Archive 2012 · Alt lenses on 5D3
p.1 #1Alt lenses on 5D3
I've been trying some alt lenses on 5D3 and have a few observations:
ZE lenses work well with 5D3's VF. With ZE 100 Macro, my initial experience is that MF is easier than with the Eg-S VF on 5D2. I even surprised myself by getting a decent focus on a butterfly, with camera hand held and MF. I use 4-point expansion mode.
Chipped adapters --
Fotodiox M42-EOS and C/Y-EOS chips do not work on 5D3. Got error as soon as I mounted the lens and adapters on the camera. Screen would freeze with the error message, and shutter didn't work.
Leica R - EOS chips are mixed. I have a couple of EMF (black chip with fixed Exif data) chips and they work fine. Some Optix (green) chips work fine; some don't work (everything in the view finder will blink and values keep changing; shutter works but depends on the value shown at the time the shutter clicks); and some are inconsistent (30% of the time works fine and 70% don't work like I just said). Unfortunately I have bought several batches and versions of Optix adapters and lost track of which version is which, but one thing I noticed is that the few chips that work all show "OPTIX" on the chip.
Optix version 6 can be found on eBay but one seller says it doesn't work on 5D3. I emailed Happypagehk about this chip, and his reply was "Actually in our exhaustive tests not all of the V5plus chips are incompatible with 5D3 but we have already secured a new chip to work with 5D3 and even newer models of Canon EOS still/video cameras. It is now going through the production process and will be coming soon".
Please feel free to share your experience with different chips and adapters on 5D3.
ZE lenses work well with 5D3's VF. With ZE 100 Macro, my initial experience is that MF is easier than with the Eg-S VF on 5D2. I even surprised myself by getting a decent focus on a butterfly, with camera hand held and MF. I use 4-point expansion mode.
Chipped adapters --
Fotodiox M42-EOS and C/Y-EOS chips do not work on 5D3. Got error as soon as I mounted the lens and adapters on the camera. Screen would freeze with the error message, and shutter didn't work.
Leica R - EOS chips are mixed. I have a couple of EMF (black chip with fixed Exif data) chips and they work fine. Some Optix (green) chips work fine; some don't work (everything in the view finder will blink and values keep changing; shutter works but depends on the value shown at the time the shutter clicks); and some are inconsistent (30% of the time works fine and 70% don't work like I just said). Unfortunately I have bought several batches and versions of Optix adapters and lost track of which version is which, but one thing I noticed is that the few chips that work all show "OPTIX" on the chip.
Optix version 6 can be found on eBay but one seller says it doesn't work on 5D3. I emailed Happypagehk about this chip, and his reply was "Actually in our exhaustive tests not all of the V5plus chips are incompatible with 5D3 but we have already secured a new chip to work with 5D3 and even newer models of Canon EOS still/video cameras. It is now going through the production process and will be coming soon".
Please feel free to share your experience with different chips and adapters on 5D3.
Apr 21, 2012 at 10:15 PM
p.1 #2Alt lenses on 5D3
Interesting. I haven't heard about these chips being incompatible with any previous Canon models.
By the way, I got the feeling that my HappypageHK adapter with Optix V5 chip drains the battery of my 5D if I leave it (with a lens) on the camera in my camera bag, with the camera switched off.
By the way, I got the feeling that my HappypageHK adapter with Optix V5 chip drains the battery of my 5D if I leave it (with a lens) on the camera in my camera bag, with the camera switched off.
Apr 21, 2012 at 10:36 PM
p.1 #3Alt lenses on 5D3
Another reason not to spend my money on the 5DIII upgrade 
Apr 21, 2012 at 10:44 PM
p.1 #4Alt lenses on 5D3
I shoot without AF confirm, so I don't have any objections personally. Quite enjoying the MkIII so far.
Apr 22, 2012 at 05:43 AM
p.1 #5Alt lenses on 5D3
AhamB wrote:
Interesting. I haven't heard about these chips being incompatible with any previous Canon models.
Maybe this is due to 5D3's new focus system and/or view finder.
By the way, I got the feeling that my HappypageHK adapter with Optix V5 chip drains the battery of my 5D if I leave it (with a lens) on the camera in my camera bag, with the camera switched off.
