Using older manual focus lenses for filming is a very common practice among DSLR film makers, and a chipped lens adapters on the Canon 5d mark II (or any DSLR for that matter) is a good way to save some money on lenses and provide  focus confirmation with these older manual focus lenses. Above is the Tokina 500mm f8 Mirror lens, a specialty item that succeeds in giving very interesting looking doughnut shaped bokeh at a price tag of around $150.

I’ve used this chipped adapter on a number of old Nikon lenses and had no problem up to this point. It works just fine on the Canon 5d mark II, so I thought I’d give this lens a shot on the 5d mark III and see how it works.

As soon as the chipped adapter was in placed on the Canon 5d mark III, the LCD started flashing Error and this appeared on the screen. I ended up having to dig around and find a none chipped adapter before I could use the lens. Not sure if this is a problem with the chipped adapter or if Canon went out of there way to prevent us from using this type of adapter.

With the none chipped adapter I was finally able to get this lens working. At least with a full frame camera it’s a little easier to get a manual lens in focus, but it would still be nice to have the chip for focus confirmation. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next firmware update.


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