Telephoto lenses are expensive and if you have one intended for an older SLR camera, you may consider using it with with your DSLR. My experience is that this is doable but there are a few critical issues that you have to deal with.
Contemporary DSLR cameras are rather unfriendly to older lenses for different reasons such as the lens-sensor distance , the mounting mechanism or even the camera software.
It is important to mount the old lens on the camera at the precise distance without damaging the internal parts..
In this instructable I'll show you how this can be done by a specific example using common tools and materials.
I picked this used and damaged telephoto from a street market. It was a zoom 80-200mm F/4.5, ~400gr weight, with the JCPenney (an American multistore) brand on it and the sign "made in Japan" . Even at its own time it would be inferior compared to those made by Yashica, Nikon or Vivitar with similar specifications.
It was practically separated in two and full of dust, but the external lenses did not seem to have any scratches. Initially I intended to remove the lenses for other uses but looking at it more carefully I realized that the mechanical problems could be fixed.
The challenge was to repair it and mount it on my Olympus E-420.
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Signing UpStep 1: Preliminary steps
Regardless if your lens needs repair or not, this is what you have to do first:
Find out the camera-lens distance
A T-ring is the best type of adaptor for this work. It offers two possibilities for mounting a lens, either by using the 42M threading of the internal ring or by removing the ring and fitting the tube on the main connector directly. The one shown here is the Olympus Four-Thirds T-ring for DSLRs which has a bayonette type mounting.
Find out the camera-lens distance
- Attach the camera on a tripod and remove its own lens. Holding the telephoto with both hands in front of your camera with the setting of the telephoto at infinity, try to focus a very distant object. If you have a problem to keep the lens to the correct position use a paper inner tube but do not touch the internal parts of your camera.
- Rotate the focusing ring a few degrees and focus again. In the final construction it is better to set the infinite point a few degrees before the rotation limit. This will allow sharp focusing by leaving some space around the correct point.
- Focus on close objects. Try to find the minimum focusing distance available. In my case the distance measured was 1.7 meters at 200mm and 1.5 at 80mm.
A T-ring is the best type of adaptor for this work. It offers two possibilities for mounting a lens, either by using the 42M threading of the internal ring or by removing the ring and fitting the tube on the main connector directly. The one shown here is the Olympus Four-Thirds T-ring for DSLRs which has a bayonette type mounting.
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your comment on the softness of your old Zoom lens is quite logical: in those old days a Zoom was very difficult to design and manufacture.
But NOT ALL old SLR lenses were soft; the best lenses of those years were even more detailed and precise than recent designs, no joke. You would be surprised to see better older lenses compared side to side to latest ones, unless, that is, you are comparing the VERY best of today lenses (like SOME but not all of the Canon "L" series) to old "L" series SLR lenses of around 1980's vintage.
Even when today Canon "L" lenses have Autofocus and some of them motion compensation, OPTICAL quality is NOT much improved, and in some cases, today some "L" series lenses are not up to the resolution and correction of older ones.
Now, compare the price of the better modern ones... you can purchase a new car for that kind of money! Another consideration is about the SPEED of today lenses: Young people think the 50 mm F 1:1.8 normal lens is very "fast" and good lens, (at least much better than the piece of junk of the "kit lens" sold with the Canon cameras, the cheaply made 18-55).
But older people like me know for shure the 50mm F1.8 was the cheap one in the 80's, because the 50mm F 1.4 was better built and better overall... and the
expensive 50mm F 1.2 L was a really extraordinary one, competing and slightly surpassing even the best German Leica 1.2 Noctilux, no less!
Now the surprise: Professionals have found the OLDER lens is not only much better built, more precise and has better materials than the actual 1.2 L; which has dissapointed some owners with Autofocus issues.
The plain truth is that both Nikon and Canon (and others) are now producing LESS than the best lenses possible, maybe because they want to have some "room for improvement", but they are concentrating their efforts more towards the electronics and sofware, than on the Optical quality of their lenses.
Soon, the sensors will continue getting better and better, and then the industry will be forced again to concentrate on Optical quality, but I seriously doubt they will return to the precise and durable construction of the 80's.
My old Canon "New FD" lenses of the 80's, were made UNUSABLE in 90's Canon cameras, BY DESIGN! (INTENTIONALLY). They say it was made for technical reasons and blah blah blah, but the truth is other.
It is called "Planned Obsolescence" and is responsible for much of the waste and pollution damage caused to the planet, not to say the damage to our purse!
One thing is clear: Managers and engineers were not only good, but somewhat perverse: by redesigning the mount, they made the older lens unusable in newer cameras, just to keep people buying and throwing away perfectly good lenses, just to keep "updated with the latest model". It is the business model... I wonder how long that situation will be sustainable. But thanks to clever people at INSTRUCTABLES, we can have old things working again instead of making the trash mountain bigger!