which manual focus lens and adapter? FILM

i just started taking a film class in college and bought an elan 7 - dont know too much about this camera in particular and i have never shot film.

i want to shoot at 35mm but i dont want to spend alot of money so i was wodering if you guys had any experience adapting 3rd party lenses like nikon or mamiya/sekkor to the eos platform.

are there any inexpensive sub $100 range lenses you can recommend? looking for a prime 35preferably. sonething not too hard to find on ebay.

manual focus is ok, i just dont know where to begin

here is a link to a very long thread on older Nikon mf lenses. i don't know if that will help you much.

http://www.fredmiranda​.com/forum/topic/92956​5

here's an article on that body, talks some about lenses. might help you more than the above link.

http://photo.net/equip​ment/canon/elan-7

good luck with this...

Any reasons why you won't use your Canon dSLR lenses on the Elan?

no none at all but i dont own any 35mm lenses at all so i figured buying an older manual focus lens might let me keep costs down as i dont want to spend a whole lot

I have one for sale that may be what you're looking for. See this thread: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1226136

You can get a Contax/Yashica to EOS adapter for $12. There is a ton of C/Y glass on e-bay. It is dirt cheap, too. 135 ML 2.8 for $59. Vivitar Series ONE 70-210 f/3.5 for $99. That is the best lens I own. With all that said, if I were using and ELAN 7 (I own the 7NE) I would be using EOS auto-focus glass. Manual everything has its place. You are in a class, trying to concentrate on results. Use equipment that lets you concentrate on composition, lighting, framing and the like. Save the manual stuff for entertainment some other time.

Be wary and don't assume that mount-adapted lenses will properly be metered by the TTL metering of the Elan.

It has been found that one cannot get reliable results when setting the stopped-down aperture and letting the dSLR metering set the shutter speed. Even adapters with AF confirmation chips don't seem to necessarily do any better.

That is why I asked about the reason for not using your existing EF lenses.

I agree with Wilt, you will be better served using EF lenses. If you still want to use Nikon MF lenses here is an accurate rundown of most Nikon lenses.
http://www.naturfotogr​af.com/lens_surv.html#​top1

You should be able to find a Nikkor 35mm f/2.5 Series E on Ebay for around $100
http://www.mir.com.my …lenses/htmls/28​3550mm.htm

Look at the Zuiko line of lenses. For about $40 you can pick up an excellent image quality 28mm 3.5 lens and for about $75 a 24 2.8 lens. Very compact lenses with outstanding quality. I use them on my 5d2 when I want a very light kit.

Although $100 of old manual glass might be better optically than an autofocus lens of the same price, I don't think it would translate into better pictures in practice. Trying to quickly focus a 35mm lens on a focus screen designed for slow autofocus lenses will be very difficult and probably give quite a few slightly out of focus pictures whereas a Canon EF lens will quickly focus accurately.

The Canon EF 35mm f/2 is a good choice but won't fit in your budget although consider that if you buy it used for a good price, you could sell it at the end of your course for about the same as what you paid for it, making it essentially free. It is a lens still in demand as it fully works with all EOS cameras. There are also some great deals on used EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lenses since Canon sold so many in kits recently. Although is also out of your price range, you could resell it later without loss if you paid not more than $250 for it.

If it doesn't have to be exactly 35mm, the new Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM would work great and give you a tiny and lightweight very sharp lens with almost no chromatic aberrations or distortion. These are about $200 new and there isn't a used market yet so you would take a bit of a loss selling it after your course.

The Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM and USM II lenses can be had for around $150 used and are quite good with very fast focus.

If you really cannot spend more $100 now, there are plenty of used Canon EF kit zooms on the market that would work fine for you and be fairly saleable when you are done with them, or keep them for use with a dSLR. The sharpest choice in the $100 would probably be the EF 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 II. I'm always surprised how sharp and contrasty this lens is.

Otherwise, the original EF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 USM with the metal mount is quite a decent lens with ring USM and are often around $100. Distortion and chromatic aberration are low with that one. The 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II USM and III USM are quite sharp although they look and feel very cheap. These would be not more than $80. Avoid the 28-80 IV USM and V USM and the original non-USM and II without USM as those four are quite poor optically. The 28-90 lenses are serviceable but not that sharp. The EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lenses are under $100 and aren't bad although not nearly as good as the 28-70.

There were quite a few other Canon zoom lenses that cross 35mm available in the sub $100 range. EF 35-80s usually go for under $50. See the Canon Lens Museum to see all of the Canon EF lenses available. I've used almost all of the low-end Canon lenses. Unless you are scanning your film for editing in Photoshop where corrections are easily made, then it is probably good to choose a lens with low distortion and chromatic aberration.

Wilt wrote in post #14968903
Be wary and don't assume that mount-adapted lenses will properly be metered by the TTL metering of the Elan.

It has been found that one cannot get reliable results when setting the stopped-down aperture and letting the dSLR metering set the shutter speed. Even adapters with AF confirmation chips don't seem to necessarily do any better.

That is why I asked about the reason for not using your existing EF lenses.

Very true. I had huge problems using C/Y stuff with adapters on my Elan 7NE. Just didn't work. Thanks for reminding me.

I also think the Canon EF 35mm f/2 would be your best bet - Look around for a good (ish) s/h one. You may as well use the AF of the camera.