Guide to Adapters for Manual Lenses on the Sony a7 series

There are many good reasons to adapt manual lenses to the Sony A7 series cameras. To do so you need an adapter and this article will help you to choose the right one.

We are three guys from Germany who have adapted manual lenses for many years now. By using several dozen adapters over the years we have learned the hard way, that not all adapters are created equal. We hope that the money we spent on bad adapters will help you to avoid annoying miss-buys we experienced.

In the following two parts we tell you why you need an adapter in the first place, and which issues can arise with adapters. If all you need is the right adapter for your lens you can simply jump to Adapter Manufacturers].

All links marked with a * are affiliate links. If you use them we will get a few percents commission on your purchase without any added cost to you.

Last Update: January 2023

Why you need an adapter

This image was taken with the awesome Minolta MD 2.5/100 using a Novoflex adapter

The first reason is that every camera manufacturer uses a different mount and with a few exceptions these are not compatible. Let’s assume you want to use an old Minolta MC 55mm 1:1.7 on your Sony A7II. The Minolta physically doesn’t fit your Sony. Here the adapter comes into play: on the side facing the camera it has the Sony E-mount and on the side facing the lens the Minolta SR-mount, so with the adapter your old manual focus lens now fits your new A7 series camera.

There is a second issue which needs to be overcome and that is the flange focal distance. This is the distance between the mounting flange of the lens and the sensor. If the flange focal distance between the lens you want to adapt and the camera isn’t maintained you will either lose infinity focus or won’t be able to focus on anything at all. Your camera needs to have a shorter flange focal distance than your lens or it is impossible to make an adapter. That is one reason why you can adapt almost any lens to the Sony E-mount cameras with their very short flange focal distance of just 18 mm.

Let’s have a look at the Minolta SR 1.7/55 again. It has an SR-mount so its flange focal distance is 43.5 mm. Your Sony Alpha 7 has an E-mount with a flange focal distance of 18 mm. Therefore the adapter needs to be 43.5 mm – 18 mm = 25.5 mm thick.

Adapter Problems

Adapters can cause several issues which we want to discuss briefly to give you a better basis for an educated buying decision.

Mechanical fit

Optimally a lens would fit your camera so well that there is zero play and camera and lens feel like one unit. In practice even native E-mount lenses don’t fit perfectly and you can notice a tiny bit of radial play. The reason for that is that it is more expensive to machine mechanical parts very exact with tight tolerances and therefore a small amount of play is often allowed to keep costs down. With adapters we have seen very different amounts of play.

  • Our Novoflex and Rayqual adapters fit very well and we notice zero play with them.
  • Our experience with cheaper no-name adapters is all over the place. We have owned adapters which fit almost as good as a Novoflex and we have had adapters from the same source which where unusable because of their very bad fit.
  • Our cheaper adapter brand of choice is K&F, their adapters usually show a tiny bit of play. It is so minimal though, you only notice it when you look for it.

Adapter thickness

We gave a brief explanation of how an adapter needs to span the difference between the flange focal distance of lens and camera in the previous paragraph. In theory any adapter, mount and lens would have exactly the same flange focal distance as specified. In reality there is variance in each component:

  • Lenses might be miscalibrated so that they reach infinity before the infinity hard stop or can’t be focused at all on a well calibrated camera.
  • Sony’s E-mount cameras – especially the ones from the first generation – show a significant amount of variance regarding their mount parameters.
  • Adapters are subject to variation as well. The amount depends on the manufacturer’s quality control and production process.

So this is a big game of tolerance. If you manufacture your adapter exactly it will work well on most lens/camera combinations, but some people won’t be able to reach infinity with their lens. So most adapter manufacturers make their adapters a bit shorter. This guarantees that the adapted lenses reach infinity but it also has several unwanted consequences:

  • The focus scale of the lens becomes inaccurate. The shorter your focal length, the more it will be off.
  • The hard infinity stop of your manual lens no longer works, as lenses will focus past infinity.
  • You will see a negative effect on performance with lenses which use floating elements (most modern wideangle lenses including zoom lenses do).

So how much of an issue is it if an adapter is too short? It is a big issue if you use a fast wide-angle lens with floating elements. Phillip once tried to use the legendary Zeiss Milvus 2.8/21 with a cheap Nikon F to Sony adapter on his A7 and it had very weak corners while the Milvus 1.4/50 showed very good performance with the same adapter. Bastian also had issues with a cheaper adapter and the Laowa 2.8/12 and even with more expensive (but still too short) adapters and the Nikon 1.8/20. Phillip once tried the Canon EF 4/16-35 with a cheap electronic adapter and this combo had serious field curvature issues.

To show you how big the differences can be Bastian made this comparison using his Nikon-F Samyang 14mm 2.8 and a K&F and a Rayqual adapter. Let us first look at the center of the frame:

Sony A7rII | Samyang 14mm 2.8 | f/2.8 | focus on center | 100% crops

As you can see in the center the differences are rather small. But now let us take a look at the corner region:

Sony A7rII | Samyang 14mm 2.8 | f/2.8 | focus on center | 100% crops

Here the too short K&F adapter leads to abyssmal image quality in the corners with the floating elements Samyang lens and the Rayqual adapter looks significantly better.

I (Phillip) have been using legacy lenses with too short adapters for years and saw no reason to fix these adapters. But that’s just me, and I don’t use the focusing scale nor the infinity stop. Now that I own several legacy wide-angle lenses with floating elements, I am more cautious and have tuned my adapters for correct infinity.

In theory adapters could also have uneven thickness which would lead to a tilted image plane and therefore degrade the image quality. Personally we have never run into such issues though, even with otherwise badly made adapters.

Adapter length is also an issue you can sometimes fix yourself.

Adapter Reflections

a reflective adapter on the left vs a well designed Novoflex on the right

Another issue is light reflected by the adapter to the sensor. Adapter reflections do not happen often. I (Phillip) used adapted lenses with cheap adapters for years before I ever noticed them. They seem to happen only with some lenses and in specific scenarios but then they often destroy an image. Here is an example for that:

 

You can fix adapter reflections with some material and a little tinkering.

The Velours I use for tuning my adapters absorbs light much better than the adapter’s paint.

Light Leaks

notice the gap above the right screw on this cheap adapter

Not every adapter is absolutely light tight. This becomes an issue when you do long exposures, especially with a strong ND-filter.

Sony A7rII | Nikon Series E 50mm 1.8 | NiSi ND1000 Filter

Durability

Not all adapters are made to last. So far I (Phillip) have had to throw four cheap no-name adapters away because they no longer held the lens safely. In one case I had to spend over an hour to get it off my lens.

Adapter Issues – Conclusion

By reading about these issues one might get the impression that adapters are a huge headache and one would be much better served by staying away from them and choosing native lenses straight away. But if you look at Sony’s native lenses regarding tolerances this is a very serious issue with native Sony lenses as well. Internet forums are full of reports of people who had to go through many copies to get a well centered one and we have had to return a significant proportion of the Sony lenses we have bought for oursevles as well.

Our list of issues is so detailed because, as reviewers, we think it is our job to take a really critical look and identify any potential issues. In practice many people buy a random $20 adapter and never notice any of these issue. But if you run into an issue our article should help you to understand and fix it or to avoid it right away by choosing the right adapter.

Adapter manufacturers

There is a large number of adapter manufacturers and on top of that adapters from the same manufacturer might show some variation as well. We would have to test several hundred adapters to get reliable information on their average thickness and variation. We can’t do that. But we use certain brands a lot so we have a large enough sample size to give you more detailed information on them. We have also summarized other people’s (that we trust) reports on brands we have less experience with.

K&F 

At around $20 they are very affordable but we have experienced much less issues with them than with other cheap adapters in the same price bracket. They usually fit well with only a small mount of play and their locking mechanism seems to be durable enough. Reflections can be an issue though, because the inside is rather reflective, but as said you won’t run into them often. The fact that they are usually rather short weighs heavier and will affect image quality with some lenses. Still they are our budget manufacturer of choice and each of us owns several of their adapters.

Recently K&F has released a second generation of adapters. The new adapters are much better at controlling reflections and the camera facing mount is now chromed. We still have only a small sample size but it seems that they only go a little beyond infinity, less so than the earlier version. The adapters are also noticeably heavier than earlier versions.

Novoflex

At $140-250 they are among the most expensive adapters but they are made in Germany with very tight tolerances and very good build quality. All the Novoflex adapters we have used so far showed zero play and the adapters suppress any flare issues effectively. They also have very solid springs to maintain pressure on the lens. The only smaller issue we have found is that they usually don’t quite reach infinity. One Minolta SR shows 3m on the focus scale of a Minolta MD 2.8/24 focused at infinity and another one 5m on a Canon FD 2.8/20. Unfortunately the anodization on Novoflex products isn’t all too durable and after some usage you will see signs of wear on the adapters.

One advantage of the Novoflex over the Rayqual is the ASTAT-NEX (Affiliate link) tripod collar. It is bloody expensive but also rock solid and especially handy for mounting heavier lenses without a dedicated tripod collar.

Our recommendation if you want an adapter you don’t need to worry about.

Rayqual

Rayqual Nikon-G to Sony-E Adapter

We have only tested a Nikon-G adapter from Rayqual so far but it might in fact be the best Nikon-G adapter as it even offers click stops (the Metabones doesn’t).
Furthermore two loyal readers of this blog, Tim and David, have recommended them in the past and we trust their judgement. They play in the same league as the Novoflex adapters with zero play but they use light baffles which will suppress any flare even better (not that I ever noticed any issues with a Novoflex). Unlike the Novoflex adapters the Rayqual adapters have no margin to allow for miss-calibrated lenses or camera mounts, as the infinity hard stop will be dead on with most lenses. Therefore it can happen that you won’t reach infinity with them.
Furthermore some readers told us when using extension tubes you might run into vignetting issues quite easily.

Our other recommendation if you want an adapter you don’t need to worry about.