Wonder what's with the chip that drains the battery. I haven't experienced anything like this. A battery slowly drains (or maybe fast if the battery is aged) itself even when removed from the camera. This is normal.
Interesting. I haven't heard about these chips being incompatible with any previous Canon models.
Maybe this is due to 5D3's new focus system and/or view finder.
By the way, I got the feeling that my HappypageHK adapter with Optix V5 chip drains the battery of my 5D if I leave it (with a lens) on the camera in my camera bag, with the camera switched off.
Wonder what's with the chip that drains the battery. I haven't experienced anything like this. A battery slowly drains (or maybe fast if the battery is aged) itself even when removed from the camera. This is normal.
Apr 22, 2012 at 06:12 PM
p.1 #6Alt lenses on 5D3
It's the chip being designed before the camera was born, so I wouldn't blame the 5D3.
CVickery wrote:
Another reason not to spend my money on the 5DIII upgrade
CVickery wrote:
Another reason not to spend my money on the 5DIII upgrade
Apr 22, 2012 at 06:16 PM
p.1 #7Alt lenses on 5D3
Not blaming the camera, but with a good quality adapter/conversion costing ~$150 these days, and owning...well more than a couple, the cost to upgrade to the 5D3 gets higher if I want to utilize that nice new AF system with alt lenses. I wouldn't want to think about the issues /costs caused if I had a set of ZE lenses and the if the upgrade caused their chips to malfunction.
That being said, the paranoid side of me wonders why a basically dumb chip that's entire function is to emulate a EF lens would not work with the new body. Are there old lenses that can't be used as well and this is a subtle way to keep us all on the upgrade path? One of the big advantages of a lens system is that there is backward compatibility (at least to some extent) that doesn't render old lenses obsolete when new bodies are introduced.
I'll likely end up moving to the 5D3 at some point, but issues like this point out the wisdom in not being an early adopter...give it a year to get some of these issues solved, or at least exposed so you know what you are getting into.
sxgva wrote:
It's the chip being designed before the camera was born, so I wouldn't blame the 5D3.
That being said, the paranoid side of me wonders why a basically dumb chip that's entire function is to emulate a EF lens would not work with the new body. Are there old lenses that can't be used as well and this is a subtle way to keep us all on the upgrade path? One of the big advantages of a lens system is that there is backward compatibility (at least to some extent) that doesn't render old lenses obsolete when new bodies are introduced.
I'll likely end up moving to the 5D3 at some point, but issues like this point out the wisdom in not being an early adopter...give it a year to get some of these issues solved, or at least exposed so you know what you are getting into.
sxgva wrote:
It's the chip being designed before the camera was born, so I wouldn't blame the 5D3.
CVickery wrote
Another reason not to spend my money on the 5DIII upgradeApr 22, 2012 at 08:12 PM
p.1 #8Alt lenses on 5D3
CVickery wrote:
Not blaming the camera, but with a good quality adapter/conversion costing ~$150 these days, and owning...well more than a couple, the cost to upgrade to the 5D3 gets higher if I want to utilize that nice new AF system with alt lenses. I wouldn't want to think about the issues /costs caused if I had a set of ZE lenses and the if the upgrade caused their chips to malfunction.
That being said, the paranoid side of me wonders why a basically dumb chip that's entire function is to emulate a EF lens would not work with the new body. Are...Show more →
Short answer: EF's lens protocol is not as well documented as chip makers would like (or like us to believe). Sigma gets repeatedly caught by this, so it's unsurprising that the chip makers, who are usually 1-2 man operations, get caught occasionally as well. Remember Canon only tests against their own lenses/bodies so it's entirely possible for Canon to introduce new behaviours that cause issues with 3rd parties (ditto for other makers, witness the problems Sigma has had with SLT's as well as with their HSM lenses not working correctly on Minolta SSM-capable bodies because they only tested against Sony bodies).
Zeiss is likely an exception as they apparently have official access to the EF communications spec.
Not blaming the camera, but with a good quality adapter/conversion costing ~$150 these days, and owning...well more than a couple, the cost to upgrade to the 5D3 gets higher if I want to utilize that nice new AF system with alt lenses. I wouldn't want to think about the issues /costs caused if I had a set of ZE lenses and the if the upgrade caused their chips to malfunction.
