Using Adapters?

[Mode101]

What's the pros and cons on using Adapters for other type lenses?  Adapters adds space between the censor and the lens, how's that affect the quality of pictures/video?

 

[miran]

What's the pros and cons on using Adapters for other type lenses?  Adapters adds space between the censor and the lens, how's that affect the quality of pictures/video?

In general there should be no appreciable effect on quality. But there are two things to consider:

 

1. For some mounts, in particular rangefinder lenses, typically the adapter is relatively thin and some lenses (mostly shorter focal length) get very close to the sensor with the rear element. This has a negative impact on quality (soft corners, vignetting, colour casts). This is a problem for most 35mm and shorter rangefinder lenses which were designed to be used for film photography, not digital.

2. SLR adapters are generally longer so #1 is not a problem but in some rare cases the adapter can cause internal reflections, especially if you get a cheap low quality adapter that's not made of the best material.

 

But mostly no problems regarding image quality.

[Lefty]

And, a lot of MF lenses are very good and cheap!

[Mode101]

Do u loose an f-stop using an adapter?

[addicted2light]

No, an adapter is just an empty metal tube, basically a spacer to let the adapted lens sit at the proper distance from the sensor.

 

The only exception is Sony LA-EA4 that has inside a semi-transparent mirror that "eats" 1/3 of a stop because it sends this light to the AF sensor inside the adapter itself.

[Golem]

What's the pros and cons on using Adapters for 

other type lenses?  Adapters adds space between

the censor and the lens, how's that affect the

quality of pictures/video?

More space is more betterer. Sensor/Filter packs

wreak havoc on light rays approaching at angles.

IQ benefits from the imaging light rays all striking

the sensor as squarely as possible. Therefor SLR

lenses on long-ish adapters are a better idea than

RF lenses on shallow adapters. This is especially

true with short focal length lenses, aka wide angle.

 

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[Golem]

Do u loose an f-stop using an adapter?

You might be confusing three types of

"adapter-like" devices:

 

1. Adapter, no optics, no f/stop effect.

 

2. Teleconverter, optical, lose lens speed.

 

3. Speedbooster, optical, gain lens speed.

 

Further, you might be confusing Adapters

with Extension Tubes. Both are non-optical

empty tubes, but extension tubes DO lose

light, so in effect they "lose lens speed".

 

An Adapter is actually an Extension Tube

but it does not "cost light", cuz it doesn't

extend the lens's position beyond infinity

focus. The purpose of Extension Tubes is

to extend a lens well beyond infinity focus,

which results in a dimmer image projected

onto the sensor.

 

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[Sator]

Roger Cicala, amongst others, has shown that adapters have an adverse effect on optics due to small misalignments on the lens mount:

 

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/09/there-is-no-free-lunch-episode-763-lens-adapters

 

As with extenders, an adapter is an option that should generally be avoided where possible. Admittedly, I still do it myself sometimes, because it can be fun. However, you have to accept that there is a risk of it having a negative impact on the lens performance, and that you cannot predict the severity of the impact beforehand on your particular lens-adapter-body combination. If you do buy an adapter, you should probably buy one of the better quality German ones rather than a $40 one off some Chinese eBay seller.

 

That means it is probably best to limit the use of adapters to where you have no choice, or for playing around with weird and wonderful legacy lenses. I certainly wouldn't purchase some $10K Leica lens and expect it to perform as expected via an adapter on a non-Leica body. The degradation in performance may mean that you might be better off buying a cheaper native lens instead. You just never know what you are getting. Let the buyer beware.

[Golem]

Roger Cicala, amongst others, has shown that adapters

have an adverse effect on optics due to small misalignments

on the lens mount:

 

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/09/there-is-no-free-lunch-episode-763-lens-adapters

 

.............................

OK I went to the linked document and it has nothing

to do with photography. The document clearly makes

the unarguable case that adapters are not laboratory

grade devices and proved unsuitable for use as parts

of the optical bench. Read the document. If you don't

know what an optical bench is, and don't understand

it's applications, then it is entirely possible that you

might be scared away from adapters. This is not a

new mythology. It was also lurking about during the

film era. In that era, we did not have the problem of

the optical thickness of the sensor-and-filter pack.

 

Film was great stuff compared to the headaches we

face with sensor packs. Therefor we could really get

the most out of our lenses, even short FL wide angle

lenses that sat verrrrry close to the film, right ?

 

Nice fairy tale, but film never sat flat in the film gate.

As an image receptor, it introduced more dimensional

errors than a well made adapter for digital cameras.

Dimensional error has always been part of the system

..... unless you built a super precise camera and used

either a vacuum back, or glass plates instead of film.

 

Acoarst you don't wanna pile even more dimensional

error into the mix. But a quality adapter on a digital

camera does not increase the sum total of dimensional

error vs no adapter on a film camera. You trade off the

film gate error against the adapter error and in real

world terms you break even.

 

But could we do even better than the best IQ of the film

era ? Maybe. Why just break even, using an adapter,

if by avoiding adapters you can do better than breaking

even ! In theory, you can beat film era's best IQ using

hi-rez digital sensors, no adapters .... and acoarst only

the best, digital-photography-optimized lenses. But if an

adapter is part of the outfit that rocks your boat, then,

unless your adapter is ridiculously precisely machined,

you won't beat the film era's best IQ. With a well made

adapter, you will match the best film era IQ, but you

won't beat it. Life's a bitch, then you die.

 

Happy pixel peeping :-)

 

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