Jr's Vintage Lens to DSLR Camera Conversion Adapter by Marty Castilla Jr

Remind me

Jr's Canon FDn lens reversible conversion kit revitalizes your vintage lenses by converting them to today's EOS EF mount.

About the JR FDn to EF conversion.

A Canon FDn to EF lens conversion kit with manual focus confirmation chip that is reversible back to the original FDn mount.

Features:

Reversible non-destructive conversion
Canon EF mount compatible
Full manual focal range to infinite
Full manual aperture control
Focus confirmation
EXIF data, Lens maximum aperture and local length
Genuine 4th generation Dandelion AF Chip

Conversion Mounting Plate (Picture taken with a converted FDn 50mm f/1.2)

A number of years ago I purchasing a Canon 30D when it was first released. This move to digital lead me to the FD to EOS conversion idea and using my 80's vintage lens on my EOS camera.

I first tried what was already available on the market which was basically the inexpensive add-on adapters, I think tried them all. After disappointing results with these add-on products I set out to design my own conversion system.

Once I had a solution to the conversion problem, the biggest challenge was designing the EF mounting side. I learned a a lot about the EF mount mechanical features. In order to prototype my idea I bought a lathe from Craigslist, then followed by a milling machine and after several really rough prototypes I had a working EF compatible design for my conversion plate.

That was almost two years ago and I've since refined the design with the help of a local machine shop and improved tools at home.

What I'm offering here on Kickstarter is the culmination of my work.

Converted FDn 24mm f/1.4 L (Picture taken with a converted nFD 50mm f/1.2)

The Parts

The FDn to EF lens conversion kit consist of three parts, the mount conversion plate, Dandelion AF chip and the aperture control arm.

Compatible EF brass mounting conversion plate

The conversion mounting plate is a CNC machined brass plate that utilizes all the mechanical feature present in any EF lens.

Lens lock indent - locks lens in place on the camera body when the lens is twisted onto the EOS camera body. The lens can be unlock and removed like any traditional EF lens.

Lens aperture selection indicator - The conversion mounting plate was designed with ease of use in mind. The converted FDn lens is rotated to one side so that the aperture setting selector on the lens is viewable.

Universal Mounting Conversion Plate - The JR FDn to EF conversion was designed to be used on a variety of FDn lens, both three and four screw mounts

Reversible non-destructive conversion - You'll find quite a few one way conversions out in the market, the JR conversion is a reversible non-destructive conversion kit. If you decide to reverse the conversion back to its original FDn mounting style you can without worries. Simply reverse the assembly process and you have your old faithful FDn lens back.

Finally infinite focus without compromise - Because the JR FDn to EF conversion replaces the original mounting plate and aperture control mechanism and the ability of reaching infinity focus is still possible. This is accomplished without using any corrective lens that other cheaper adapters utilize. As a result there is nothing added to change the image quality that your lens produces.

Aperture control

The JR aperture control mechanism maintains full manual aperture control utilizing the original external aperture control ring. You are not limited to one f/stop, which is the case with some conversion as they have not employed any control mechanism to change the aperture. These are designed to work on a given Canon FDn lens models.

Camera programmable Dandelion autofocus-confirmation chip

One of the problems of using manual focus lenses on Canon EOS bodies is that focus confirmation is disabled. When AF lenses are used - even in manual focus mode - all Canon EOS bodies confirm focus with a dot in the viewfinder and an (optional) audible beep.

However when non-EF compatible lenses are used via an adapter, the focus conformation is disabled. Unless the camera thinks that an EF compatible lens is attached to it, it switches off both visual and audible focus indication.

If the camera could somehow be tricked into thinking an EF lens was attached, then the focus confirmation indicators would work with any lens attached. Well, this is just what the developer of the Dandelion AF chip has done.

What are the funds for:

The money we raise here will help purchase the production parts and will allow us to buy the material in the quantities needed to hit our price point.

The funds will be used to manufacture the mounting plates, aperture arms, procure the kit items, like the Dandelion Chip, packaging, screw driver and the EF rear lens caps.