That being said, the paranoid side of me wonders why a basically dumb chip that's entire function is to emulate a EF lens would not work with the new body. Are...Show more →
Short answer: EF's lens protocol is not as well documented as chip makers would like (or like us to believe). Sigma gets repeatedly caught by this, so it's unsurprising that the chip makers, who are usually 1-2 man operations, get caught occasionally as well. Remember Canon only tests against their own lenses/bodies so it's entirely possible for Canon to introduce new behaviours that cause issues with 3rd parties (ditto for other makers, witness the problems Sigma has had with SLT's as well as with their HSM lenses not working correctly on Minolta SSM-capable bodies because they only tested against Sony bodies).
Zeiss is likely an exception as they apparently have official access to the EF communications spec.
Apr 22, 2012 at 09:09 PM
p.1 #9Alt lenses on 5D3
@mawz: you wrote,
"Zeiss is likely an exception as they apparently have official access to the EF communications spec."Should you feel to back it up?
As I found in Wiki :
"Third-party lensesCompatible third-party lenses with the EF lens mount are manufactured by Samyang, Schneider, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, and Carl Zeiss. The manufacturers of these lenses have reverse engineered the EOS electronics. The use of these lenses is not supported by Canon. Sometimes compatibility problems arise, as no third party has access to Canon's specifications for camera to body communication. These compatibility issues mostly occur when using a newer body with an older third-party lens. Over time, most of these issues have been resolved by the major third-party brands."
"Zeiss is likely an exception as they apparently have official access to the EF communications spec."Should you feel to back it up?
As I found in Wiki :
"Third-party lensesCompatible third-party lenses with the EF lens mount are manufactured by Samyang, Schneider, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, and Carl Zeiss. The manufacturers of these lenses have reverse engineered the EOS electronics. The use of these lenses is not supported by Canon. Sometimes compatibility problems arise, as no third party has access to Canon's specifications for camera to body communication. These compatibility issues mostly occur when using a newer body with an older third-party lens. Over time, most of these issues have been resolved by the major third-party brands."
Apr 22, 2012 at 09:26 PM
p.1 #10Alt lenses on 5D3
sxgva wrote:
Wonder what's with the chip that drains the battery. I haven't experienced anything like this. A battery slowly drains (or maybe fast if the battery is aged) itself even when removed from the camera. This is normal.
I meant to say that the battery seemed to have been drained much more quickly than through normal self-discharge.
Wonder what's with the chip that drains the battery. I haven't experienced anything like this. A battery slowly drains (or maybe fast if the battery is aged) itself even when removed from the camera. This is normal.
I meant to say that the battery seemed to have been drained much more quickly than through normal self-discharge.
Apr 22, 2012 at 09:50 PM
p.1 #11Alt lenses on 5D3
mawz wrote:
That being said, the paranoid side of me wonders why a basically dumb chip that's entire function is to emulate a EF lens would not work with the new body. Are there old lenses that can't be used as well and this is a subtle way to keep us all on the upgrade path? One of the big advantages of a lens system is that there is backward compatibility (at least to some extent) that doesn't render old lenses obsolete when new bodies are introduced.
I'll likely end up moving to the 5D3 at some point, but issues like this point out the wisdom in not being an early adopter...give it a year to get some of these issues solved, or at least exposed so you know what you are getting into.Short answer: EF's lens protocol is not as well documented as chip makers would like (or like us to believe). Sigma gets repeatedly caught by this, so it's unsurprising that the chip makers, who are usually 1-2 man operations, get caught occasionally as well. Remember Canon only tests against their own lenses/bodies so it's entirely possible for Canon to introduce new behaviours that cause issues with 3rd parties (ditto for other makers, witness the problems Sigma has had with SLT's as well as with their HSM lenses not working correctly on Minolta SSM-capable bodies because they only tested against Sony...Show more →
I understand and I did say it was my paranoid side
That being said these chips are much less than a 'compatible' 3rd party lens. At their most basic they would simply seem to communicate a focal length, an aperture and perhaps some other basic info to the body. Being such a basic device and dealing with such a small subset of the EOS communication spec, I'm disappointed that their operation isn't basically 'bulletproof'. I'm not blaming Canon, if anything I suspect that the recent trend to enhance the feature set of these chips (ie focus trap, micro-adjust, programability etc) has caused the incompatability.
