I just received the German AF chip for Canon and have installed it in a Fotodiox CZ adapter successfully - but note I have had to modify the lenses to mount properly.
I also have the Hong Kong AF chip in a Nikon adapter and here are a couple photos if you have not seen it.
This adapter works fine, but you can see it is not the simplist thing to glue in place when working with an adapter not designed for it. They glued and screwed a plastic backing plate and then glued the chip/board on top. Thisis necessary otherwise you have no surface area. The adapter itself is available from vendors or eBay from Hong Kong, and this company has added their AF chip.
The finished adapter with chip is only available in Nikon and screw mount and availability is very limited. Hence the interest in the German adapter that you can add to the adapter of your choice - with your own considerable effort.
To mount the German chip, I cut a piece of PCV that had the same radius as the CZ adapter and shaped it to use as a backing plate (yes it is white, all I had available at the time, but will be painted black). I epoxied the plate level with the top of the adapter. I wanted the backing late to be fairly large so it would be glued securely to the adapter.
After a half day for the glued to dry, I epoxied the chip on top of adapter and backing plate. This is not easy because you have to get the position very accurate or there will be no connection.
Now for phase two, getting Zeiss lenses to work with the adapter with the chip. I have two Zeisses lense to work with - 85mm 1.4 and 50mm 1.7. A 28mm 2.8 is on the way.
A CZ lens just does not have the space for this chip and and an unmodified lens. One of the aperature levers is in the way. I have modified both of my lenses to work with the adapter.
NOTE: DO NOT TRY TO MODIFY A LENS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING or are very skilled at this type of work.
I had never disassembled a lens before buy I can figure out most things. Before I started the project I disassembled the rear of the 50mm 1.7 lens to see what would be involved. You cannot remove the lever or the aperature will no longer stop down. Nothing to do buy cut off the lever. Tin snips worked just fine. I doubt this will be easy to do unless you remove the lever first.
Then I disassembled the rear of the 85mm 1.4 lens. This was actually much easier than the 50mm (more expensive lens, better parts). It offered a very clean solution: just remove the whole lever mechanism!! In the lens the aperature will still stop down without it. It can also be reinstalled if I want to sell the lens as unmodified.
When I mounted the lens the first time, I was dismayed to find there was no connection to the chip - no aperature setting, nothing. I had tried to be very acurate, but must have been a bit off.
Then I discovered it I pressed in the lens mount lock on the camera and rotated the ever so slightly past the stop - less than .5mm, it worked!!
So now everything is complete and working.
As far as I can tell, the German and Hong Kong chips work the same way. Once they tell the camera body there is a lens mounted, the body will do the AF function.
Exif info for the Hong Kong chip:
Focal length: 10mm
Lens: 35-80mm f/2.0
Exif for German chip:
Focal length: 55mm
Lens: 55mm f/1.4
One further note, and this is very important: The AF confirmation supplied by these chips is no better the the AF capabilities of the camera body. If the camera body is out of adjustment, the AF confirmation will be less acurate.
The only other lens adapter I have experience with is Olympus, and installing the AF chip should be no problem - there are no obstructions that I can see.
I am happy with the little project so far and looking forward to more Zeiss lenses.
Thanks for your report - this will prove to be very useful to the small but growing AF chip community within the small but growing MF on AF camera community.
But i am somewhat reluctant to take my lenses apart - i now i will destroy something and i bet it will be important
Rgallie Could you contribute to the thread on the new version of the chip. Seems like you may have a old version and the new one works without modification to the lens. Very interested as I am not modifying my CZ21 but would like to use a chip.
The chip used by Emanuele is the same as the one I have written about.
As far as using the chip without modifying the lens, Emanuele has tried it in the 15mm and 18mm lenses. I have used it with the 85mm 1.4 and 50mm 1.7 lenses. It is possible there is some small variation between lenses. Also note he installed it temporarily by inserting it between the adapter and camera body allowing for lots of positioning.
When you are glueing the chip, you can position it but you have to be able to predict what is a good position and when the glue dries you are stuck with that position.
From the photo of the mirror box that Emanuele showed, if my 85mm or 50mm lens were installed, they would just knock the chip out of the way. If the chip were glued and there was just enough room when the aperature lever is pushed aside, it would still scrape against the chip every time the lens is mounted - perhaps fairly hard. That is what I saw with my lenses. There is a limit to how far you can move the chip to the outside (out of the way of the aperature lever) - a little too far and you will miss the contacts in the camera body.
I wanted an installation that would stand up to repeated use and not wear itself out by scraping the chip and eventually failing.
For the CZ adapter wer really need a slightly different chip design - one with the hump on the chip in a different place. Note the German and Hong Kong chips are the same shape - the hump (which actually contains the 'chip') are nearest the contacts they connect to. I am sure there are advantages to doing it that way. It is just unfortunate for CZ adapters.
this is a new version of a chip, I'll try to explain an idea once more (I've wrote about it in another thread), unfortunately I have no pictures of this solution (although I've been promised to get it) :
you do not need to modify your Contax lens ONLY and ONLY if you have one adapter and one chip pro lens. That means: you should connect a lens to your adapter first and only than glue a chip onto an adapter. Afterwards you'll not be able to release a lens, without removing a chip. But your lens stays untouched. That's why you need one adapter and one chip pro lens.
