Auto Focus Adaptor with 17mm TS-E?

Just what the title says. Is there such a beast that can confirm focus using this lens with 5D II? More curious than anything as I didn't know such a thing existed.

For my use I think I'll use live view...unless this adaptor works?

I believe all the TS-E lenses have focus confirm.. at least my 45mm TS-E does and the 17mm is newer. Though I'll say, the focus confirm doesn't always work in low light (ex: it's in focus but the focus point doesn't light up in the view finder)

24mm mk1 TS-E also confirms focus on the 5D2

It should focus confirm out of the box.

As far as an AF adapter to make the lens AF, I have never heard of such a thing.

Live view is more accurate than focus confirm, but I don't like shooting with the LCD in most situations, but all Canon manual focus lenses (as well as Zeiss ZE mount manual focus glass) will focus confirm on canon bodies. The 'focus confirm adapters' are really handy for third-party glass that doesn't fit natively (old M42, leica R, contax/yashica mount stuff, nikon, that sort of thing). It's just a little chip with contacts that tells the camera what's attached/that something is attached.

There's no way to convert a non-AF lens to an AF lens... at least not without hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of research and development and literally millions of dollars worth of manufacturing equipment.

However, Focus Confirmation works on all the TS-E lenses all the time... Simply select an AF point that you wish to use in the normal manner and manually focus the lens. The camera will give confirmation when the subject under the active AF point is in focus (Confirmation can be the green LED in the viewfinder, or if enabled a quick flash of the active AF point in some cameras, or if enabled a momentary red flash of the entire display in cameras with the active, transmissive LCD display in the viewfinder such as the 7D. The "beep" can also give confirmation, if it's enabled.)

However, in order to get confirmation with many "chipped" adapted vintage lenses you do have to switch the camera into One Shot mode first. That has to be done while there's still an AF lens on the camera. You can't change the AF mode when there is no lens on the camera, nor when many of the chipped/adapted lenses are mounted, so have to do that while there's still some AF lens on the camera. (The camera doesn't automatically switch, the way it does with a TS-E lens.)

Of course, you have to half-press the shutter release button in order for the AF system to activate and give Focus Confirmation while manually focusing the TS-E lens. Or, and if you have reassigned focus to a back button, you have to press that while manually focusing the lens.

Realizing there's no way to convert a non-AF to an AF...I was mostly curious as to what purpose the adaptor served and now I know! Thanks gang. The TS-E is all new to me and I look forward to learning the proper use.

Ron Bailey wrote in post #14134543
Just what the title says. Is there such a beast that can confirm focus using this lens with 5D II? More curious than anything as I didn't know such a thing existed.

For my use I think I'll use live view...unless this adaptor works?

As others say, it allows the camera to offer focus-confirm but only accurate when you are not shifted or tilted. Once you adjust the lens, don't rely on the viewfinder for exposure or focus. Liveview is ok though.

I always set exposure and get focus confirmation with the lens in it's neutral position - then shift. If it is critical, I'll use live-view but, especially with the 17mm TS-E, your depth of field is huge at F8 or higher and auto-focus confirm is good enough 99% of the time.

Now, if you are talking about tilt - totally different matter - live view + experience is your friend.

Shift is fairly straight forward. Tilt is something new all together. It's really fun to play with though. I'm still trying to get the hang of it.

As a straight prime, focus confirm with a 17 TSE lens works fine on a 5DII. Best to select a single focus point, hold down the AF button (your using back button AF right?) and turn the focus ring until the lens beeps and the red AF square lights up.

As you dial in more tilt the inter action between tilt and focus become more critical. You have to use Live View 5-10X and move the magnification rectangle about in the frame to adjust the tilt angle for foreground and focus for background. The two interact, so it can take several cycles of adjusting both.
Read this article. If you are at standing height and you are using the ground as a focal plane, the amount of tilt is very little and can be estimated from the tables. Then its simpler, just focus and shoot.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial​s/focusing-ts.shtml

AF can never be adapted to a TSE lens for the reasons explained above. When tilt is used, tilt adjustment and focus interact. Also where in the frame are you going to focus? AF points are clustered in the center of the frame and you will want to use the edge.

Iff you are not comfortable using magnified live view for focus, a TSE lens may not be a good choice.
Mike K

Thanks for advice gang and the link. I've found some good resources as well. http://www.cambridgein​colour.com …ls/tilt-shift-lenses2.htm
http://www.cambridgein​colour.com …ls/tilt-shift-lenses1.htm

Live view will not be a problem...looking to go with smallHD to help out with that as well. Will be shooting underground in low light.