Metabones

Metabones Nikon-G to Sony-E Adapter

Metabones is best known for their Canon EF AF adapter (they were the first in the game) which is now available in its fifth generation. Their precision is above that of the cheapest manufacturers but according to lensrentals.com they have a high failure rate (they should know because no one has similar sample sizes). The failures will be caused by the electronics most often but none the less they don’t seem to play in the same league as Novoflex or Rayqual. Metabones offers adapters for many mounts, which are also often a bit short (similar to Novoflex).
What I (Bastian) really like about the Metabones adapter is the built in yet detachable Arca-Swiss compatible tripod mount, although you might run into difficulties when using very big clamps or an L-bracket mounted to your camera.

Fotodiox Pro

Fotodiox offers adapters at different price points, the higher quality ones feature the “Pro” tag in their name. I (Bastian) have already tested 3 different of their Leica-M adapters: the normal one is a little too short but otherwise there is nothing wrong with it. The pro had very nice, solid build quality and acutally a very nice design. The Pro DLX stretch (a helicoid adapter) was unfortunately a little too much on the wobbly side (may introduce decentering to your lenses), I can’t recommend it.
Nevertheless, I still have and use two of their cheaper adapters and see them as an alternative to the K&F adapters.

So, how much should I spend on an adapter?

So, how much should you spend on an adapter and which brand should you buy? We can only recommend you to stay away from $10 no-name adapters, the saved money isn’t worth the potential issues. But if you spend $20 on a K&F or Fotodiox adapter you have a good chance of never running into any issues. And if you spend $15 on materials and tinker with them for an hour you will most likely be able to fix any potential issues as well. So we would recommend to buy one of these if you are getting started with manual lenses or just use a few affordable lenses from one manufacturer.

If you never want to worry about your adapter and use some more expensive lenses on a regular basis we would recommend you to spend $150 on a Novoflex or Rayqual adapter.

Adapter Recommendations by lens mount

Minolta SR mount

Minolta lenses with the SR mount are easily identified by the MC or MD engraved into the front. For a full list of all the models visit this page. Identifying third party lenses with SR mount is bit more difficult but many have something like MD engraved near the mount and the image of the mount above can help.

Our budget recommendation is the K&F II adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Our peace of mind recommendation are Novoflex and Rayqual adapters. Their prices differ a lot between the markets and we would recommend the cheaper one.
Novoflexebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Rayqualebay.com* | amazon.com*

Canon FD

Canon FD lenses are very affordable and Canon made a few outstanding (at least in their time) lenses like the 1.2/85. They can be identified by the engraved FD and use a rather complicated and unusual mounting mechanism which makes it a bit more complicated to mount them.

Our budget recommendation is the K&F II adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Our peace of mind recommendation are Novoflex and Rayqual adapters. Their prices differ a lot between the markets and we would recommend the cheaper one.
Novoflexebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Rayqualebay.com* | amazon.com*

Canon EF/EF-S

The EF mount is the successor to the FD mount and is purely electonical, so Canon EF(-S) lenses, even most of the manual focus ones, need an adapter with electronics in order to being able to change the aperture. Most of these adapters also offer AF and support the lenses’ IS (if available).
They range from ~70$ (Commlite, Viltrox, Fotodiox) to ~400$ (Metabones T Smart) with the Sigma MC-11 in between for ~250$. I (Bastian) have tested Commlite, Viltrox and Sigma MC-11. When it comes to controlling the aperture they all worked quite well, but when it comes to AF I can only recommend the Sigma MC-11 of these three, the other two were quite unreliable, especially above 150mm. Furthermore the two cheaper adapters showed way more radial play than I can tolerate. When it comes to the flange distance the MC-11 was also the best match.
The latest Metabones adapter is said to be at least on par with the Sigma MC-11, but it is also significantly more expensive and the guys over at lensrentals had not so good experiences with their reliabilty.

A few more things to consider:

  • the Metabones adapter supports EF-S lenses, the Sigma MC-11 only EF lenses
  • the older Metabones (and many of the cheaper adapters) don’t feature flocking on the inside and may encounter significant problems with reflections, especially when using wide angle lenses
  • some adapters may introduce severe vignetting when using the TS-E 17mm 4.0 L (this might also be true for other special lenses)
  • with many cheaper adapters the APS-C mode is activated by default, you have to change that in the camera menu
  • you can only get (more or less) decently fast phase detection AF with the A7II, A7rII, A6300 and A6500
  • the Sigma Art, Contemporary and Sport lenses in combination with the Sigma MC-11 behave almost like native FE lenses and even offer Eye-AF

Our budget recommendation is the Commlite (don’t expect great AF performance) adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Our peace of mind recommendation are the Sigma MC-11 and Metabones T-smart adapters:
Sigmaebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Metabones: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*

Contax C/Y

Zeiss C/Y lenses feature unusually good coatings for their age as well as great build quality and good sharpness. They are quite expensive compared to other legacy lenses though. After discontinuing the line Zeiss introduced the ZF/ZE line of lenses with Nikon F/Canon EF mount.

Our budget recommendation is the K&F II adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Our peace of mind recommendation are Novoflex and Rayqual adapters. Their prices differ a lot between the markets and we would recommend the cheaper one.
Novoflexebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Rayqualebay.com* | amazon.com*

Olympus OM

Olympus OM was known for creating the smallest SLR lenses on the market with solid performance and in the 80s Olympus even created some of the finest manual lenses ever built among them the OM 2/100. These lenses are easily identified by the OM in the name but don’t confuse them with the newer “Zuiko Digital” lenses.

Our budget recommendation is the K&F II adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*

Our peace of mind recommendation are Novoflex and Rayqual adapters. Their prices differ a lot between the markets and we would recommend the cheaper one.
Novoflex: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Rayqual: ebay.com* | amazon.com*

M39 / Leica Thread-Mount (LTM)

This is the predecessor of the M-mount. It is also known as the Leica Thread Mount (LTM) which is nothing but a standard M39 thread. In Russia it is also known as “Zorki”. Many older Leica, Zeiss, Voigtlander and also Jupiter lenses come with M39 mount.
There are very slim adapters from M39 to Leica-M available and I would recommend getting them and use a Leica-M -> Sony-E adapter as the bajonet mount is much more enjoyable than the M39 screw mount. These slim adapters feature engravings for Leica cameras, you don’t need to worry about these, just get the cheapest.

Adapters from M39 -> Leica-M: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*

See also Leica M-mount

M42

The M42 lens mount was used by a wide range of manufacturer often from east Germany but  also by Pentax until they introduced the K-mount in 1975. It differs from all the other mounts in the senses that it is not a bajonet-mount but a screw-mount.

Our budget recommendation is the K&F II adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*

Our peace of mind recommendation are Novoflex and Rayqual adapters. Their prices differ a lot between the markets and we would recommend the cheaper one.
Novoflex: ebay.com* | amazon.de*
Rayqual: ebay.com* | amazon.com*

Pentax K

The Pentax K-mount was introduced in 1975 and Pentax gained a reputation for their very effective SMC-coating often seen as comparable to Zeiss’ T*-coating. You can find a very good database of user-reviews at pentaxforums.com.

Our budget recommendation is the K&F II adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*

Our peace of mind recommendation are Novoflex and Rayqual adapters. Their prices differ a lot between the markets and we would recommend the cheaper one.
Novoflex: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Rayqual: ebay.com* | amazon.com*

Leica R-mount

Leica’s range of SLR-lenses was known for great build quality, high prices and – at least in some cases – excellent image quality. Leica abandoned the mount in 2009. For a list of all R-mount lenses check out apotelyt.com.

Leica R-mount lenses are easily identified by the “-R” in their name. For example the Leica Summicron-R 50 mm f/2 is an R-mount lens, while the Leica Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 is an M-mount lens and needs a different adapter.

Our peace of mind recommendation are Novoflex and Rayqual adapters. Their prices differ a lot between the markets and we would recommend the cheaper one.
Novoflex: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Rayqual: ebay.com* | amazon.com*

Nikon F-Mount

Nikon AI-s 180mm 2.8 ED (with aperture ring, “Ai-s”) alongside Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G (without aperture ring, “G-type”)

When it comes to Nikon F-Mount lenses the important question is whether you want to adapt older manual lenses, G-type lenses without an aperture ring, or E-type lenses with purely electronically controlled aperture.
For older manual focus lenses with a dedicated aperture ring even a cheap ~20$ adapter will suffice most of the time.
For G-type lenses you need an adapter which allows to control the aperture, as for example the Metabones Nikon-G to Sony-E adapter for ~150$.
For E-type lenses as of today there is only one Commlite AF adapter which allows to change the aperture for ~450$ but the AF performs very badly with some lenses. It might actually not even work with some lenses at all. As this may prove to be quite difficult to understand I prepared the following table for you:
which adapters are needed for what nikon lens

You can read more about adapting Nikon lenses in this article.

The Metabones Nikon-G to Sony-E adapter was the first adapter to feature a decent, reliable and reproducable mechanism to control the aperture of G-type lenses but it has now been copied by many other manufacturers.
Unfortunately from my own experience I know the Metabones adapter is a little short and not the optimal solution for wide angle lenses with floating elements (which many modern lenses feature). I even asked a Zeiss Rep what adapters they recommend for their Otus lenses and they usually go with Novoflex, as these are more close to the original flange distance than the Metabones adapters, resulting in better image quality.
Nowadyas I am using a Rayqual adapter, but these are hard to get in Europe.

Newer Nikon Z/RF lenses can not be adapted to Sony cameras!

Our budget recommendation for older Ai-s lenses is this K&F adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Our budget recommendation for more modern G-type lenses is this K&F adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Our peace of mind recommendations are the Rayqual and Novoflex adapters (they work with Ai-s and G-type lenses):
Rayqualebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Novoflexebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*

To control the aperture on E-type lenses you need the Commlite AF adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*

Leica M-mount

Leica M-mount lenses are easily identified by the “M” in their name. For example, the Leica Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 is an M-mount lens. Zeiss also makes M-mount lenses which carry a ZM in their name, e.g. Zeiss Planar T* 2/50 ZM. There are a few other manufacturers like Voigtlander (VM), Konica (Hexanon-M) and Minolta (M-Rokkor) who have made M-mount lenses. In the mid 2010s also many new chinese manufacturers started designing and offering original M-mount lenses, you can find many reviews of these here on our blog.

