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 Contax 645 to Canon EF Adapter Initial Impression | |
As discussed in the APO-MAKRO-PLANAR 4/120 thread (https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1220534), I purchased a Contax 645 to EF adapter with Exif, AF, AF adjustment functions. The adapter arrived this morning, and I played with it for half an hour.
Logistics:
Excellent communication and very fast shipping.
The vendor is very responsive to questions and kept me updated with my order status. He shipped the adapter Monday evening in Nanjing, China, and it was delivered to me in Fairfax, Virginia Friday morning. As promised, it is the black version. Came with a Canon rear cap.
Build Quality:
Very solidly built. Turns are smooth and clicks are solid. Mounting the adapter to camera is easy and smooth; mounting lenses to the adapter is also smooth.
My only complaint is the lens release lever. It wiggles and doesn\'t always keep itself straight when pressed. As a result, pressing the lever does not always depress the spring to release the lens. I need to press the far end (away from the camera) to ensure that I can move the entire lever properly to release the lens. This is a little annoying initially, but manageable after a few minutes use.
Operations:
I only had time to test mounting 3 lenses, 140mm, 120mm, and 80mm lenses and 5D III camera. Overall this adapter operates as expected.
There is no instruction manual in the package. There is some instruction on this site:
http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1183951-1-1-1.html in Chinese. The vendor is currently working on having an English manual. It is indicated in the above website that the adapter does not work with 1.4X III, or older fil cameras like EOS 3. These seem to be the only exceptions to date.
Exif: Lens length, aperture value, exposure time value are captured correctly in the Exif information, as shown up in LR5. Somes the lens name doesn\'t show up correctly. While this is not ideal, it does not matter much to me, as I can still tell which lens is used from the length.
I had a glitch when changing lenses with the camera powered on and adapter on the camera. I unmounted 140mm lens, and when I mounted 120mm macro, it didn\'t seem to recognize the lens. I tried to re-mount the lens, same thing. I tried to re-mount the adapter, same thing. I powered off the camera and turned it back on, same thing. I then powered off the camera, removed the battery, put the battery back in, powered on the camera, and it worked. The adapter seems to power itself directly from the camera battery. As a result, even if you turn off the camera, it still doesn\'t cut the power to the adapter. You need to remove the battery to completely \"reboot\" the adapter. When I changed lenses later (120 to 80, then 120, then 140), it worked fine. It was only a one time glitch.
AF: Overall AF is speedy and accurate. AF speed is not as fast as a native EF lens, which is expected. But it is better than that of Metabones EF-NEX, if you have used it as a reference point. It\'s more like using a Sigma lens, which is more than acceptable. Also, using the central focus point gave me faster speed then using other points. This is expected as well.
Focus is accurate on my 140mm lens. The 120mm macro is manual focus, and the adapter provides accurate confirmation beep. My 80mm shows slight front focus wide open (focus closer to camera than anticipated). I will need to adjust it a little, and report back on how AF adjustment works.
I will post some pictures later when I have time. But keep in mind that I was hand holding the camera, and pictures were taken indoors, so it was not a \"scientific\" testing. It\'s only to see how well the adapter works.
Overall, this is an excellent adapter that functions as it should. Given the lack of other approaches, I would recommend this adapter if you want to use Contax 645 lenses on Canon bodies.
The vendor is working on a Nikon adapter as well, which should be available in a couple of months. From this video it seems to be working just fine on a Nikon body.
Please let me know if you have certain things you want me to test, and I\'d be happy to report back when I get a chance.
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