Is anyone using vintage, legacy or adapted lenses on a modern digital body?

What lenses and cameras are you using and why?


This is an old Leica lens on a Canon DSLR however mirrorless bodies are much nicer to use and allow a greater range of lenses to be used.

For those who are unfamiliar with the concept it is simply using old (or even brand new) lenses on cameras they were never designed to be used on, via adapters designed specially for that combination of camera and lens. For example, you can use film era manual focus Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Contax and many other lenses on a modern digital body using a special adapter. There are all kinds of limitations when you do this but some times these are minor compared to the advantages. Another example, and one which I use regularly, is to use modern Canon auto focus lenses on a Sony mirrorless body (I use a 4/17 TS-E and 50L on an A7R2 using a Sigma made adapter).

I find myself largely using adapted lenses on a Sony (A7R2) body because it suits the types of pictures I like to shoot and I like the rendition of many older lenses. In the case of modern Canon lenses the aperture and auto focus work pretty much the same on a Sony body as on a Canon so there is little practical reason not to use them, as long as you don't need lightning fast AF.

Some of my favourite lenses are old Canon lenses from the late 60's and early 70's and I find I prefer these to very modern lenses because they are not clinical and their aberrations add to some types of images.


Canon FD 1.2/55 SSC Aspherical on Sony A7R2 (at F1.2)


Canon FL 1.2/58 on Sony A7R2 (at F1.2)

If you use 'alt' lenses please post some pics of tell us why you use them.