I did spend quite a bit of time searching, but didn't really find much feedback on these adapters. At their price point they are about half as much as Cameraquest (which I gather are probably the best) but they cost much more than the cheap Ebay adapters. Is Fotodiox a safe bet or should I just save my pennies longer until I can afford a Cameraquest adapter? Looking at the Contax 85mm 2.8 T*MM, Contax 135mm 2.8 T* and the Leica R 90mm 2.8 as a lighter alternative to my 85L for street shooting so any thoughts on these lenses is welcome as well.
I have his adaptor for both the Contax and Pentax Screwmount. Both work well and do allow infinity focus. I'd like to see comments on that Contax lens also as I just ordered one. The 28/2.8 Distagon I have is great.
I have some miscellaneous stuff from Fotodiox, but I've crossed them off the list for any future purchases because they double-charged me for shipping and wouldn't refund the overbilled shipping!
I had half a mind to pursue the issue, but as the shipping was only $5 I decided to just let them keep the $5 they stole from me.
How much infinity focus work will you be doing with the longer lens? I'd say try out a cheapo Chinese adapter first. I use one on my 135/2.8 Sonnar T* and it works great. Doesn't do infinity on my 28/2.8 Distagon, so I just leave it on the Sonnar. For wider lenses that will be more likely to be used at infinity (for me, at least) it makes sense to spend the extra dough on a good adapter. I have heard very good things about Fotodiox, but I should also mention that it is possible to get lucky with the cheapo Chinese adapters, too. I had one that mated perfectly with a CZ21 I owned, allowing absolutely bang-on infinity. It is a crap shoot but, after all, it isn't much money and even if it isn't perfect, it'll still be useful on lenses that you shoot closer than infinity.
I love the 135/2.8 Sonnar, BTW. An under-rated lens, IMO, but I would not consider it a street shooting lens. For that purpose, I would use my smaller, lighter, more discrete, cheaper and ridiculously sharp S-M-C-Takumar 135/3.5.
Probably next to zero infinity focus work actually, are there any other sources for the cheap adapters besides Ebay? I'm not an Ebay user and not sure I want to sign up just for that. Is the 135 2.8 a large lens? I'll look into the Takumar, but I usually shoot when the sun is starting to fade so I'd like something 2.8 or faster without the lens being larger than say the 135L.
Compared to my other 135mm lenses (I have 5 of them) the Contax is easily the biggest and heaviest. I don't own and have no desire for the 135L.
The 135L is 744g (4.4" x 3.3") and the 135 Sonnar is 585 grams (3.7" x 2.7"). The Takumar is 343g and about the same length as the Sonnar. I honestly believe the Tak could give the 135L a run for its money at equal apertures, although the Tak's bokeh leaves a bit to be desired. The Sonnar wins in the bokeh department.
You might consider a Nikkor 105/2.5. The focal length and speed might be more appropriate, and it is nice a small. Also, consider the Zuiko 85/2. Now that is a street lens if I ever saw one. Not much bigger than a standard 50 and quite affordable.
Much appreciated Cogitech, the Sonnars size doesn't sound too bad to me but I'll definitly look into the Zuiko 85 f/2 as that sounds like it could work very well. Looks like I have to learn about a lot more lenses with all these adapters available.
Are you looking at the consumer or the pro- grade Fotodiox adapters?
I use the consumer adaptors for the Nikon , Zuiko, and CZ adapters. They all work very well. I got an M42 for a Takumar 55/1.8 just recently and have not tried it yet.
The reason I use Fotodiox is because they appear to be part of the BBB Online program. CKrueger - you might want to make a complaint to BBB if Fotodiox haven't resolved the issue. It's a big deal to BBB participants.
I would suggest looking at Haoda's adapters here:
haodascreen.com
I have a contax to eos adapter from him and am planning to get the m42 and nikon one as well. Its good quality and you don't have to ebay (I don't use ebay either). Price is around $70-$80 and it has AF confirm.
EltonTeng wrote:
The reason I use Fotodiox is because they appear to be part of the BBB Online program. CKrueger - you might want to make a complaint to BBB if Fotodiox haven't resolved the issue. It's a big deal to BBB participants.
Wow, didn't notice they were part of the BBB. If I had known that when I had the issue with them (this was months ago) I would have threatened to file a complaint.
It has been long enough now that I think I'll just let it lie. I'd have to go through emails and such to figure out the sequence of events and all that.
Thanks for the notice, Elton. I'll keep an eye on BBB's site in the future.
I have used two of the Fotodiox consumer grade adapters and have been perfectly happy with how they function on my CZ 35-70 and CZ 28 lenses. After having problems with another vendor's adapters I was assured by Fotodiox that if there were any problems I could return the adapters. I found their sales people to be very pleasant to work with.
I've been using a Fotodiox Pro with several AI and AIS Nikkors with good results. They all focus just slightly past infinity when racked all the way, so no problem achieving infinity focus. Fit and finish is first rate, and all surfaces are anodized black. My experience with Fotodiox customer support was very positive. Even though I totally botched the order form which resulted in the adapter being lost in the mail, Fotodiox immediately sent me a replacement adapter when I called them-- at no additional cost to me.
