what lens adapter to use

[bela1950]

Greetings,

I have a Canon Rebel EOS  SL1/100D.  I have a few old Nikon Series E lens ( my husband's Nikon film camera). I would like to use the lenses. What specs do I need to look for when purchasing an adapter?  I don't know what mount I haveon the Rebel nor what mount is on Nikon lens. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you

[Waddizzle]

---

@bela1950 wrote:

Greetings,

I have a Canon Rebel EOS  SL1/100D.  I have a few old Nikon Series E lens ( my husband's Nikon film camera). I would like to use the lenses. What specs do I need to look for when purchasing an adapter?  I don't know what mount I haveon the Rebel nor what mount is on Nikon lens. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you

---

The EOS SL1 has an EF/EF-S mount.  Forget about adapting old film lenses for use on a digital camera.  Didn’t the camera come with a “starter” lens?  The EF-S 18-55mm zoom lens is the standard “camera kit lens” included with the SL-1.

The old film lenses are not as sharp as today’s digital lenses.  Digital lenses incorporate special lens coatings to minimize reflections off of the image sensor back up into the lens body.  I can guarantee you that the image quality from the old film lenses will not be high quality.  Most adapters, if you can find one, use low quality optics, which further deteriorates image quality.

A good lens for the SL-1 is the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens, or the Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM lens.  Both are wide aperture, and will work fairly well in low light conditions.  

[MikeSowsun]

There are a few good Nikon "Nikkor" lenses from the film era, and they use glassless adapters that don't degrade the optics. 

Unfortunately the "Nikon E" lenses were not as good as the Nikon "Nikkor" lenses:   Information on Nikon Series E Lenses

"Nikon produced a group of small, light weight and affordable lenses called the Nikon Series E lenses as alternative to budget conscious users and/or taking on third party independent lens producers".

"Obviously, Nikon understands what these shortfalls and weak offerings were and designated the Series E group of lenses as 'Nikon' and reserved their 'Nikkor' name on the regular optics". 

A simple adapter can be bought for under $20, so it might be fun to experiment a bit with them. Keep in mind that they will be fully manual operation in aperture and focus. 

Nikon "E" lenses actually use the Nikon "F" mount:    Nikon Nikkor F to Canon EOS (EF, EF-S)   

[bela1950]

Thank you for your help.

[ebiggs1]

"A simple adapter can be bought for under $20, ..."

There is nothing simple about it. It is a bad idea any way you look at it and not worth even $20 bucks to try.

[RobertTheFat]

---

@ebiggs1 wrote:

"A simple adapter can be bought for under $20, ..."

There is nothing simple about it. It is a bad idea any way you look at it and not worth even $20 bucks to try.

---

Ernie, if you went to Arrowhead Stadium to see the Patriots beat the Chiefs, it probably cost you $20 to park your car.

[ebiggs1]

"...it probably cost you $20 to park your car."

Neither is worth $20! 

[Waddizzle]

---

@bela1950 wrote:
Thank you for your help.

---

Many of those adapters are designed to remain mounted on the lens.  You might need one for each lens that you wish to adapt.