Prototypes and the final design (Picture taken with a converted FDn 50mm f/1.2)

The design work is done for the mounting plate, as well as most of the aperture arms for the lenses listed. A small portion of the funds will be used for a small design verification run of the remaining aperture arms. I fully expect to be able to use these parts as the production parts.

Finally a small amount of proceeds will be used to fund the prototypes for other FDn lens that are not listed as part of this project.

The Procurement Plan

The conversion mounting plate and aperture control arms are CNC machined brass that will be made at a local machine shop that I used for the prototype parts.

The aperture control arms are custom made for a given lens model. I've completed and tested the aperture control arm designs for most of the lenses. The remaining designs will also be ordered. This last set will require some limited testing, but I expect that these will also be the production parts. Lastly the Dandelion AF chip will be ordered from Victor Lushnkikov which are made in Russia.

Compatible Lens:

The first conversions kits that will be available are for the most part limited to the lenses I had already own. Several more lenses will be added in the future.

Canon FDn lenses that will be supported in this Kickstarter exclusive offer are:

FDn 17mm f/4 
FDn 24mm f/2
FDn 24mm f/1.4 L 
FDn 28mm f/2
 FDn 35mm f/2
 FDn 50mm f/1.2  
FDn 50mm f/1.4
 FDn 100mm f/2

Newly Added:

FDn 100mm f/2

Compatible EOS Cameras

On some EOS DSLR's the viewfinder mirror hangs up on the rear lens element with some converted FDn lenses. This happens when the lens is set near infinity focus. The 1D Series full frame mirror is made of metal and as a result it has a lower profile and clears the rear lens element. However the 5D, 5D MKII and MKIII have a thicker plastic mirror frame that comes in contact with the rear lens element. Again this only happens when the lens is focused near infinity. The only way to avoid this and retain the infinity focus is to use live view prior to focusing to infinity.

(Picture taken with a converted FDn 50mm f/1.2)

1D/1Ds Full Frame and 7D, 60D, 50D ... Cropped Sensor (APS-C) are fully compatible with the following lenses:

FDn 17mm f/4 
FDn 24mm f/2 
FDn 24mm f/1.4 L 
FDn 28mm f/2
FDn 35mm f/2 
FDn 50mm f/1.2  & 1.4
FDn 100mm f/2

Full Frame Sensors - 5D MKI & MKII are fully compatible with the following lenses:

FDn 24mm f/2
FDn 24mm f/1.4 L
FDn 28mm f/2
FDn 100mm F/2

Live View ONLY - Full Frame Sensors - 5D MKI & MKII. Live View is recommended with the following lenses due to the size of the mirror in these cameras.

FDn 17mm f/4 
FDn 35mm f/2
FDn 50mm f/1.2  & 1.4

The plan:

Order Material: Once the project is funded the off the shelf items will need to be ordered. This items include the packaging, EOS rear lens cap, #000 phillips screw driver. I expect this will take 2 -3 weeks before all the material is received.

Order CNC machined conversion mount plates: The mounting plates will be ordered from the machine shop. The lead time is usually 2 weeks but is dependent on the amount of work the machine shop already has scheduled.

Order Pre-production Aperture Arms: The aperture control arm designs are done for most of the lens. There is some additional work needed for a few versions. A small pre-production run will be ordered to verify the remaining designs. Once the limited testing is completed, I expect that these parts will also be the production parts. The lead time is usually 2 weeks but is dependent on the amount of work the machine shop already has scheduled.

Additional Limited Field Verification: The updated pre-production aperture control arm designs will be field tested to ensure that they operate as expected. This work should only take a few days.

Assembly & Packaging : The packaging work is easy enough and each kit should only take a small amount of time to package up and get ready for shipping. The shipping processing time will vary depending on the total number of orders I receive.

Skills Required: Comfortable handling small screws and disassembling and reassembling a lens. Instructions will be provided.

