lies somewhere within the mounting assembly of your Canon 50mm FD lens.

If there are no camera shops selling used equipment in nearby, depending on where are you located, perhaps another M43 forum member can help you out.

My FD adaptor has no moving parts as yours seems to but it does require you to catch the aperture lever to the left of the pin. Once you do that (with mine bought as one of the first FD adapters in Feb 09 from Cameraquest but surely a Japanese mfg one) you twist just a bit counterclockwise and then fully clockwise as you can see from the little diagram on top of the adapter in this pic (done awhike ago to show someone size znd parts on a GF1)



Hope you sort it out. Have you contacted the seller of the adapter as to its mounting of the lens?
--
Diane B
http://www.pbase.com/picnic
G1 gallery http://www.pbase.com/picnic/temp_g1

Got it! Thanks Diane and everybody. The key is getting that aperture lever to the left of the pin and somehow twisting that aperture control ring.

You pulled your videos so I can't watch them again (never did see the 2nd one) but the procedure that Diane described is for a different kind of FD adapter and your should not need to do that. On the fixed pin type of adapter like Diane describes, you have to catch the aperture control lever on the back of the lens on the pin in the adapter, then turn the lens a bit counter-clockwise to line up the mounting flange on the lens with the adapter. You then fully mount the lens and turn it clockwise until it locks on. This moves the lens aperture control lever to the fully closed position, meaning that the lens diaphragm always moves with the aperture ring on the lens (whew, that was a mouth full).

With what appears to be your adapter, the Open-Lock ring on the adapter permits you to preset the lens aperture ring to whatever f-stop you want to shoot at, and then control the diaphragm between fully open and the pre-set aperture by moving the ring from Open to Lock. In order to be properly coupled to the lens, the adapter should be in the Open position when you mount the lens. No need to catch the lens lever on the pin or anything, just mount the lens straight on to the adapter and turn clockwise to lock.

Actually, I think I have solved your BASIC problem. In the very first picture you posted, the lens is off the camera but it is in the mounted and locked position. You can tell this because the red raised dot on the outer rim of the lens is not lined up with the red dot on the back of the lens mount. This is not an easy thing to do, someone must have been playing around with the lens. Luckily fixing it is much easier. Depress the silver lens locking button on the outside base of the lens and turn the inner part of the lens (the flat black painted part of the lens with the serial number, coupling levers etc) counter clockwise (looking from the back) until the 2 red dots line up. Make sure the inner part of the lens turn while the outside of the lens stays in place (this is how Canon adopted their earlier breech mount system to a modern "bayonet" style of mounting).

Once you get the 2 red dots lined up, then the lens should mount on your adapter as I described above and work as expected.