I suspect that the ZE lenses have dodged this issue by their chips providing only the basic function and not even trying to have the fancy 'features'.
BTW. If any chip maker is reading this, other than progammabilty, I hate these 'features'
CVickery wrote
Not blaming the camera, but with a good quality adapter/conversion costing ~$150 these days, and owning...well more than a couple, the cost to upgrade to the 5D3 gets higher if I want to utilize that nice new AF system with alt lenses. I wouldn't want to think about the issues /costs caused if I had a set of ZE lenses and the if the upgrade caused their chips to malfunction.That being said, the paranoid side of me wonders why a basically dumb chip that's entire function is to emulate a EF lens would not work with the new body. Are there old lenses that can't be used as well and this is a subtle way to keep us all on the upgrade path? One of the big advantages of a lens system is that there is backward compatibility (at least to some extent) that doesn't render old lenses obsolete when new bodies are introduced.
I'll likely end up moving to the 5D3 at some point, but issues like this point out the wisdom in not being an early adopter...give it a year to get some of these issues solved, or at least exposed so you know what you are getting into.
I understand and I did say it was my paranoid side
That being said these chips are much less than a 'compatible' 3rd party lens. At their most basic they would simply seem to communicate a focal length, an aperture and perhaps some other basic info to the body. Being such a basic device and dealing with such a small subset of the EOS communication spec, I'm disappointed that their operation isn't basically 'bulletproof'. I'm not blaming Canon, if anything I suspect that the recent trend to enhance the feature set of these chips (ie focus trap, micro-adjust, programability etc) has caused the incompatability.
I suspect that the ZE lenses have dodged this issue by their chips providing only the basic function and not even trying to have the fancy 'features'.
BTW. If any chip maker is reading this, other than progammabilty, I hate these 'features'
Apr 22, 2012 at 10:32 PM
p.1 #13Alt lenses on 5D3
contas wrote:
@mawz: you wrote,
"Zeiss is likely an exception as they apparently have official access to the EF communications spec."Should you feel to back it up?
As I found in Wiki :
"Third-party lensesCompatible third-party lenses with the EF lens mount are manufactured by Samyang, Schneider, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, and Carl Zeiss. The manufacturers of these lenses have reverse engineered the EOS electronics. The use of these lenses is not supported by Canon. Sometimes compatibility problems arise, as no third party has access to Canon's specifications for camera to body communication. These compatibility issues mostly occur when using a newer body with an...Show more →
Wiki is (mostly) correct for the major 3rd party makers (Tamron and Tokina may have had access for certain rebadged lenses they made for Canon during the 90's).
Zeiss publicly stated that they would not make EF mount lenses without Canon's approval and support prior to the introduction of the ZE line. Every indication is that Canon allowed Zeiss the access which led to the introduction of the ZE line (the ZS and ZK mounts are open-spec and F mount is out of patent. Nikon also apparently provided Zeiss with the necessary info to support lens CPU's for the ZF.2 line). Canon can't lose by doing this, since Zeiss does not offer any lenses in direct competition to Canon due to the lack of AF, so adding Zeiss availability to the EF mount was a net win for Canon.
@mawz: you wrote,
"Zeiss is likely an exception as they apparently have official access to the EF communications spec."Should you feel to back it up?
As I found in Wiki :
"Third-party lensesCompatible third-party lenses with the EF lens mount are manufactured by Samyang, Schneider, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, and Carl Zeiss. The manufacturers of these lenses have reverse engineered the EOS electronics. The use of these lenses is not supported by Canon. Sometimes compatibility problems arise, as no third party has access to Canon's specifications for camera to body communication. These compatibility issues mostly occur when using a newer body with an...Show more →
Wiki is (mostly) correct for the major 3rd party makers (Tamron and Tokina may have had access for certain rebadged lenses they made for Canon during the 90's).
Zeiss publicly stated that they would not make EF mount lenses without Canon's approval and support prior to the introduction of the ZE line. Every indication is that Canon allowed Zeiss the access which led to the introduction of the ZE line (the ZS and ZK mounts are open-spec and F mount is out of patent. Nikon also apparently provided Zeiss with the necessary info to support lens CPU's for the ZF.2 line). Canon can't lose by doing this, since Zeiss does not offer any lenses in direct competition to Canon due to the lack of AF, so adding Zeiss availability to the EF mount was a net win for Canon.
