How to use 6D with manual exposure lenses?

[TerryInLeesburg]

Good morning;

I just got my new 6D... upgraded from a Rebel Xsi.

Wow - what a difference!  I love the extended ISO, and the speed, and....

I do have a question.  I have a bunch of old, manual lenses. Is there a way to set the 6D to meter the light coming in the lens, and automatically set the correct shutter speed?  What I am looking for is the ability to change (manual) lenses / spotting scopes / telescope where I do NOT know the exact aperature value, and have the camera meter the light comning in, and set shutter speed automatically.

Thanks

Terry

[ebiggs1]

I am afraid manual means manual.  You will have to set everything.  The camera can meter the scene and you can set the lens, though.  With a manual lens it is not telling the camera anything.

You can get a hand held exposure meter.

[cicopo]

Actually there MAY be a way to do this based on how a friend did something similar way back when I shot a pair of A 1's. He wanted to use my cameras on his Celestron 2000 mm telescope which couldn't register an aperture so I suggested he use P mode & let the camera use the aperture it felt it saw & metered to. (I think the camera defaulted to f8.0 when a lens was mounted that didn't trigger the pin. 

What I'd do if I had a way to do it would be to mount the lens(es) scope etc & let the camera meter through them & I'd try each mode to see what's possible. I'd start in P & let the camera pick the shutter speed, then try Av based on a guessed aperture (or search the internet for the specs of the lens / scope etc) & finally I'd try Tv mode & use the meter reading (I'm assuming the camera will still meter) & bracket a few shots on either side of the suggested shutter speed. KEEP NOTES so you can repeat your base settings for each lens / scope tested.

It's not like you're wasting film & paying for processing nor can it hurt the camera UNLESS something sticks into the mirror box area. Don't use anything that could get hit by the mirror when it flips up.

[RobertTheFat]

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@cicopo wrote:

Actually there MAY be a way to do this based on how a friend did something similar way back when I shot a pair of A 1's. He wanted to use my cameras on his Celestron 2000 mm telescope which couldn't register an aperture so I suggested he use P mode & let the camera use the aperture it felt it saw & metered to. (I think the camera defaulted to f8.0 when a lens was mounted that didn't trigger the pin. 

What I'd do if I had a way to do it would be to mount the lens(es) scope etc & let the camera meter through them & I'd try each mode to see what's possible. I'd start in P & let the camera pick the shutter speed, then try Av based on a guessed aperture (or search the internet for the specs of the lens / scope etc) & finally I'd try Tv mode & use the meter reading (I'm assuming the camera will still meter) & bracket a few shots on either side of the suggested shutter speed. KEEP NOTES so you can repeat your base settings for each lens / scope tested.

It's not like you're wasting film & paying for processing nor can it hurt the camera UNLESS something sticks into the mirror box area. Don't use anything that could get hit by the mirror when it flips up.

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In the special case of a Canon-compatible manual "preset" lens (of which there must be many still floating around), the concept of "let[ting] the camera use the aperture it felt it saw" may be fairly meaningless. It will always think it sees the maximum aperture, won't it? However, in that case you ought to be able to set the camera to Av mode, selecting (on the camera) the aperture to which the lens has been manually set, and let it meter for the correct shutter speed. Of course it would have to be able to tell the lens when to stop down to the selected aperture, but I guess that's what I mean by "Canon-compatible".

Anybody know whether that ploy would work? (I have no manual Canon lenses on which to test it. I was a Nikonian in the film era.)

[cicopo]

Because the lens (or telescope etc) only has wide open the camera will meter for wide open. I can shoot my DSLR's on my telescope (an old f10 or f11 Bausch & Lomb 1200 mm unit) using the right T mount & EOS adapter. I can get good exposures but I think the telescope has issues & my photos look like there's a fine dust on the mirrors inside the telescope.

[ebiggs1]

"Anybody know whether that ploy would work?"

You will have to use stop-down metering.  At least that is how I do it on a 1D series and my old Great Whites with Ed Mika on them.  I don't have a 60D so I don't know what the viewfinder display shows but on 1 series, it tells you when it is right.

Anyway you are going to be in manual mode or at least half manual.  The lens is not going to tell the camera a thing.

[MikeSowsun]

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TerryInLeesburg wrote:

Good morning;

I just got my new 6D... upgraded from a Rebel Xsi.

Wow - what a difference!  I love the extended ISO, and the speed, and....

I do have a question.  I have a bunch of old, manual lenses. Is there a way to set the 6D to meter the light coming in the lens, and automatically set the correct shutter speed?  What I am looking for is the ability to change (manual) lenses / spotting scopes / telescope where I do NOT know the exact aperature value, and have the camera meter the light comning in, and set shutter speed automatically.

Thanks

Terry

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Yes... All you need to do is set the camera to Av mode (aperture) and the camera will automatically set the shutter speed for you.  The exposure will be close, but not be perfect. By reviewing the images on your LCD screen,  you can dial in some + or - Exposure Compensation and get pretty consistent results. 

Each time you change the aperture, it will thow off the exposure a bit, but you can easily correct it using Exp Comp. 

Another option is to add an "EMF" Auto Focus Confirmation Chip to the lens adapter. In addition to the AF confirmation, these chips can be individually programmed so the camera sees the correct EXIF data for the lens and values you have set.  You can program the aperture valve to what you shoot the most and it should give you very accurate metering.  

For example: a 50mm f/1.4 lens set to f/2.8