New NX11 owner and a question about MF lenses

Hi all

I've just got myself a NX11 and really pleased with it after a bit of a play. One of the reasons for getting it is to use old MF lenses on it, I've got a Konica 57mm 1.4 and a 135mm 3.2 on their way to me and I've got a couple of questions about using these. I know the NX11 has a 1.5 crop factor with NX lenses but does adding a adapter change this at all? Also do the focus distance markings on the MF lenses still relate properly to actual distances?

Cheers

I use a pk to nx adapter for my nx10 system and mounted a 50mm 1.7 pentax lens on it. I get the same field of view as in my pentax dslr. From what I understand the adapters are designed to retain the same flange distance between rear of lens and the sensor. This is important if you want to attain infinity focus. But I found an interesting thing but yet to experiment as I dont have the required equipment and this in regard to canon fd lenses. To my knowledge if you want to use canon fd lenses in your dslr you need to buy an adapter which has a piece of glass in it. This is added to it for attaining infinity focus. This glass some say degrades the image quality. There are adapters sold without the glass but it seems you wont be able to attain infinity focus with it and can only use it for macro. Now here is the interesting part, the canon fd to nx adapter doesnt have a glass in it and it seems you can attain infinity focus when you attach a canon fd lens to your nx. As I said I dont have the equipment to confirm it but I found it interesting that you can achieve infinity focus in nx using a canon fd lens with a glassless adapter.

By the way the distance markings on your lens when mounted on an nx system will function the same way as they do while mounted on a dslr, that is no changes in subject distance [based on lens marking]

Thanks for that, good info there. Glad the focus markings as still usable, that will make zone focusing easier

I'd guess the reason for the glass in dslr adapters and not in NX ones is that the camera mount on a dslr is already the the correct distance from the sensor so needs the glass to correct for it being put further away because of the thickness of the adapter, where as on the NX system the adapter moves mount out to the correct distance so doesn't need the glass. I think! lol

yosser70 said:

Thanks for that, good info there. Glad the focus markings as still usable, that will make zone focusing easier

I'd guess the reason for the glass in dslr adapters and not in NX ones is that the camera mount on a dslr is already the the correct distance from the sensor so needs the glass to correct for it being put further away because of the thickness of the adapter, where as on the NX system the adapter moves mount out to the correct distance so doesn't need the glass. I think! lol

Click to expand...

What you said sounds interesting and also makes sense. For a long time I used to feel sad that I couldnt use some of my old canon fd glasses on my dslrs because of the flange issue and use of glass adapters. The nx might have opened a new channel for me to use the lenses. Planning on buying an adapter and trying out to see how it works!

I think the use of old lenses is a big selling point with all mirrorless cameras and with the NX having one of the biggest sensors at the moment along with the low price it takes some beating. I'm looking forward to collecting some nice old glass and giving it a new lease of life.

Depending on the adapter you get, the markings may be more or less accurate. If you get a cheap, but otherwise good one from china, they are made with a little bit of difference to make sure all lenses used will get to infinity. So most will get pass infinity, especially the wider ones. I found this rather annoying, exactly for infinity focus at night, of landscapes. Focusing a landscape proved to be somewhat challenging, more so than any other distance.

yosser70 said:

Hi all

I've just got myself a NX11 and really pleased with it after a bit of a play. One of the reasons for getting it is to use old MF lenses on it, I've got a Konica 57mm 1.4 and a 135mm 3.2 on their way to me and I've got a couple of questions about using these. I know the NX11 has a 1.5 crop factor with NX lenses but does adding a adapter change this at all? Also do the focus distance markings on the MF lenses still relate properly to actual distances?

Cheers

Click to expand...

You can adapt almost any popular existing manual lens mount to NX. Excepting Leica M but LTM will fit (beware of lens back protrusion though as you only have 9.2mm to play with from memory and some LTM lenses need as much as 20mm space).

EOS lenses will not work properly as they need an electrical connection to work the aperture therefore will only work wide open. Others such an auto focus PK can be used with special adapters with a manual aperture control lever in the adapter including the Samsung oem version.

FD adapters do not need any special glass but work fine to infinity wthout them.

The crop factor requires a multiplier for focal length of 1.5x. The Distance scales remain unchanged.

I have used the NX10 very successfully with FD, PK (auto/manual focus) M42, LTM, and EOS (wide open only) mounts. You might need glass in a Nikon adapter. The glass necessary as mentioned in another post is to convert Canon FD to Canon EOS EF. Canon surely abandoned it's FD users when it went EF.

Hope they don't similarly decide to abandon their EOS EF users when they go EVIL.