Many rangefinder lenses have a rather long minimum focus distance of about 0.7 m to even more than a meter because of the rangefinder coupling. This is a clear disadvantage over comparable (D)SLR lenses, but luckily one can get helicoid adapters nowadays. These helicoid adapters feature a focusing helicoid, in parking position they work just like a normal adapter and allow for infinity focus, but when extended you can get much closer, especially with wider lenses. If you are curious you can have a look at this article covering some of the more popular close focus adapters.

AF-adapter techart leica m sony e fe fullframe autofocus mf close focus programmable exif
M->E adapters: Metabones – TTArtisan 6-bit – Techart LMEA9

Another option is the TTArtisan 6-bit adapter that allows you to have Exif data with some lenses, best have a look at our in depth review to find out what it is capable of.

The Techart LM-EA9 is a special kind of helicoid adapter because it turns all your M-mount (and adapted to M-mount) lenses into AF lenses. AF with this adapter is not without limitations but it usually works well enough. It can also work as a 4.5mm extension tube.
The LM-EA9 marks the second, significantly improved version of this adapter, the first one was the Techart LM-EA7, but it was really bulky and has longevity issues, so we cannot really recommend it.

Our budget recommendation is the Fotodiox adapter: ebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Our peace of mind recommendation are the Voigtlander VM-E close focus and Novoflex adapters:
Voigtlanderebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
Novoflexebay.com* | amazon.com* | amazon.de*
TTArtisan 6-bit adapter: official TTArtisan shop* | ebay.com*
Techart LM-EA9 AF adapter: official Techart shop*

Special Adapters

Helicoid Adapters

Helicoid adapters feature a focusing helicoid, in parking position they work just like a normal adapter and allow for infinity focus, but when extended you can get much closer, especially with wider lenses. These are most common for adapting rangefinder lenses with long minimum focus distance, but now one manufacturer offers an EF -> E-mount helicoid adapter.

There are now also helicoid adapters available for OM, M42 and C/Y mount made by Pixco, Yeenon and Kipon.

Some of the more popular Leica M to Sony E helicoid adapters are covered in more detail this article.

Adapters with filter slot

A few manufacturers are now offering adapters with a filter slot. They make it easier to use ultra wide angle lenses that don’t have a normal filter thread with ND oder polarizing filters.
We have no first hand experience with these adapters yet.

AF-Adapters

The guys from metabones were the first to get an adapter to market, that allowed autofocus on EF lenses when adapted to E-mount cameras. This was and still is pretty groundbreaking.
There are also AF adapters for Contax-G, Leica-M (see Leica-M section above), Nikon-F (see section above) and even the rather rare Sigma-mount lenses.
Unfortunately the AF with adapted lenses rarely works as well as on native lenses: most of the time it is significantly slower and may not work at all with certain lenses.

Speedbooster

See Q&A “What is a Speed Booster?”

Q&A

How will exposure modes work with adapted lenses?

  • A-mode: You set the aperture on the lens and the camera will choose the correct shutter speed for your selected ISO-value.
  • M-Mode: You set the aperture on the lens and the shutter speed on the camera. You can either set ISO manually as well or use auto-ISO which will set ISO in accordance so that you get a correct exposure.
  • S-mode: Since the camera can’t control the aperture it works just like M-mode.
  • P-mode: It works just like A-mode.

Does the crop factor change if I use an adapter?
If your adapter does not contain any lenses it does not affect the crop factor. On an a7 series camera you get the same field of view as on a film camera and on a a6x00 the crop factor will be 1.5.

Will the adapter transmit any EXIF-Data?
No, it won’t. If you want EXIFs for your old manual lenses you need to add them manually with a tool like LensTagger or use the lens compensation app.

Do adapters swallow light?
The kind of adapters discussed in this article do not swallow any light.

I have an APS-C E-mount camera like the Sony a6000. Can I use these Adapters?
Yes.

How do I control the aperture?
You have to control the the aperture with the aperture ring of the lens since camera and lens do no communicate.

What is a Speed Booster Adapter?
A short explanation would be: a Speed Booster is a reversed teleconverter. So instead of increasing your lenses focal length and maximum aperture it decreases them. This only works, if the lenses’ image circle is bigger than the camera’s image circle.
So a Speed Booster works with fullframe lenses and APS-C cameras or with medium format lenses and fullframe cameras.
It won’t work with fullframe lenses and a fullframe camera.
Let us take a look at the Canon EF Lens to Sony E Mount T Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x manufactured by metabones as an example:
We have a Sony A6000 (APS-C), a Canon EF 50mm 1.4 USM (fullframe), a normal (not Speed Booster) Canon-EF -> E-Mount and the aforementioned 0.71x Speed Booster Canon-EF -> E-Mount adapter on our table.
If we use the 50mm f/1.4 lens with the normal (not Speed Booster) adapter what we see on our A6000 would be the same as a (fictional) 75mm f/2.1 lens would look like on a full frame camera:
50mm * 1.5 (crop factor) = 75mm
f/1.4 * 1.5 (crop factor) = f/2.1
If we now use the 50mm f/1.4 lens with the 0.71x Speed booster adapter things look very different, as the speed booster pretty much negates the crop factor:
50mm * 1.5 (crop factor) * 0.71 (Speed Booster) = 53mm
f/1.4 * 1.5 (crop factor) * 0.71 (Speed Booster) = f/1.5
So with the Speed Booster we are getting almost the same picture in terms of field of view and background blur on an APS-C camera as we would on a full frame camera.
There is one caveat though: the decent Speed Boosters are very expensive and it is now often the better solution to buy an A7 series full frame camera in the first place.

 

If we have left any question unanswered please leave a comment and we will do our best to answer it. If you have general questions about manual lenses please check out our beginner’s guide to manual lenses on the Sony a7 series.

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172 thoughts on “Guide to Adapters for Manual Lenses on the Sony a7 series”

  1. My K&F Nikon-G adapter broke in the middle when I had a small bicycle accident (The camera was inside a camera bag, btw.). I could not find any screws at the point where it broke – apparently, it was glued: http://www.chr-breitkopf.de/tmp/ND7_2744.jpg
    One could argue that it’s a feature – if either the camera mount or the lens mount had been damaged, it would have been much more expensive 😉

    Using Novoflex now. And sometimes the CommLite Nikon AF adapter, but only to get EXIF data.

    1. Is the Commlite AF adapter functioning stable?
      I thought about trying a 300mm 4.0 PF with it, but all the AF videos didn’t look good as soon as the focus point left the center of the frame…

      1. I don’t have that many AF lenses. So far I’ve only used it with the AF-S 24-85 VR, and a few MF lenses (Zeiss ZF.2 and Sigma) to get EXIF data. No problems, except for:

        – The adapter is too long and lenses don’t reach infinity
        – Can’t focus at working aperture – it always keeps the aperture wide open

  2. Any feedback with using the Sigma MC-11 with either the Sigma 100-400mm or Sigma 150-600mm? How does AF performance on the long end?

    Heard conflicting feedback on that front so want to understand what the real situation is.

    Thanks,
    Tony

    1. both sigmas work very well with the mc-11. i use often the 100-400 with the a7r2. one time the 100-400 dosent work, so i must switch off the camera.

  3. Some additions to your useful article. First I would like to add Leitax, who have started to make direct E-mount adaptors for several mounts. Apart from reduced tolerances (at least that’s my experience with several XX->EF mount adaptors) a rock-solid stability, they offer a kind of spacer ring, which in combination with a cheap Canon (copy) tripod ring allows to put a tripod ring on the adaptor similar to the ASTAT-NEX from Novoflex. While the ASTAT-NEX can be used on any XX->E-mount adaptor from Novoflex the Leitax seems to be different for every mount type, which is much less flexible when you use lenses with different mounts.

    For people who like to have EXIF data with their adapted manual lenses there is the possibility to use an adaptor with programmable chip for the respective mount to Canon EF and then use a second adaptor from EF to E-mount. Of course your issues with tolerances become even worse when using two adaptors, which is why I recommend to use it with Leitax mount conversions only. It’s not cheap though, when you convert many lenses…

    1. I once leitaxed my Minolta MC 1.2/58 to EF mount, I was very happy with the quality.

      So do you use lenses leitaxed to EF-Mount with a chip and an electronic adapter to E-mount? If so which adapter do you use and what EXIF data does it transfer?

      1. Due to cost, I have limited the lenses with Leitax mount to my C/Y Zeiss 35m f1.4 and 85mm f1.4 lenses. Those two are a good complement to my Canon glass. The EXIF should say 35mm f1.4 or 85mm f1.4, but I haven’t glued and programmed them yet. The reason is that I still don’t have a working EOS camera at hand, which is required to program the chips…

        1. Before changing to Sony, I had 5x lenses with Leitax re-mount for Canon EF, and found them excellent. (You can even speak to the guy who makes them!)
          Good to hear that the Sony E mount is now being done, though I imagine it will be pricey, as a lot more metal to machine. With EF mount, “Dandelion” made programmable chips, I wonder if something similar will appear for the Sony EXIF, to read which lens is on.

  4. Thanks for the large Information on adaptors for the Sony E-Mount cameras. I am using for my C/Y Zeiss and other lenses various adaptors with an fair success. I personally, can recommend the K&F adaptor. The NOVOFLEX seems to me overpriced, and there is an connect with the Chinese KIPON company! LEITAX has an good reputation! The cheap HONGKONG adaptors are often not CNC machined, and therefore fit not very precisely.

      1. Die Firma Shanghai Transvision Photographic Equipment (KIPON) ist nicht nur für seine zahlreichen Adapter, sondern auch als Objektivhersteller bekannt!

