I just got my hands on a Takumar SMC 50 f/1.4 and an M42-EOS adapter with AF confirm for my 1D mk II. I must say that this lens is amazing! Much sharper than my Canon 50 f/1.4. My question is about the adapter...I paid extra for the AF confirm chip, but being new to the world of alternative lenses, I am not really sure how it is supposed to function. I've tried switching the lens between manual and autofocus, but it operates the same either way.
I realize this is probably a stupid question, but am I doing something wrong?
The M/A switch on the M42 lens switches between manual and auto aperture modes, not manual and autofocus. In M the lens is always in stop-down mode, in A it stops down when the mount pin is pressed in.
The AF confirm chip enables the AF confirm light in the viewfinder of your camera, nothing more.
Not that the adapter probably permanently presses the aperture pin in, so the A mode will actually not be available.
In case you don't know what the AF-confirm actually does: the AF-system detects when something under the selected AF-point is in focus and in that case that AF-point lights up in the viewfinder (and the AF-confirm light on the right of the viewfinder info lights up as well).
.... and you will need to be pushing the shutter release half way (assuming focus/AE lock is not assigned to a different button) while manually focusing the lens till the focus point lights up on your view finder.
AhamB wrote:
Not that the adapter probably permanently presses the aperture pin in, so the A mode will actually not be available.
This is why i get adapters without the 'flange', so i can 'preset' the aperture i want on the lens, still focus wide open, then without taking my eye off the VF, switch to M, be at the choosen aperture, and fire. BTW, i got a katz eye screen and i'm more consistent in focussing than the AF with the chip... Also faster and you can focus anywhere in the frame without having to recompose.
mawz wrote:
The AF confirm chip enables the AF confirm light in the viewfinder of your camera, nothing more.
Not always. Maws meant that you don't get an actual AF performance, but his answer could be misleading, so:
Some chips also give a bit of EXIF data to the camera. Not as much as we'd like, but better than nothing. For instance, the chips & adapters sold by HappypageHK can be encode with your lens''s focal length and minimum aperture.
At a minimum, this makes it easier to know which lens you used, when looking at your raw files much later. Some folks also think that this helps the camera's metering. I personally haven't noticed this yet, but I've only used one such chip, so far.