Apr 23, 2012 at 07:50 PM
p.1 #14Alt lenses on 5D3
I have the Zeiss ZE 21 and ZE 100 and both focus real nice on the MK III's.
Apr 23, 2012 at 09:45 PM
p.1 #15Alt lenses on 5D3
Been playing around with my 5D III that I just got in. Haven't tried my converted contax lenses yet, or for that matter my fotodiox pro on my 35-70. Will post results soonest.
Apr 24, 2012 at 09:09 AM
p.1 #16Alt lenses on 5D3
@Mawz: you wrote :
"Zeiss publicly stated that they would not make EF mount lenses without Canon's approval and support prior to the introduction of the ZE line."
Ok, I believe that statement is the truth, and I 'd like to see it or reach that by a link, if it's not very difficult.Thanks.
"Zeiss publicly stated that they would not make EF mount lenses without Canon's approval and support prior to the introduction of the ZE line."
Ok, I believe that statement is the truth, and I 'd like to see it or reach that by a link, if it's not very difficult.Thanks.
Apr 25, 2012 at 01:29 AM
p.1 #17Alt lenses on 5D3
I can't use my beloved Rollei-mount Zeiss F-Distagon 16/2.8 on the 5D3 :'( I can record video with it but I can't take a photo, and not with Live View either. I get "Err 01 - Communications between the camera and lens is faulty. Clean the lens contacts". I have a non-chipped adapter, guess I'll have to find a chipped one now and hope for the best. I also use a Voigtlander 180/4 APO-LANTHAR with a P/K > EOS chipped adapter, which works fine. If someone knows about a confirmed-working Rollei>EOS adapter with AF confirm, I'd really appreciate a heads up 
Apr 25, 2012 at 03:51 AM
p.1 #18Alt lenses on 5D3
kiddik wrote:
I can't use my beloved Rollei-mount Zeiss F-Distagon 16/2.8 on the 5D3 :'( I can record video with it but I can't take a photo, and not with Live View either. I get "Err 01 - Communications between the camera and lens is faulty. Clean the lens contacts". I have a non-chipped adapter, guess I'll have to find a chipped one now and hope for the best.
Ouch.. Doesn't this mean that one cannot use adapters without a chip at all on the 5DIII ? - together with the fixed focusing screen would make this not a camera terribly well suited for alt lens usage. Or is there something special about Rollei mount adapters..
I can't use my beloved Rollei-mount Zeiss F-Distagon 16/2.8 on the 5D3 :'( I can record video with it but I can't take a photo, and not with Live View either. I get "Err 01 - Communications between the camera and lens is faulty. Clean the lens contacts". I have a non-chipped adapter, guess I'll have to find a chipped one now and hope for the best.
Ouch.. Doesn't this mean that one cannot use adapters without a chip at all on the 5DIII ? - together with the fixed focusing screen would make this not a camera terribly well suited for alt lens usage. Or is there something special about Rollei mount adapters..
Apr 25, 2012 at 04:39 AM
p.1 #19Alt lenses on 5D3
contas wrote:
@Mawz: you wrote :
"Zeiss publicly stated that they would not make EF mount lenses without Canon's approval and support prior to the introduction of the ZE line."
Ok, I believe that statement is the truth, and I 'd like to see it or reach that by a link, if it's not very difficult.Thanks.
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-7890-8183
Scroll down and that question comes up.
@Mawz: you wrote :
"Zeiss publicly stated that they would not make EF mount lenses without Canon's approval and support prior to the introduction of the ZE line."
Ok, I believe that statement is the truth, and I 'd like to see it or reach that by a link, if it's not very difficult.Thanks.
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-7890-8183
Scroll down and that question comes up.
Apr 25, 2012 at 05:55 AM
p.1 #20Alt lenses on 5D3
That page is rather old, and nothing like a permission:
Q. Why is Zeiss not releasing lenses with a Canon EOS mount on them?
Patent considerations keep us from doing so for the time being.
Q. Why is Zeiss not releasing lenses with a Canon EOS mount on them?
Patent considerations keep us from doing so for the time being.
Apr 25, 2012 at 07:08 AM