Patent Pending

Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

How am I qualified to over come the risks of this project. As an engineer and a manager for a large computer company I understand the product life cycle process and what it takes to bring a product from concept to market. This means doing a risk assessment and having contingence plans in advance. I oversee engineering product development for a living so I understand what it takes to define an achievable schedule. The reality is, challenges arise in a products development and I've minimized your exposure by producing three rounds of prototypes to work out the issues in advance. I have in hand the first small run of production quality parts. In a typical product life cycle process my product is at the pilot stage. The preceding riskier stages are the Concept, Definition and Development phases which I've already completed.

I've minimized the risk by not including some of the other FDn lens even though I have conversion designs for additional those lenses. I have working samples for the lens kits offered here.

One risk is just getting all the material in house. Once the material is in its only a matter of programming the Dandelion Chip for the model lens that you ordered and packaging the kits up.

The lead-time of the machined parts is more of an issue if we exceed our funding goal by a lot, like >100%. In the plan I've accounted for the lead-times based on how much funding I believe this project will raise. The CNC machined parts are made by a local machine shop and his lead-time is two weeks. They already have the brass material for the about 35 kits. If we blow past our funding goal then the lead-time for the machined parts will increase by a week to obtain more raw material. Also since the designs are completed, I can send the design files to other local machine shop to add capacity. The only raw material dependency here is the brass plate material which is pretty easy to get from the local metal distributor.

The Dandelion AF chips have similar risks as the machined parts. I already have some parts on hand. The rewards with later ship dates could be a risk for this part as I will need to order these and that whole process takes about two weeks.

The remaining material that I need to order is readily available from a number of sources and they are a much lower risk.

I'm not asking for you to support a concept and provide seed money so I can go figure out how to produce the product. I've already done that. I'm asking for your pledge to support bring a completed product to market.

With the time line approaching the holidays there is a chance that shipments might take a little longer than expected. I have no way of predicting this and we'll need to see how this plays out.

Its my understanding that the Amazon funding process takes two weeks once the project funding cycle concludes. I have no experience with this Amazon process and is an unknown risk.

The final risk is with Kickstarter and only being able to resolve issues via email and not in person (telephone). The launch of my project has taken an extra three weeks because of the lag time in their responses to issues I've had. I can't account for Kickstarters system or process related problems and their ability to recover and respond to such events. To me this last risk is the biggest as I have no alternative resource I can turn to as I can with the parts I need for my project.

FAQ

Isn't this a copy of the other conversion kits that have recently hit the market?

I've had a few questions about other conversion kits out there, three have been referenced, and statements that this project is a blatant theft these designs. Ok well only one person said it that strongly and only about one of the available products out there. In any case I do want to address this question.
As I've said in the video this IS my own work done in my garage with my own skills and tools. I didn't copy anybody else's work, I have more integrity then that.
This is a result of my own research and countless hours of testing, measuring and prototyping. Since this is more of a hobby I don't spend a lot of continuous time working on it, so it has taken me longer than most people would expect had I been more dedicated to bringing this to market. Designing something like this takes a lot of work and research and I'm not a mechanical engineer, so I end up having to learn as I'm going along. If I had spent for focused time I could have had this available April barring the budget limitations.
For me the delay was getting around a material break through problem with the cutout for the aperture ring tower that rises about .100 above the ring. I didn't think there was enough space without this area breaking through the opposing mount surface.
It wasn't until a friend suggested I give Autodesk Inventor a try and simulate the parts involved. I found that the cutout could be made and not break through the opposing surface.
Any similarities to any of other work is because the solution the problem is the same. The end results are very similar which is not surprising knowing what I know now about making these adapters. I started my EOS mount design based on the EF chrome mounting plate. My original design was very, very close to it, that is until I took it to the local machine shop. The biggest problem was I have used basic geometric shapes for the design without any thought to the machining. The local machine explained how all the sharp corner can be done but it would take a lot of machine time $$. The machine shop helped me tweak the design with CNC in mind. All of that feedback went into my design and what you see here today my own work and not on someone else hard work or design.

Last updated: Monday Oct 15, 9:09pm EDT

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