      2. Novoflex sells some adaptors made by Kipon (still labeled Kipon). I don’t believe there is any deeper connection than that.

    1. I don’t know what’s about you, but why hate on chinese makes.
      You have no idea how angry it makes me.

    2. My Canon FL 58mm/1.2 would not mount on any cheap chinese adapter nor on the Kipon, there is a conflict between a slight nodge on the lens and the lever on the adapter for the aparature . But Novoflex adapters, Sony E and Nikon Z, work perfectly. So Novoflex is not selling rebadged Kipons.

  5. Very nice article! Ever since I found your blog, I was unsure if the cheaper Adapters would degrade image quality (in earlier articles you often recommended novoflex adapters). But novoflex was out of my price range. The K&F Koncept adapters work for me, although I can focus past infinity with most lenses.

    I would like to add that there is a cheaper speed booster alternative to the metabones adapters: Zhongyi II Speed Booster. I own one (EF-Nex) and it works quite well. Zhongyi Adapters don’t have electrical contacts, so no aperture control or AF through the camera, but with manual lenses you don’t need it anyway. One should look out to buy the second version of their adapters, the first version had issues with flaring.
    The Zhongyi speed boosters are also quite close to the image quality of the Metabones speed boosters according to Matthias Proske, a camera and lens tester from germany (Test of several Speed Boosters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrqNHBHFxf0): Central sharpnes seems to be very similar. Edge sharpness is a bit better, although the crop factor of the Zhongyi is only x0,72 and not x0,71 as the Metabones (though it is said they would be almost the same sharpness if the Metabones Image would be cropped in post production to match the x0,72 crop factor of the Zhongyi).

    A comparison of a speed boosted wide angle lens an a crop camera and the same wide angle lens on a fullframe camera would be very interesting! I guess the would be a difference in image quality, but I’m not sure how much the speed booster would affect the IQ.

  6. Dear friends,

    thanks again for this excellent overview.
    As I am also a lens junkie (to some extent), AND also a photographer with old eyes and some modern lenses, I can add some experiences with AF adaptors, all valid for A7RII and A6500. I won’t comment manual focus lenses and adaptors, Phillip and Bastian have said enough.

    1. Metabones model IV and Sigma MC-11 AF adaptors for Canon EF:

    As a lazy guy I don’t like to change adaptors and lenses constantly, so I own several (4, to be exact) of the Metabones (some internally flocked, some not) and 2 of the Sigma MC-11 for Canon EF mount, each of them is attached to one single lens – so it is much faster in the field to change lenses regardless of brand, this helps to shorten the time of “open Sony cameras” and minimizes dust collection inside.
    All Metabones have been purchased in used condition via ebay, so no “positive” selection. I use these adaptors not only with Canon, but also with Sigma EF mount lenses, especially the Macros. I have very rarely any issues with them, I remember one case when I had to update FW of a Metabones to overcome some sort of not working AF. As I update FW anyway as soon as Metabones announces new ones, no problem. I have also owned for some time the Sigma Sports 150-600 in EF mount, which worked MUCH better with Metabones compared to the Sigma MC-11 (the Sigma adaptors have been purchased new on Amazon, with the 150-600 in mind…). The Arca base of the Metabones is a nice feature, but as my Sony’s are equipped with Arca type L-plates, space gets quite limited in case you have a big clamp. What I have to confess: due to the floating elements problem I do not use wideangles with these adaptors anyway, so flange distance is no issue for me. My main use are longer lenses and macros. I have exchanged the Sigma 150-600 and replaced it with the latest Canon 100-400, which is MUCH better optically and works fine with the adaptors. With these Metabones and Sigma Macros 150 and 180 and the mentioned Canon 100-400 I have survived 4 macro workshops in the field in 2 years and did not miss one shot due to adaptor related problems. I also still own one Metabones EF-M4/3 AF adaptor, which works equally well with Olympus OM-D E-M1 (now in possession of my brother). So we can exchange lenses, a fine option, especially as M4/3 had the same missing long lens problem for a long time!
    To say it clearly: I cannot confirm the Metabones comments of lensrentals. Maybe the lensrentals clients had no time to learn what the adaptors can do and what not (especially the confusing “green” and “advanced” modes…).

    As for the Sigma MC-11: in the beginning there has been much hype around these, which in all honesty I couldn’t understand. My examples had several issues, would focus much slower than Metabones and had big problems in not so bright situations. After two or three FW updates, I think they are better now and work comparable to Metabones. Not better. Mechanical fit is nice, though. I also own one Sigma MC-11 for Sigma SA mount, which I use with a Sigma C 17-70 as a “holiday combo” on A6500 – no complaints, works fine, optically a good solution for a general purpose zoom. In the beginning however, with first FW version of the MC-11, AF would hunt, miss, fail and make noise as soon as light is not super bright. Now, after FW updates, its just fine.

    2. Commlite AF for Nikon:

    Basically, this adaptor works, again my experience valid only with longer lenses. Main issue is that you need fast lenses. Performance on Nikkor AF-S 1,4/85 was fine, on slower zoom lenses I cannot recommend this adaptor. Meanwhile I don’t need it anymore, as I have done the step to sell the Nikkor and to acquire a Batis 85.

    3. Sony LA-EA3

    Works just fine with the Sony ZA 2,8/24-70 and a Sigma 150 Macro HSM OS. Again, all comments only valid for use with the PD-AF-capable Sony e-mount types like A7RII and A6500.

    4. General AF issues with Sony E mount.

    On Sonyalpharumors, a couple of days ago some photog colleague mentioned the “oszillating AF problem” (but nobody helped him): starting with F/8 and then downwards with slower apertures, native Sony E-mount lenses would hunt for AF and fall into some “pulsing” or “oszillating” behaviour, and stay there trapped. No AF possible. This may happen in less than optimal contrast scenes (but still far away from dusk or dawn!). I would tend to describe it as some strange kind of interference between AF-point pattern on the sensor and structure of the targeted area. Open up to at least F/5.6 and the AF will work. In my case, this happens with the A7RII and the G-Master 24-70, before also with the Vario-Tessar 24-70. NO problem at all with the LA-EA3/ZA Vario-Sonnar 24-70 combination, where the aperture is fully opened and will be closed only after pressing shutter release. Now while all this may be excusable, as SLR’s also don’t AF with F < 8, one would expect that the all-so-clever Sony engineers would tackle that and implement simple algorithms to open the aperture for AF, in case such an oszillation occors. Nope.
    For me, this is part of the inconsistencies of Sony's E Mount AF strategy. Main problem is, besides sacrificing the focussing advantage of shallow dof: you do not really and always know what the camera actually does: open the aperture for AF or not? If yes, to which extent? In which situation? More with one lens, less with the other? Adapted SLR lenses, as inferior their AF possibilities may be, do not show this incalculable behaviour but rather focus wide open. (If there wouldn't be the focus shift sometimes…). These things are still my main concern with AF of Sony's E-Mount cameras.

    All the best,
    Uwe

    1. Hi Uwe, any news on the oszillating issue? I experienced the same behaviour with my 24-70 GM on an A7RII. Could you please share the link to the post on Sonyalpharumors? Can’t find anything there.

  7. For a budget EF(-S) > E adapter, I would recommend Viltrox II instead of Commlite. Internet forums suggest the Commlite can damage the electronic contacts on lenses, and the Viltrox II (but not Viltrox III) seems to work with more lenses, although it’s reportedly getting harder to find. For example, I like the Viltrox II with EF-S 10–18, which is a popular budget alternative to the Sony ultrawide but allegedly doesn’t work well with Commlite.

    Overall, great overview, as usual!

  8. Thanks guys for another extremely useful review. I use Novoflex and K&F adapters for various makes of SLR lenses. One of the advantages of the K&F adapters is that they take the Novoflex ASTAT-NEX tripod adapter – so great for longer/heavier lenses.

  9. I like also Kipon. They are more or less three times more expensive than K&F Concepts, but still affordable, are typically as good or better on every parameters, and weight one third less.
    Very interesting if you like to take multiple legacy lenses with an adapter on each.
    More anecdotic: the Vello for Canon FD is wonderful. Cheap, light, excellent at reducing reflections, and infinity is exact.

  10. Great review, thanks.

    One thought: if you find a good adapter, stick with it!
    I’ve tried dozens, the worst being a $140 Contax G adapter.

    I now use just one ($6 Fotga) with the fantastic and underrated Olympus 24-48mm zoom which beats the pants off Sony, 100mm 2.8 and 135mm 2.8.

    Result: an ultralight, ultracompact combo., leaving the adapter permanently on the camera and just changing lenses.
    All the best,

    Robin

  11. And what about the Techart AF which makes manual lenses autofocus? Did you come across? Any good? Impact of having 2adaptors if you want toadapt with non Leica M lens?

  12. Philip,
    Thanks a lot! Saves me a big costly mistake. I just hope they will fix the problem as it is an interesting proposal. Will be patient.

  13. When it comes to dumb adapters, I wonder why you always recommend (peace of mind recommendation) the expensive adapters from Novoflex, Rayqual, Metabones and Fotodiox as they still have strong downsides. You can’t focus to infinity with Rayqual. That’s a huge downside, IMO. Novoflex, Metabones and Fotodiox are too short, wobble, have too much play … You can get the same or less for much less with K&F. They’re not peace of mind, IMO. You still need to test them, may return them or live with the shortcomings. And that for a very high price.

    I have a couple of K&F adapters and they work great. Twice I needed to re-buy them because they were too short but that was no issue. I just returned them within 14-30 days. You just have to test them asap – but also Novoflex, Metabones & co.

    In my opinion, if there is no general production problem with this adapter, you can just go with the cheapest, buy a couple of them, test them all, choose one and send back the other ones. K&F is a good start to avoid general production issues.

    Somewhere you mentioned that you had had problems with your Minolta SLR adapter, it too short. I wonder if there’s a general problem with Minolta mounts/lenses/adapters because my Minolta adapter also was the only one which was waaaay too off. Maybe the lenses have too much variations because the cameras had too much variations too? And now the adapters need to compensate for that? I don’t own many Minolta lenses to see if there’re any lenses which need so much play.