--
Tom Caldwell

aruk5 said:

yosser70 said:

Thanks for that, good info there. Glad the focus markings as still usable, that will make zone focusing easier

I'd guess the reason for the glass in dslr adapters and not in NX ones is that the camera mount on a dslr is already the the correct distance from the sensor so needs the glass to correct for it being put further away because of the thickness of the adapter, where as on the NX system the adapter moves mount out to the correct distance so doesn't need the glass. I think! lol

Click to expand...

What you said sounds interesting and also makes sense. For a long time I used to feel sad that I couldnt use some of my old canon fd glasses on my dslrs because of the flange issue and use of glass adapters. The nx might have opened a new channel for me to use the lenses. Planning on buying an adapter and trying out to see how it works!

Click to expand...

The NX10 is a lot happier with Canon FD glass than the Canon EOS EF ever was.

--
Tom Caldwell

Another great set of glass is Pentax K mount, Minolta and Contax glass. My DA/PK and MD mount gets used more than my kit lens. The older the better it seems since, older lens have manual aperture rings right on the lenses. The 1.5 crop factor means cheaper wide angles are still usable in focal length and edge blurriness.

Mirrorless camera is the leader of manual lenses adaption, FD lenses can not use on Nikon, Pentax and Canon EOS DSLR. Why Samsung not jump over with larger sensor on NX11/100 that have the best user interface for manual focusing.

Samsung NX is the first mirrorless discover to disable AA filter to improve sharpness by using NX UI. Now D800E follows in the future with our NX tricks on manual.
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hpchan

y0chang said:

Another great set of glass is Pentax K mount, Minolta and Contax glass. My DA/PK and MD mount gets used more than my kit lens. The older the better it seems since, older lens have manual aperture rings right on the lenses. The 1.5 crop factor means cheaper wide angles are still usable in focal length and edge blurriness.

Click to expand...

A couple of points: the NX mount specifications exludes the Leica M mount lenses by just a tiny whisker and therefore Samsung misses out on catering for a significant market in high quality lenses. You can permanently modify an NX by removing the NX mount and replacing it with an after-market LM mount. This is a significant procedure and not taken lightly. I have always wanted to retain the capability to use Samsung NX lenses.

However I also have the Ricoh GXR with M mount module and a number of corresponding M mount adapters. With the very reasonable street price of the NX10/11 at the moment there might be some advantage in having a second M mount dedicated body. At least I might get rid of the silly mechanical lens switch (smile).

Meanwhile I have found that the Pentax Takumar lenses in M42 mount are very good to use. Not only are they very fine lenses in their own right but they have a style of focus ring that makes manual focus a pleasure. There are some very similar Rikenon (Ricoh) lenses about. Rarer and of fewer types, but of similar build quality, regarded as "orphans" it seems and therefore currently more affordable. Ricoh and Pentax "agree" to turn their focus ring in opposite directions therefore owning a mixture of these lenses can result in momentary confusion on which direction to turn the focus ring as they look very similar on the camera otherwise.

A "tip" - those cheap neoprene beer can/bottle holders make great lens muffs to save them getting scratched as they rattle around in your tote bag. For longer lenses simple use two - one for either end. The non-sensical writing on the holder and it's colour can be used as a means of quickly identifying the lens you next want to select. A fun feature for an otherwise area committed to sober mechanical excellence.

Meanwhile the Ricoh M mount modules is by all accounts a great success for Ricoh and this shows that the market for the ability to mount manual focus lenses is stronger than the manufacturers would like to allow.

Consider yourself a camera manufacturer committed to making a quite new series of lenses - it might be ok to let your valiant customers play a little with manual lenses whilst they wait for you to make your own, but long term, they really want their customers to be buying lenses specifically made for their own prooprietary mount system.

Samsung might be deliberately slow in encouraging their customers to keep using manual focaus lenses from yesteryear. On the other hand Ricoh has only a limited range of lens modules like no other manufacturer might even dream of producing. They can embrace the manual lens idiom very well with their dedicated mount whilst knowing that they can keep this side issue quarantined by the very nature of their module system.

Consider that Ricoh's manual mount is specifically made and optimised for mounting manual lenses and backed up by the current best manual focus aids on the market.

I had great hopes for my NX10 which I find a delightful camera, but chances are that unless Samsung make it easier to continue to use manual focus lenses the NX10 might be the last in my Samsung manual focus lens experiment as they are surely going to throw me (and others) right into the welcoming arms of the Ricoh GXR M mount module for Ricoh not only provides the greatest manual focus new digital camera on the market but positively encourages people to use it that way.

Moore like the Leica you buy when you are not buying Leica, some even dare to say that it is "just as good", others say "it might even be better".

For something, relatively expensive but nevertheless bargain basement price in comparison to the all hallowed one "just as good" is surely the same as "good enough".

--
Tom Caldwell

Hi

I just bought a fd adapter for my NX11. And it works fine. The only thing is that I do not know how to stop down the lenses. So everything is shot wide open. Is there a solution to that?