I’ve enjoyed using my vintage lenses with my Fujifilm X-T cameras over the last few weeks. It’s been really good to slow down, using manual focusing, and I like the colour rendering and sharp images my Auto Takamar 35mm F2.3 lens has produced (it’s a 50mm lens on my crop sensor Fuji cameras). The other vintage lens I’ve been using is my Pentacon 135mm F2.8 – known as the bokeh monster, with good reason.

I have a Canon 5D MK2 in my camera collection, a left over from my wedding photography days. Much as I like my current Fujifilm equipment, the Canon 5D would be my favourite camera from those I’ve owned. It’s full framed, easy to use, comfortable to hold and reliable. If I was still shooting weddings on a professional basis I’d probably still be using the latest Canon equivalent but that’s enough camera nostalgia….

Back to the vintage lenses. So two weeks ago I bought a K&F ‘Canon EF fit to M42 screw thread‘ converter and decided to take the 5D out and about with the two vintage lenses. On a full frame camera the vintage lenses would revert back to their original focal lengths and I thought it would be great to use them as they were designed to be used.

The converter arrived promptly from K&F. It was really slim, fitted perfectly to the camera and lenses and I was all ready to go. It was at that point, looking through the viewfinder I realised I hadn’t given any consideration on how I was going to focus the lenses.

Being an older digital camera the 5D doesn’t have peak focusing (unlike my Fujifilm cameras) and had no focusing aids through the viewfinder. The best advice I could find on the internet was to put the camera on a tripod, put it in to Live View mode, take a pic and then zoom into the image on the back of the camera to see if it was sharp. Other than that I had to rely on what I thought was sharp, as I looked through the viewfinder.

In practice focusing by eye, using the viewfinder or live mode, proved almost impossible. Using the camera out and about was totally impractical and my success rate wasn’t very good. When I nailed a focus it was brilliant but that didn’t happen very often. I think if I want to use the Canon and Auto Takumar it’s going to be bright days only, when I can shoot at around F8 or above. However the reality is I think the 5D is going back on the camera shelf and I’ll stick to the X-T5 – vintage lens pairing.

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.