    For example I have a M42 adapter which has infinity in focus with the lenses I had where the infinity symbol starts, not at the hard stop. I looked for better adapters and was about to fix it myself. But now I have a M42 lens that has infinity focus at the hard stop. So the adapter is absolutely right and I need this kind of play because the lenses have so much variations. Maybe the same is true for the Minolta lenses but even more exaggerated. My cheap C/Y adapter has no play with my Contax/Zeiss lenses. Maybe they’re build to higher standards and therefore the adapter needs no play.

    1. We also recommend the K&F adapters because they usually get the job done but there are certain benefits to the Novoflex/Rayqual adapters which are worth the money in some cases.

      Of course you can focus a Rayqual adapter to infinity. As we elaborated in the article there will be cases where you can’t but that’s because your lens and/or camera is out of spec, it is not the adapter’s fault.

      And the reason that we recommend Novoflex/Rayqual as a peace of mind solution is that they are very well made and have zero play. I own three Novoflex adapters and they have zero play on my a7ii. My half a dozen or so K&F adapters have very little play but they do not fit as well as the Novoflex adapters.

      I own K&F adapters for Nikon, Canon FD, Minolta SR, Leica M and M42. They are all quite a bit too short. My noname C/Y adapter has quite a bit of play. I have no reason to assume, that this is a brand specific issue.

      1. I own Novoflex adapters for both Nikon and Contax Zeiss lens on Sony A7S2. They are simply awesome. I would not use any other brand.

        I would recommend a German website called Grooves. Their prices are almost 30% below Amazon and others. Only thing it takes 2 weeks to get to the US. At that price it was a no brain trade off for me….

      2. Hi, Phillip!
        I have many vintage lenses and I’ve never had issues except infinity coming before the hard stop. 28mm lenses and 35mm lenses always performed very well even with Fotga and noname adapters. K&F adapters were more precise with infinity at hard stops or a tiny bit before.

        But recently I’ve bought a CZ CONTAX 35/2.8 lens. I like it very much, but there is a problem: one side of the frame is always blured closer to the right corner. The problem remains through all apertures. At f11 the problematic corner is only OK. I’ve tried 3 adapters (K&F, Fotga, Noname) and all had the same result with minor differences. I thought that the problem could be in a decentered lens element, so I bought another CZ CONTAX 35/2.8 lens with the same result. Do you think I should try the novoflex adapter or I just had very bad luck with two faulty lenses?

        1. I have never had a case where I actually noticed a tilted field because of an adapter and a 2.8/35 shouldn‘t be very susceptible to it. Think I would try a third copy if the lens 🙂

          1. Thank you for your experience and prompt response, Phillip! 🙂

            Such a pity with these 35mm zeiss contax lenses. I’ve never had such issues with pentax or minolta wide angle lenses!

    2. Hi! What adepter do you use with Contax Lenses? Have you had any problems with corner sharpness? I have a problem with CZ Contax 35/2.8 lens, which always blures one side of the frame starting after the middle of the frame, closer to the corner. I’ve tried two copies of this lens and 3 adapters and the result was always the same! Fotga Adapter, K&F adapter a no-name adapter all gave almost identical results with minor differences. At infinity the focus starts before the hard stop with all of them.

  14. Hi,
    It happens that I’m using FOTGA adapter for my Minolta lenses and I hate it as it has a little play at the mount of the camera and a smaller one in the lens mount. I have one Minolta Rokkor PF 50 1.7 a little wobbly somewhere around the aperture ring, but in conjunction with the adapter feels like a ballerina on my camera mount.
    I’ve decided to buy the Novoflex adapter for SR mount, but stumbled on Ulata adapters on ebay. They look well built and also have matte black interior. Has anyone tried these adapters? A couple of forums on the web say that it’s a good adapter but would love to hear one objective opinion about them before my purchase.
    I’ve also tried Selens for FD and they’re pretty well built and also have that play that you should really look for it to say that it is there. The paint on the exterior looks somehow very expensive, profi-like, but the interior for some reason is a little shinier on the grooves than the exterior, but still better than K&F first generation ones.
    Also I have one no-name M42 adapter that is a perfect fit. Too bad the Russian lenses weren’t made to fit their read-out always vertical. If my Helios lenses fit perfectly with it, my Jupiter 37A is somehow to the side and my Tair 300mm has also a little offset. By the time I figured out what that little hex key is provided for, I’ve lost it. Even so I wouldn’t screw and unscrew those little screws for every lens.
    All these adapters reach infinity before the mark by a tiny bit, but that isn’t a problem for me, …yet :))
    Over all I’m staying away from Fotga as the tolerances are way bigger than what I can accept and I’m also open to other cheaper but well built alternatives to Novoflex, Rayqual or Fotodiox since all I’m buying is a metal spacer without glass.

  15. Good stuff, PR.

    FYI: a Speedbooster is referred to as a ‘focal reducer’ in some circles. The f-stop increase is often less than a full stop but anything is better in that regard.

    Like all non-native, add-on gear, results can vary wildly depending on the lens being ‘reduced’ to its native optical focal length. But when you find a working combination it doubles the value of each lens!

    I’m using Zghongi’s Turbo model and it does well on some, not so much on others. A real crap shoot…

  16. I have had problems with the Metabones tube adapter for Minolta SR (MC/MD) mount. I got metal flakes ripped of after some on and off mountings of the Minolta lenses.

    Has anyone else experienced this?

    See my post here for images, scroll down to the adapter part after all the nature images here:
    https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/59823581

    Best regards from Sweden!
    /Anders

  17. My question has to do with adapting the Minolta Maxxum 70-210mm f3.5-4.5 and the Minolta Maxxum AF Zoom 70-210 1:4 (32) 55mm (beercan) to the Sony A7. Since there is no aperture ring control on these lenses is there an inexpensive adapter available that can control the aperture setting on these lenses? I’m told the Fotodiox Lens Mount Adapter – Sony Alpha A-Mount (and Minolta AF) DSLR Lens to Sony Alpha E-Mount Mirrorless Camera Body adapter has an aperture ring on it although I have not seen or used this adapter before.

    1. The LA-3 is too expensive for you? It is certainly the most comfortable option and it is a solid adapter.

      I only briefly used an adapter with mechanical aperture control and I couldn’t select exact aperture values which bothered me. Plus if you have a second generation a7 it is really annoying to readjust focal lenght with a zoom for the stabilizer.

      1. Thanks, that was the answer that I think I was looking for. The LA-EA3 it is, then. Much obliged.

        1. T retain Auto focus w/ Screw drive Minolta/Sony AF lenses (like the 70-210 f4) you need the LA-EA4 that has a screw drive motor built into it, The LA-EA3 will only auto focus SSM/SAM lenses that have the focus motor built into the lens

  18. Hi Phillip,
    Thanks for sharing your passion and inspiring ohters. You actually made me buy a Sony A7R! Now I have some nice vintage lenses like the Pentax K 28 f/3.5 that I really would like to use with the Voigtlander VM close up adapter for Sony E mount, but that means I would have to first put a (K&F) Pentax K to Leica M adapter on the Pentax K in the first hand to convert it to a Leica M mount, and subsequently connect it to the Voigtlander VM?Will this work? Have you tried this on e.g. Minolta lenses? In theory it sounds tempting, as it would give close up ability on lots of lenses.

    1. Hi Lennart,

      I haven’t used such a combination and there could be mechanical issues, the Techart pro AF adapter for example only works with some SLR to M-mount adapters. But mist likely it will work just fine.

      If you just have lenses in one mount helicoid adapters for that mount might be more affordable.

  19. I have 6 K&F adapters for use with F mount Nikkors and my A7ii. Plus three more with the LTM Leitz and Voigtlander lenses.

    No issues, good build quality with a quality feel.

    A very useful article. And one of the best sites around, by a country mile.

    That said, I hope the team will venture into testing the older Nikkors if samples are available.

  20. I tried the Sigma MC-II adapter on my A7, with Canon 24/2.8 IS USM. Whilst very accurate,(it didn’t miss in over 100 shots), it was also very slow, 3-5sec. I believe though, that on MkII bodies it can be nearly as fast as native, (though it depends on which lens are on.)

    I’ve just had my first K&F Concept “dud”. Praktica PB to NEX. It was 0.9mm short! If you Google “Praktica B register distance”, you get a variety of different results,(It should be 44.41mm). I can only assume that they went by one of the wrong distances, or else mine was just a rogue adapter. To the credit of the seller, in China, they were very helpful and immediately offered replacement or refund. As I couldn’t be certain the replacement wouldn’t be any better, I went for refund.

  21. BUYER BEWARE! Nasty things can sometimes happen using an adapter!
    Above I mention the K&F Concept Praktica B adapter. The mounts each end were a very good fit, but I had to buy another cheap make to get the length right! (I’m trying out the PB version of the famed Carl Zeiss Jena 135.3.5 Sonnar MC)
    The PB bayonet mount on the lens, has a row of three, quite substantial round brass, “sprung” contact pins, with straight sides and rounded ends, which protrude 1-2mm beyond the face of the mount . One of these, has “spring-locked” itself, like a lens locking pin, into a deeply recessed screw hole on the adapter mount, and firmly jammed it in place, with no way to remove it, no matter what I do!
    It took me several tries, over several hours (on and off), with 3 and 4 thou” feeler gauges between the mounts, to work out where and what had jammed. The rounded end of the contact isn’t sufficiently bevelled to “lift” it out again when the lens is turned! That could happen with any make of adapter, and deeply recessed screws are usually a good thing!
    I still haven’t decided whether to leave it as is, or saw the adapter off! (After first carefully sealing the rear of the lens against any debris!)

  22. Many M42 adapters I’ve seen don’t have anything to push the aperture pin into the lens, so M42 lenses without a manual/auto switch on the side will be stuck at full aperture. You can try gluing the pin in or taking the back of the lens off to rejig the spring inside.