Moritz_H
I hope you'll not disassemble your lenses
If you dedicate a chip per adapter and glue it on with the lens in place, that may work fine. However, between the chip and the adapter, it is now about $135 to $180 (depending ont he adapter) per lens for AF confirmation. Plus you have to do the glueing operation for each lens and that is where you need the most accuracy - or end up with a chip and camera body that do not connect. In my case the 50mm 1.7 lens cost about $125, I would not normally want to more than double the cost with a dedicated chip and adapter.
I am sure people will choose the solution that is appropriate for the their skills and means. I am not advocating one solution or another.
This chip looks like an exception product and I am sure the other FMers appreciate the give and take. Since I am dealing with literally 10 leica R or CZ lens for use on my 5D...dedicating an adapter and chip is an investment. The leica adapters are fairly easy to change out ...I find the CZ quite tight....using cameraquest adapters. Since I will be using a 180 F2 and 280 F2.8 frequently ..this will be a great new capability. I plan to order several. Looking forward to hearing about the best way to use them.
rgallie wrote:
For the CZ adapter wer really need a slightly different chip design - one with the hump on the chip in a different place. Note the German and Hong Kong chips are the same shape - the hump (which actually contains the 'chip') are nearest the contacts they connect to. I am sure there are advantages to doing it that way. It is just unfortunate for CZ adapters.
I work in the semiconductor industry, the chip looks like a 8 pin, 150 mil soic. You could get a slightly smaller package, say a 10 pin 118 mil msop, with 2 pins unused. The best solution would be a QFN, it's extremely thin with no protruding leads. Any idea what company makes these? Can you read the marking on the package?
By the way, I bet there are only a few opamps and some resistors/caps in there. My company sells a very complex device in that package and we pay about 5 cents per device. Quite a markup
I received my Zeiss 28mm 2.8 yesterday and removed the aperature lever so it worked with the AF chip. If you have done this once, it becomes fairly easy:
Remove 3 screws and plate, remove 4 screws and assembly, remove 2 screws in aperature lever, pry lever out, reassemble.
This is easily reversable is I want to sell the lens.
This gives me hope that there are very few models like the 50mm 1.7 where I had to cut the lever off.
Asher -- I have not yet tried it, but I believe that the chip only gives you "2. Confirmation of focus" It does not actually commmunicae aperture or focus information from the lens; it just tricks the camera's AF system into "thinking" that there is an AF lens attached with a particular maximum aperture (which may not be the actual max aperture of that lens) -- which then allows the camera's AF sensors to determine if you have achieved focus with your manual technique. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I gather from reading about these items (which I'm considering...).
I'm not trying anything until I rerturn from Europe in July. I'm hoping by then to know what hope there is for the 18mm Distagon, the 21mm Distagon and the 18mm f2.0.
The 50mm 1.4, seems a no brainer as there is not much financial risk.
tsmv wrote:
En example of Contax 35/2.8 with an adapter + chip. This lens has no changes at all. You may see an aperture lever.
rest: http://afchip.no-ip.org/Chip/
tsmv,
i recieved your chip today - thank you! I made a quick try with my 16mm (not the lens i will be needing it for because of it's large DOF, but i am away from my other lenses right now). I did not glue it but put the chip in after i installed the adapter without the lens. Then i connected the lens: Works perfectly! My 5D shows 1.4 as aperture and focus confirmation comes on. The aperture lever is in the way (so i only turned the lens 3/4 way in) but i will take care of this next weekend - on the lenses i will use the chip. Great work, thanx for your fast service!
Since you are in Germany: What glue did you use to stick the chip onto the adapter? Sekundenkleber? Zweikomponentenkleber?
Moritz_H wrote:
Since you are in Germany: What glue did you use to stick the chip onto the adapter? Sekundenkleber? Zweikomponentenkleber?
Moritz
personally I've used a cheap glue (which usually glues your fingers much more better than surfaces ) from Conrad shop.
If you're sure in your accuracy - you may use such a glue too, anyway within a short period of time you still have a possibility to release a chip from an adapter (if you've misplaced it)...
So that means that you should not visit your perfect Augustiner Biergarten before (as they don't have mugs less than a liter)
tsmv wrote:
personally I've used a cheap glue (which usually glues your fingers much more better than surfaces ) from Conrad shop.
If you're sure in your accuracy - you may use such a glue too, anyway within a short period of time you still have a possibility to release a chip from an adapter (if you've misplaced it)...
So that means that you should not visit your perfect Augustiner Biergarten before (as they don't have mugs less than a liter)
Thanks for the fast reply. Ok, so i will keep my hands off the Maßkrug for once (who needs smaller mugs? And for what? One Liter is just about perfect - or so i would say after years of training! )
Btw: I guess my method (installation of adapter then chip then lens) will allow me to make little marks on the adapter where the chip is supposed to go so you can then glue with accuracy. But your printed plans look good too, of course.
