You may have seen the post where I adapt a Canon FD 1.8 50mm lens to a Nikon DSLR with an adapter from Urth. If not, you can find the post right here. What I learned from that attempt was that the glass that has to be added to make a Canon lens work on a Nikon DSLR has some side effects that are unfortunate, to say the least. The reason for adding the glass is that the lens otherwise will not focus to infinity.
Mirrorless are different apparently. An adapter for Canon glass to a Nikon camera body has not glass as the image below illustrate.
The adapter I bought was from K&F Concept, but there are many other options available out there. Be aware that if you buy from K&F concept, then the delivery time (judging from my case) is around 3 weeks for the parcel to travel from China to Europe (Denmark), so be prepared to be patient! But once you got it, the combination of the Canon lens, adapter and Nikon Z50 camera looks like this:
Mounting the lens to the adapter is straightforward, but be aware that the adapter has to be set in position “locked” to allow the aperture blades to change position. If not, the lens is fully open irrespective of how much you turn the aperture ring on the Canon lens.
Performance
I am happy to report that all the issues I found with adapting the Canon lens to a Nikon DSLR are simply gone. The 50mm lens from Canon performs as you would expect: no Vaseline like look fully open, but solid performance at all apertures.
Centre sharpness is excellent at f/5.6 and although not as good wide open, it is certainly a solid performance from a vintage lens:
Also the corner sharpness and contrast is approved, although you again can tell the difference between wide open and stopped down:
The lens suffers from aberrations especially wide open, and it looks dramatic in the image below. However, it is a 400% (!) zoom and I successfully removed the purple fringing by using the color selector in the manual removal of chromatic aberrations in Lightroom.
The bokeh is maybe where the lens has a weak point, as it only has 5 blades and they are rather straight. So stopped down you get bokeh that is less pleasing IMHO – of course subject to personal preference. You will also notice in the blue bokeh balls to the right, that there is a bit of onion rings; something that bokeh experts do not fancy. To the left fully open you have a more pleasing result, but the edges are brighter than the center, also a no-go for bokeh enthusiasts.
So in conclusion I am very happy with the performance of this lens. It is not the lens with the best sharpness or contrast I have ever tested (that was the Nikon 135mm DC), but it is certainly not bad performance. You can get one of these lenses with a bit of luck on a flea market for around 10 USD, but be prepared to pay more when the seller is knowledgeable. Still, a lot of lens for your money.
Of course you will have to regulate the aperture by turning the ring on the lens itself, and you are left with manual focus entirely, but I don’t think anyone would expect it any different when you mount a Canon vintage lens on a Nikon mirrorless body. And in terms of “the look”, I really like the way Canon renders colors; it is a bit different than Nikon and as far as I can tell it has a bit more “coffee”-ish look that I actually like. So I look forward to shooting more with this combo.
Video link
Related reading
Adapting a Canon FD 1.8 50mm lens to a Nikon DSLR with Urth FD-F