  23. Hi.
    I’m in trouble to find an adapter from Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58 f2 in Praktica mount to Sony E. I got a Praktica B mount adapter but it doesn’t fit with the lens. I realised the Praktica B mount is different from the old Praktica bayonet of the Biotar. Any suggestion?
    Best compliments for your blog!
    Stefano

  24. Hi, I was wondering if any of you had any experience with adapters for lenses made for Contax IIa and IIIa cameras? Wanted to get the legendary Sonnar 1.5 but adapting it looks tricky.

    1. We have no first hand experience with those and since adapting seems to be tricky indeed I don’t want to give you unreliable second hand information. Maybe you could get the modern Zeiss ZM 1.5/50 which is easy to adapt? Or the also easy to adapt Jupiter 1.5/50 which are both based on the same optical design?

      1. I’ve never been happy with the build quality of the Jupiters (even the post war East German Jena built ones aren’t great). Guess I’ll wait till I can afford the new ZM version. It’d be great if you could do a review on that sometime. Appreciate the help and all the work you guys do here. Thanks!

  25. One that you’ve not mentioned is the MTF. It’s made here in the Uk and they make adapters for the movie industry. It’s not cheap and doesn’t offer Af but it’s rock solid. I have the Nikon mount version.

  26. I got a Novoflex Nikon to Sony adapter. It is well made, no play whatsoever. Nevertheless, it is short and lenses focus pass infinite. Deceiving!

      1. I do like a lot the article! and the other one in which it is explained about adding some straps to correct this. I love the blog! I though nevertheless that the Novoflex had the correct distance so that infinite was at infinite 🙂 Maybe I did not understood your comment and I am missing some information ? Thanks a lot and regards!

  27. Please reread/edit the part about the speed booster.
    Let us assume, that we use a full frame lens on an APS-C camera.
    A normal adapter does not change the f-stop. It crops the full frame picture, so one works with a focal length multiplied 1.4, compared to a full frame picture.
    A speed booster concentrates the light of the full frame lens on the half frame (APS-C). Herewith the user wins one fstop. The light of the full frame concentrates on the half frame. The focal length is the focal length (angle of view) of the lens, as on full frame.
    jankap

  28. Sorry, but the lens itself (focal length, f-stop) does not change. A Summicron stays f/2 independent of the case, that you only use a part of the picture, it delivers. Just as the focal length.
    In case of a 50mm lens one could speak of 75mm eq. or something like that.
    My standard bag contains a 50mm and a 17mm lens, an adapter and a booster. Herewith I have 4 focal lengths. Two real and two virtual ones to use another term.
    jankap

  29. Hello,
    I need help!
    I have A7 ii and the picture of this article is the same body;
    I think the link of amazon.de for K&C Concept for Canon FD lenses might NOT be the right link. There it is written that it is perhaps not suitable for A7S, A7ii and A7Rii …
    instead in the list I chose the FD-NEX (instead of FD-NEX, II) and there it is written that’s working with E mounts (not specifically named anything). So I am just confused.
    Please let me know which one is the right choice.
    Thanks a lot ! 🙂

      1. Hi Phillip, just got one of these K&F C/Y adapters for my A7ii and it does not fit the camera body. It looks just the same at that side as my fotodiox ones but will not engage and I do not want to force it and risk it getting stuck or damaging the body. I have since looked at K&F’s own site and it specifically says that their adapter will not fit A7ii, A7iiS, A7iiR etc bodies. Just the original A7 and A7R. However, they also show a version with a tripod collar and the details for that one by contrast say it will work with A7S, A7ii etc as long as the camera mount is metal not plastic! So, is it just the ones with collars that will fit the A7ii or will they both fit but I just have a bad sample? Many, thanks, Andy

          1. Just received the replacement C/Y adapter. Same problem unfortunately, so I think itmust be not right for the A7ii as per the main K&F website rather than the description on Amazon. I will send this one back and probably go for the Novoflex. One or two of my Fotodiox adapters have some movement – others are OK – but I would like to get one really good one that I could completely depend upon for my 28mm which is my main landscape lens

        1. Hi,

          Just to let you know I have purchased a Contax C/Y adaptor from K&F for my A7II and it WORKS. Perfect fit, no problem whatsoever. So I guess the information are not accurate on K&F website (and resellers just repeat this mistake).
          K&F C/Y adapters + A7II == OK, FIT, TESTED!

          1. What lenses have you tested with the K&F Contax adapter? I have this adapter (and tried two others) and I’ve had a bad experience with contax 35/2.8 lens. One side of the frame is always blured closer to the corner. The problem remains through all apertures. At f11 the problematic corner is only OK.

  30. After just five months, about 1500 photos and a few hundred lens changes the lens locking mechanism on my Metabones (MD to E) adapter is lame, when you focus a lens it comes loose.

    1. After five and a half weeks I received a new adapter. This one has a felt lining and is slightly longer than the old one 25.50mm vs. 25.45mm, infinity now realy is infinity on the lenses I tried, (this leaves nog margin for errors). We’ll see how long it will last.

      1. Actually it’s between 25.55 and 25.56 and that’s a tiny little bit too long for my MDII 24mm, it almost reaches infinity in the center but I can’t get midfield sharp, which you need to be able to do because of fieldcurvature. So I’m sending the €134,- Metabones adapter back again and in the mean time I will be using my €11,- secondhand K&F adapter. That one does allow me to focus midfield and when you stop down two or three stops everything is sharp.

  31. I have been following your website for a few years (great photography is what attracted me) so I think I should make some small contribution here.
    I am happy with Kipon adapters for Contax-G lenses. You need to “work” the focus ring a bit after any period of non-use in order to get smooth-ish movement (it is never truly smooth!). I found the Metabones version too gritty in the focus movement despite having a nicer big ring to grip.
    I use K&F and Kipon for Rokkor MC/MD mounts and Fotga for M42. I have not seen any infinity focusing issues, but I tend to use my beautiful (old) manual lenses for non-infinity subjects mostly. I use the longer Contax and Takumar lenses for landscape and the results are excellent with the mentioned adapters.

  32. PS to my earlier comments: has anyone come across an adapter to allow me to use my E-mount lens (fabulous Loxia 21/2.8) on a micro-4/3 camera?
    I a tinkering with the 4/3 system because the lenses are so amazing (such as a compact 24-200mm lens with constant f4 aperture….even an APS-C version would be a monster by comparison!). But i am not convinced about the 4/3 sensor compared to the A7II or A6000.

  33. Does all adapters mentioned in your article should fit to mine A6000 the same way as to your A7? I’m asking because i found some different namings on ebay , ones mentioning NEX and A bodies, some – only A7RII?

  34. Hi,
    I am checking adapters on amazon for Pentax/Minolta/Nikon mounts and description says that the adapters do not have electrical contacts so i have to set the exposure manually.
    Which means i set the aperture in the lens and shutter speed in the camera. But my question is that how do i arrive at correct exposure? Does camera help me in any way? I assume there wont be exposure scale visible in M mode..

    So how do you do it?

  35. Hello! I make just this comment concerning Leica-M to Nex adapter. I am trying to adapt Ultron 35mm to Sony A7rii.

    -In the good quality range: I have tried Rayqual and Novoflex adapters. Rayqual seems much more comfortable. Length is almost ok, slightly short, but just slightly, so that infinity is still not in place but almost. It has no play. After a small trial, I send Novoflex back as I consider Rayqual superior. The price is surprisingly the same in Europe including postage and import taxes. The only issue with Rayqual is delivery time, around 10 days. Buying in Amazon, this can be helped adding 30€ more, but I waited, as I am not in a hurry. Good quality.

    – In the cheap range: I bought this to mount the plano-convex lens. I have tried several K&F and Fotodiox. All too large until now. I would say K&F maybe slightly better. With Fotodiox I had light leaks at day. Not a big issue, but I had them.

  36. Has anyone looked into putting a Canon FD to EF mount conversion on an FD lens (like the Ed Mika mounts) and also mounting a Dandelion chip… then using a EF to FE adapter with electronics to connect to the camera?

    If this works well, it would allow a few things: you could use an EF telecom enter and it should communicate the correct focal length for IBIS. Because it is EF on one end and FE on the other, you have the choice of the Canon teleconverters and the Sony TCs, so you would have good flexibility.

    If this all works, you will get good partial EXIF in the camera, and the IBIS should work correctly with FD lenses automatically.

    Anyone know if that is viable?

  37. What would you suggest for the best old manual wide angle lenses for using on the crop APS-C camera like the Sony a6000 for street photography getting around a 35mm effective focal length (20-24mm lens x 1.5 crop factor). Minolta, Canon, etc? Thanks

  38. Hi Phillip,

    I need an adapter for Contax C/Y and Pentax K for use on a Sony A7 II.

    You recommend K&F II for both. But there is no K&F II for Pentax K mounts, only the old version.

    The same applies to C/Y. There is only version I and a warning that this will not fit on Sony a7S, a7 II, a7S II, a7R II, a7R III. (On the K&F-Website.)

    A version II is only available for Minolta MD, Canon FD, Nikon Ai and M42.

    I think I will go with Novoflex for Contax C/Y and Canon FD.

    And I’m still on the search for Pentax K. Or maybe I should sell my only Pentax lense 😉

    Thanks for your great work on this site!

    Sincerely
    Michael

  39. Am using “dumb” Novoflex and Metabones Nikon F-to-Sony E adapters to mount Nikkor Non-Ai,Ai an Ai-s lenses to Sony A7II & A6500. Both brands are working great. I prefer the Novoflex for all except for the Nikkor non- iA f4/200 where the Metabones tripod mount is most handy. Also use Fotodiox-Pro M39/LTM for canon rangefinder lense 1.2/50 & Komura 2.8/135 this adapter works well for these lenses. None of these adapters show any play yet, but I am not professional photog giving them significant use.

