Nice simple question with, I hope, a nice simple answer to stop me straining anything on my EOS body. I have a lovely 500mm f5.6 mirror lens that has served me well with my Canon FD kit. I can easily remove the FD adaptor and put on an EOS one. What I'm less sure about is- what mode to put the camera in to get accurate shutter speeds set.

With my A-1 then my T-90s I just pushed in the lever for 'stop-down metering', but I'm unclear what to do in the EOS environment!

Looking forward to your expert responses! JIM

-- Jim Cross (iamacamera@hotmail.com), October 28, 2001

Answers

Different EOS cameras handle T mount (or M42) lenses a bit differently, but it's always safe to use them on Av or M modes. In Manual, the meter will work normally and you can control the exposure with the shutter speed. In Av the camera will select the shutter speed for you so you still retain auto exposure.

The aperture will indicator will read either "1" or "00" depending on the model. Just ignore it.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), October 28, 2001.

Only short comment about EOS30. The aperture indicator will indicate "00" on EOS30 and exposure value is shifted about 2.5 to 4 EV according to used aperture. It means pretty difficult stop down metering on EOS30 or EOS33. But other EOS bodies should be OK.

-- Peter Cerveny (peter.cerveny@frequentis.sk), October 28, 2001.

I've written up a page on the topic of attaching manual-focus lenses to EOS cameras:

http://www.grocible.com/photo/manual-lenses.html

-- NK Guy (tela@tela.bc.ca), October 29, 2001.