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Medium-format digital photography is expensive. There’s no two ways around it. Digital large format isn’t even really a thing outside of scanning backs, either. But we are able to emulate the look with smaller sensor cameras.
For large format, we’ve got the “Brenizer Method“. For medium format, we’ve got the Fotodiox RhinoCam Vertex (buy here). This adapter lets you mount your old medium format lenses onto mirrorless bodies to shoot larger than full-frame images.
I have to admit, I hadn’t given much thought to weather sealing when using adapted lenses. But then, when I’m using adapted lenses, I’m usually doing it in some comfort. Not everybody is.
There are definitely times when being able to adapt lenses in any weather conditions can be handy. Well, if you’re a Fuji X shooter with some Nikon F lenses, the Fringer NF-FX II (buy here) is the weather-sealed adapter you need (maybe).
Meike has released two new drop-in filter lens adapters. There’s the Meike MK-EFTE-C which allows you to mount Canon EF mount lenses onto Sony E mount bodies. The other is the Meike MK-EFTR-C to adapt Canon EF lenses to Canon RF mount lenses. Both lens adapters appear to offer a passthrough connection for electronic communication, allowing full control over your lens from the body itself.
It will be interesting to see if and how Canon responds to the announcement, given their recent actions towards 3rd party RF lens makers. This isn’t exactly a lens, but it will communicate with the camera in the same way autofocus lenses do, translating everything to EF signals to be passed along to the lens you have mounted on the other side. Still, both adapters come supplied with clear and VND filters.
No matter which team you shoot for, it seems that the Canon EF mount has sort of become the de facto universal standard for (almost) all of them. Kind of like the lens equivalent of a Bowens mount. And if the camera you’re using doesn’t have a native EF mount, whatever mount you do have can be easily adapted. Now that adaption seems to have come to Nikon Z cameras, thanks to Meike.
Meike’s new MK-EFTZ-B adapter lets you mount Canon EF and EF-S lenses onto Nikon Z bodies with full autofocus support and aperture control from the camera body. It even appears to support Canon’s IS lens stabilisation system, too, according to Meike’s description of the product on their website and also transmits EXIF data along to the camera body.
Last year, Megadap released ETZ-11, an adapter that lets you mount Sony E lenses to a Nikon Z body. This is a handy piece of gear if you’ve changed the mirrorless body you use so you don’t have to change all of your lenses as well.
And now, here’s the new and improved version of the adapter. The ETZ21 is here, allowing you to mount your Sony lenses to a Nikon body. The company offers plenty of improvements, so let’s see what’s new in the second generation of this adapter from Megadap.
Adapting lenses has become a lot more common in recent years as now that pretty much every DSLR and mirrorless camera out there shoots some form of video. Older lenses give us a favourable aesthetic that’s often lost with the latest high tech lenses that try to eliminate every lens imperfection possible. I’ve been doing it myself for about a decade now and it’s a lot of fun to see what some of those old lenses can do for your footage.
While adapting lenses might seem quite easy now, there are a few things you’ll want to look out for when buying an adapter and a couple of “gotchas” you’ll want to beware of. In this video, Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter walks us through the adapting process and things we will need to think about when buying adapters and using old lenses on our current cameras.
Viltrox has announced a new Canon EF to Sony E mount “smart” lens adapter. As with most other “smart” lens adapters, this one allows you to pass through autofocus and EXIF information for complete data communications. This one, however, has a shiny new OLED display on top of it.
The $199 Viltrox EF-E5 Smart Mount Adapter is the fifth generation of Viltrox’s Canon EF to Sony E mount lens adapter, released over the last nine years. It makes use of that dead space between the lens and body by providing useful feedback to the photographer through its OLED display, including focal length, aperture and focus mode.
Well, we’ve seen a few experiments with the Gameboy camera over the years, but this one is pretty wild. YouTuber, car nut and 3D printing fanatic Conorsev has developed and printed an adapter that lets him mount Canon EF mount lenses to his Nintendo Gameboy Camera and it produces images far greater than the Gameboy ever deserved. While it might be a pretty crazy idea, it makes for some particularly intriguing and very unique photographs.
One of the best things that’s come out of the last few years of everybody switching to mirrorless and there being so many different mounts out there is the plethora of adapters that keep being released – with varying degrees of capability. We’ve got straight through manual adapters, speed boosters, autofocus adapters, tilt-shift adapters and all sorts.
One relative newcomer to the adapter space is Megadap. who released the MTZ-11 Leica M to Nikon Z autofocus adapter last year. Well, now they’re back with the much more useful Megadap ETZ-11; an adapter that lets you mount Sony E mount lenses on full-frame and APS-C Nikon Z bodies with full auto capabilities.
Laowa has announced available for its new 1.33x Rear Anamorphic Adapter and 1.4x Full Frame Expander Adapter. Both the front and rear of each adapter features a PL mount, letting you add anamorphic capabilities to your PL mount lenses on your PL mount cameras, or expand the field of view of Super 35mm PL mount lenses to cover a full-frame sensor.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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