  40. Phillip,

    I just picked up an old helios with the LTM/m39 thread mount and was very dissappointed to find that the m39-E adapter wasn’t the correct flange distance. It needed the m39-m42 adapter and then the (comparatively) huge m42 adapter tube. Do you know of why this is the case? How can you tell if a LTM/m39 lens is actually that flange distance vs the m42 flange distance? I had hoped for a really tiny package, but with the m42 adapter, this formerly tiny lens becomes quite long. 🙁

    1. That is curious but I have little to no experience with older M39 lenses so I have no idea what the reason might be. But I can tell you that if the lens needs a certain flange focal distance there is no way to use it with a shorter adapter.

  41. I have to report that Commlite adapter doesnt provide enough quality with Samyang 14mm 2,8f canon mount version lens.
    I mounted it on my Sony a7 II and the corner sharpness is very bad. It might not be issue in day light.. But try photographing stars. Nearly 2/3 of the image is effected of Stretched stars effect looks like tilt shift like effect at the corners, and that effect covers quite a lot of image.

    Same happen with Sigma art 24mm 1,4f also Canon mount. Effect is less pronounced but it is there at the corners.

    So I wouldnt recommend using this adapter if you are aiming for wider angle lenses.

    AF does not work with Sigma art lenses. It does work with canon EFs, I tried 10-22mm APSC wide angle lens AF worked.

    Currently trying to find out how to put my wide angle lenses on Sony camera without deteriorating image quality in the corners, because this adapter simply cant be used in night sky photography the way it is now…

    1. I had the same experience with the shitty Commlite adapter. Only somewhat usable for tele lenses.
      Try the Sigma MC-11 instead (won’t work with EF-S lenses!).

      1. I really hope that it will make a difference, at least for my Sigma ART 24mm 1.4f if it wont, then I dont know :/

  42. Per rendere l’interno degli anelli veramente antiriflessione ,secondo la mia opinabile opinione,si deve verniciare con tempera all’acqua nero opaco

  43. Have you tried Ciecio7 adapters? (a small, independent adapter maker that sells on eBay). They state “0.002mm ACCURACY”

    Read very good things about those adapters on FM. Also, much more affordable than Novoflex and Rayqual.

  44. Hello Again, so I received my Sigma MC-11 adapter. The adapter is way better compared to Commlite. But I must say that the problem with “stretched” stars still can be noticed :/ With samyang 14mm 2,8f left side of the image is affected a little. With Sigma ART 24mm 1,4f bottom part of the image is the most affected, the stars stretching is pronounced, not as sever as Commlite adapter, but it is still there… Also Sigma MC-11 automatically adds a lens profile over the pictures, the profile can not be turned off in lightroom or Photoshop. The image looks like it is stretched towards the corners and that also adds a little more to the stars stretching effect.. :/ The images taken with adapters are nowhere near those taken with Canon 6d.
    Autofocus seems OK with 24mm 1,4f but Eye -focus and AF-C does not work with this lens, so be aware of this.

    It is very sad that not many people seem to report these issues. Also I tested only 8sec. exposure times on night pictures with my Sony A7 II and I must say it does feel like some of the stars are removed from the picture, although many claim that A7 II “star eater” is not visible until BULB mode. But it really look like some of the dimmer stars are removed from the picture..

    For all of those who are wishing to move from Canon to Sony to get better DR I urge you to think things through a little more. Because the lack of DR you have now is not that big of a deal compared to the other things you might face when switching over..

  45. Dear Philip:
    Thanx for these great articles which are giving me deeper insights. As I am growing out of my Sony A58, I tried 8 Minolta and Sony etc AF lenses on the A7R using the LA-EA4. They all worked fine especially the Minoltas as they were recognized as full frame lenses. Oddly, I could not do manual focusing on the APC lenses from Sony and Tamron even after I had set the A7R to do manual focusing. I plan to buy the A7RII as I like the IS which it has.
    On another front, I have an old Voigtländer VSL 1 (Made in Singapore) with the Ultron F1.8 50mm and Dynarex F4/135mm. I understand they are really Rollei’s. On the web, people call their mounts QBM (never heard off). Do you know of a good adapter in mind for these lenses to the A7 E-mount? Have you tried similar lenses? And finally, I also have a micro four third camera. Can you recommend an adapter for this last one as well? Thank you again.

      1. I got this afternoon a Rollei QBM adapter for the MFT and tried it on the shitty Kodak S1 PixPro. The adapter is pretty solid. There was no space between the camera and the adapter nor with the lenses. I have no way of knowing whether the flange distance was preserved, yet the first pics were stunning with the above lenses in particular the F1.8 50mm which behaved like a 100mm macro. Manual focusing isn’t great on the S1 though but everything worked fine.

  46. One more question dear Philip. I am reading in a Dutch Photo magazine that the combination a sensor of e.g. 12MP (with a resolution of 3000 horizontal lines) and a lense with a resolution of 2000 horizontal lines will give a picture with a degraded resolution 1200 horizontal lines. He gives the following formula for the real resolution:
    1/result = 1/(sensor resolution) + 1/(lense resolution). Once you invert the result, you get the real resolution. E.g.
    1/3000 + 1/2000 will yield 1/result = 5/6000
    which will gives a resolution of 1200 lines. A sensor with 42MP will not give much higher horizontal lines with such a lense. What do you think? Did you have a degradation of pics taken by the 42MP?

  47. Hi Phillip,
    I just purchased a Canon FD 24mm 2.8 to go with Sony a7 and can’t find an adapter that fits the lens, tried the Novoflex fd to sony e adapter as well as other brands but issue seems to occur when lens is set to manual aperture mode (by twisting lens mount clockwise). Adapter fits fine when not set to manual aperture, but alas then have no aperture control. Can you help? Thanks.

  48. Hi,
    I am looking for an adaptor for older Nikkor manual lenses, to go with both Sony E and Canon EF camera mounts, for video, not stills (on cameras such as Sony FS7/ A7S/ A7R and Canon dslrs). I have been using cheaper adaptors, and while the image quality is good, there is a play because of which any shots with focus change becomes unusable due to the shift in the image.
    Your budget recommendation K&F seems to have the same problem? If there is noticeable play, I run the risk of shots becoming unusable. Do you have any experience of this, can you say if the K&F will work well with video?
    The Novoflex and Rayqual are steep. Still, it would help to know how they work. Can I leave them attached to the camera and change lenses? The cheap adaptor rings that I have been using so far attach to the lens, therefore I have several of those and they remain attached to the lenses I use more often. But invariably there are times that I need to remove the adaptor from one lens and put it on another. The metabones on the other hand (E to EF) mounts on the camera, making it very easy to simply change lenses. Is that how these adaptors (R&F, Novoflex, Rayqual) work? That would make life much simpler!

  49. Okay, the manufacturers you mentioned (haven’t looked at K&F so far, but certainly Novoflex, FotodioX and Vello) make both kinds of adaptors- ones that fit on lenses and ones that fit on cameras. My apologies, I should have checked before shooting off a question to you.

    1. Every adapter except for the Leitax ones you can leave on your lens or on your camera.
      If you are looking for maximum image quality you have to pay higher prices, simple as that.
      That Vello looks like the same generic stuff as Meike, Neewer, Andoer and the likes.
      Don’t expect much.

  50. So far I’ve used Pixco, K&F and a no name chinese adapters first on my NEX-5T, then NEX-7 and now on my a7.

    In my experience, the genuine Pixco ones (there are knockoffs as well) are the best overall.
    They fit really nice and tight, no light leaks, all of them correctly reach infinity (and often slightly beyond) and most importantly they have no reflections as the insides are already flat black, so no need to do any kind of modding.

    You can tell a genuine Pixco adapter by looking at the sides of the adapter where you’ll find “Pixco” written and on the box there’s a holographic sticker. If the adapter came without its original box is probably a fake one.

    Hope this helps!

    1. A small update: as I went to AliExpress to buy another adapter, I realized that there are actually two versions of Pixco adapters. One is a slightly cheaper one and another, marketed as “Pro” is 3€ more expensive and is the one I have.
      Just a heads up, as I have no experience with the lower cost Pixco, so you might end up with the issues reported by Phillip.

  51. Hi, have anyone encountered this problem? I acquired a copy of Jupiter 37A and happily attached it with the K&F M42 – Nex adapter for my A7Rii, but all the distance scale and aperture reading is facing the bottom instead. How can I fix this? This adapter works perfectly with my Super Takumar 55mm f1.8.
    Kindly advice. Thank you!

    1. Could it be that those rings on the lens were put together in a wrong order? I had a Helios 44 once, that was disassembled before and the aperture ring was put backwards, the result were that when you close the aperture to f16 it actually is wide open and vice versa.

  52. Just some findings – there is Fun to use and cheap tilt shift adapter from Fotga.
    Nikkor F – Sony E tilf shift adapter it cost around 20-30euros. Very simple design, looks quite cheap, but does what is intended and other brands do no offer anything like this even for a bigger price.
    You can use it as a normal lens adapter, but you wont be able to reach infinity, at least using 55mm 1,2f Nikkor lens.
    But you get tilt shift at 1,2f which looks pretty amazing bokeh wise and can be used in some artistics applications.
    Here is my images using it https://flic.kr/s/aHsmiATFTf the first 4 images.

  53. Hi
    being new to E mount (I’ve been in micro43 for some decade now) I found this page. However I’m surprised that you don’t mention probably the best adapter made on the planet. I assume this is because its not “marketed” and only available on eBay.

    In the spirit of Adam Smiths “invisible hand” here is a blog post I’ve written about my new E mount adapter, but from that post you can find my experiences on other m43 adapters

    https://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2018/10/ciecio7-e-mount-fd-adapter.html

    I am not affiliated with the maker, but his work has been exemplary since 2009 with iterative developments and improvements … more than you can say for many others.

  54. The K&F Concept Copper II MD-NEX adapter has problems when unmounting. This on both my cameras. Mounting works fine but when unmounting it overturns a little and locks on again. So I have to back it again rotational wise 1-2 mm and the flanges then releases.
    Anyone else have the same problem?
    Best regards from Sweden!

    1. As said in the article: Don’t expect perfect quality control for $20. Usually qualuty will be fine, you are one of the unlucky ones. Return it and you have a pretty good chance to get a good one.

  55. @Phillip, thanks!

    Sending stuff back from Sweden to the German Amazon shop is always a little fiddly. No one in Sweden sells K&F and we don’t have any Amazon in Sweden, so the German one is the closest, and they also offer free shipping to Sweden for orders over 29 Euro.

    But when returning they max pay Euro 8.40 for returning and that is a little low from here so I need to put in some extra. And then when re-buying it I need to come up to Euro 29.

    So what I was wondering was if all the Copper II adapters are like this or if this is a unique bad one. From your answer I read it as it is a unique bad one and then I can take my chance and send it back and re-buy it when I also need something else as well to come up to the 29 Euros.

    /Anders

    PS. I have two of the K&F version one and they are fine. DS.

  56. Hi!
    Ive been using fd lens for a while and decided to get an adapter for my sony a7ii. I followed your recommendation and got myself the K&F concept adapter, which is very solid, however, the locking ring seems to be quite loose and can easily rotate while shooting, making me shoot and the wrong apertures. Is there any quick fix for this to increase the resistance for the locking ring? Also, how can I be sure that the adapter allows me to focus to infinity exactly?

    Thank you so much!

    1. Hi Clement,

      since I didn’t have your issue with the adapter I don’t know how to fix it. maybe with time you’ll internalize not to touch it while focusing?
      I test infinity focus by focusing on a far away object and then check what distance the distance scale shows.

  57. Hi! I’m using a Sony a7rii + metabones + Leica R 50 2.0 and have trouble getting correct focus at +3 meters. The focusing aids appear to misguide me at those distances and the result is not satisfying.

    Any tips and tricks out there?
    (Don’t want to rely on focus magnify)

  58. No love for Konica AR? 🙂

    A new player in the adapter game seems to be Gobi, a Japanese company that also does filters and other camera accessories. I have their Minolta SR – E adapter and it seems to be well made, you might want to take a look at them, they offer adapters for most mounts to e.

    Cheers

  59. Hi! First of all, thank you for all your reviews, much appreciated. I wanted to ask you if you still find the Novoflex to be one of the best adaptors from Minolta MC/MD lenses to Sony e? Many thanks in advance, e.

  60. Hi Phillip,
    you did not mention a “budget” solution for Leica R-mount lenses. I was wondering why there isn’t any. I got my hands on some and am looking for a budget solution…
    Thanks a lot for all the work and effort you put into all this. I really appreciate it!

  61. Hey! I just purchased a Jupiter 8 lens with a Contax bayonet mount and I’m looking to attach it to my Sony A7iii… Do I need an M42 or M39 adapter?

    Thanks!!

  62. “Gobe” is now called “Urth” and they un-urthed (haha) a “budget” helicoid Leica M adapter, around 70€. Probably better than the cheap no name China ones from Ebay, no idea how it compares to the Voigtlander one…

  63. Great article, thanks! What’s your take on the latest K&F Concept adapter that has the orange ring on it to (gah!) match sony alpha cameras?

    1. Hi, I used such adapter for md to nex. It looks smart and works just fine. Locks on smoothly and almost no play. Matte paint inside against reflection.

  64. After reading your reviews I decided to go for the zeiss distagon 28/2.8. I need it for documentary and the Hollywood looked to heavy…
    Can you recommend me Which adapter to get to connect with Sony a7r3?
    I was looking at the novoflex and Rayqual but there are so many kinds…

    Also, I am a bit worried about the focusing on short distance …
    I thought mabey to get a close up adapter, will it affect the long distances as well? Is the close up adapter complicated to function in fast photography?
    Can u recommend a specific one?

    Thank you,
    Love your reviews.

  65. I am contacting you having read the article ‘Guide to adapters for manual lenses on Sony A7 series on phillipreeve.net http://phillipreeve.net/

    I have a Sony A7s and have been attempting to use it with a Tamron Adaptall-2 24mm f/2.5 prime lens. I have three different adapters from different manufacturers. With each of the adapters it is not possible to focus unless the lens is stopped down to f/11 or smaller.

    I have also used these adapters with a Tamron Adaptall-2 24-80 f/3.5 zoom lens. With the zoom set at 28mm the lens has to be stopped down to at least f/5.6 and ideally f/8 before anything is properly in focus.

    I also have a Tamron Adaptall-2 80-210 f/3.8 zoom – and that seems to work OK,

    I also have a K&F M42 adapter for use with a Pentax Takumar 55m f/2 lens. That lens also has to be stopped down to f/5.6 to get sharp images.

    As things currently stand these lenses are of limited use – I had hoped to use the 24mm lens for landscape astrophotography, and a maximum aperture of f/11 is scarcely helpful!

    Are these lenses just incompatible – or have I been unlucky with all three of the adapters? Or are the adapters too long?

    Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

  66. Useful article. I have a Zuiko 50mm 1.8 which has quite a bit of play when mounted via a Fotodiox adapter. Having read this I bought a Novoflex adapter and it is a much more precise fit.

  67. Wow, you have really done a lot of research here. I have a Sony A6000 & being a Pensione/cheapskate have accumulated a number of older lenses & adaptors. I quite like using manual lenses as most of my photography is based on birds, so with a large aperture & manual focus I can generally get the bird, not the bush. This becomes a bit problematic however when the bird is moving as I don’t seem to have enough hands to make all the necessary adjustments. Have you tried the Urth electric adaptor Canon to E mount. My current pairing of a Sigma 170-500 lens with Canon Mt via a Gobe adaptor has served me well, but have tried the electric version of the adaptor today, it seems to work pretty much as intended – I can now adjust the aperture (which is purely electronic) but am struggling with the auto focus which hunts endlessly at large apertures. I can improve this by increasing the depth of field, but still the autofocus seems to miss it’s target by just a tiny amount. I’ve juggled with AF-A,C & S but still struggling. I just wondered if you had any insight with this relatively new adaptor. Thanks

  68. Hi!
    Thanks for a very interesting guide on adapters.
    Your tuning how to’s were most useful.
    I wonder if you have tried or know users that had tried
    Pentax 645 lenses on a A7-body?
    I’ve also seen shift/tilt adapters for 645 lenses like Mamiya and Pentax. Any recommendations adapters, budget / non-budget?

    Greetings from Sweden!
    David

  69. If you have the issue that an adapter doesn´t fit stiff to the lens and feels loose. Lens turns in adapter when you rotate the focus ring. Then this solution might be something for you.
    I use Teflonband (used in Germany for Heizung Sanitär), this band is extremely thin, doesnt have any glue (so doesn´t leave any rest on lens surfaces). You can wrap it around the lens mount as often as you need. Attach the adapter and then it feels realy solid.
    I use for all my lenses seperate adapters. I don´t share the adapter in between the lenses.

  70. Hello guys, great fan of your site. Did you ever consider including (more) reviews of Minolta/Sony A-mount lenses? Some are very good and moderately priced since E-mount has taken over. I know there are many reviews on dyxum etc, but not many based on use on modern Sony A7 bodies with LA-EA4 type adapters. Anyway, many thanks for the good work.

    1. The screw drive AF ones are a bit clunky to adapt, the better SSM ones are usually commenting collector’s item prices and more often than not smarter alternatives are already available, so rather unlikely at this point.

      1. Hello Sebastian, I can follow your view. I happen to own a lot of Minolta lenses that work fine for me. E.g. Minolta/Sony 50 and 100mm macro lenses deliver great results and can be had for good prices now. AF is not much worse than Sony FE 85 mm. It is not up to the latest standards, for sure, but perfectly usable in my opinion.

    1. Hallo Remo,

      hatte ich persönlich noch keinen von, bei den Lomography Sachen zahlt man aber auch einen guten Teil für den Name.
      Wenn du bereit bist soviel auszugeben würde ich lieber ein Modell von Shoten nehmen, die haben einen sehr guten Ruf, was solche Adapter angeht.

  71. Hello,

    I have come across Cosina Voigtlander made Nikon F and Pentax K to Sony E mount adapters recently, they seem to have been discontinued several years ago but appear to be high quality.

    Are these still a good choice? It is difficult to find any reliable information about them online as they seem to be fairly obscure.

  72. Another excellent guide, thank you so much!

    I do have a specific issue mounting an older Canon FL lens (58mm f1.2) which has a slightly raised half baffle around the aperture pin on the rear side of the lens that makes mounting usual FD to Sony-E adapters impossible without removing the locking/open pin that engages with the rear aperture pin.

    So one can remove this pin for the 58mm FL and the adapter will then mount using the breech lock, however, without the adapter pin in place you lose the ability to close down the lens without employing a second aperture ring on the lens which is a bit fiddly to say the least.

    Not sure if anyone has encountered and solved the issue another way?

    I can see that if the adapter pin were just 1 millimetre higher, it would miss the baffle housing, and maybe some adapters the position of the pin might vary enough to clear at the right height but such information isn’t generally specified 🙁

  73. habe kürzlich eine brandneue Canon 7sZ erstanden und bin nun auf der Suche nach m39 screw mount auf Leica M Lens Adaptern (für Vogtlaender, etc.)

    Laut Text “There are very slim adapters from M39 to Leica-M available and I would recommend getting them” – leider hilft mir keiner der Links weiter, saemtliche Modelle gehen von M-mount auf screw lens und nicht andersherum.

    Gibt’s evtl. einen konkreten Hersteller welcher einen solchen Adapter anbietet? Habe bereits BHP, Adorama und Urth angeschrieben, warte noch auf Antwort.

    Vielen Dank aus NYC,

    Marcus

  74. Tokina revealed their EF-E AF adapter with video AF mode at CP+. The price tag was about $300. At first, I thought “why now?”. Tamron released inexpensive FE native lenses pretty early, and even Sigma used MC-11 to help mirrorless transition. Sure, there are some unique EF lenses like 200 f/2, and EF lenes are getting cheaper, but should I invest more for dying mount? I guess the adapter performance should be very good.

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