Switching from one camera system to another requires you to adapt your
workflow in a number of ways, but can you also adapt your old lenses to
work with a different camera system?
The answer's yes.
And that's what this video's all about.
I switched to Sony from Canon about a year and a half ago
and one of the things that pushed me to finally make that leap was that I
could use an adapter to use my existing Canon lenses with my new Sony cameras.
There are a bunch of different adapters out there, but I did find that the
Sigma MC-11 seems to be just about the best.
It's the one that I've been using for the past year and a half,
and it really does work incredibly well.
But it does have a couple of asterisks*, things that you should be aware of.
So let's take a few minutes and C what the M-C is all about!
And this adapter specifically is an EF to E adapter.
So Canon EF lenses to Sony E Mount cameras.
And it's incredibly simple.
There's nothing in it.
There's no glass in it.
It just makes your Sony camera think that it's talking to a Sony lens,
when really is talking to a Canon mount lens. 🤫
And it is,
according to official paperwork, designed to be used for Sigma lenses,
but it does work with EF lenses and that's kind of what we're going to get into today.
The adapter itself is pretty simple.
There's a release on one side and there is a little, very odd USB port
there for firmware updates, but I haven't had to do anything like that.
And basically, as you can probably imagine, you just connect
the adapter to your camera.
This is the a7IV.
And now I can take, this is a Canon 24 to 105,
I think this specific lens came out sometime in the 1990's.
This specific one is from like 2006, and there we go.
Now we've got a Canon lens on my Sony camera,
and the world has not ended despite this unholy union.
So as you can see, the lens is working, it's on,
I can zoom in and do all the stuff.
I guess you just have to sort of trust me that, that it's working.
I'll show some sample footage so you can see what it looks like
when I use this lens. Basically I have full autofocus in photo mode
so I can use this just like any other lens and get autofocus and even track
a subject and everything.
It does NOT have full autofocus in video mode though, unless you're using a Sigma lens.
That's the biggest downside.
And I can't really find an adapter–
I "Canon't" really find an adapter that does have reliable video autofocus
on Canon brand lenses with Sony cameras.
So in this case, this is a 24 to 105,
when I'm using this lens, it's usually because I'm behind the
camera getting a shot for something.
This is not an
"I'm in front of the camera" situation.
So fortunately in video mode, it's pretty easy for me to not need to
worry about autofocus in video here
and then I can have all the benefits of this awesome focal length.
Now this is the Sigma 24 millimeter 1.4 EF lens.
And if you've ever looked at some of the Sigma Art series lenses and compared
the Canon and Sony models, you'll notice that they look exactly the same, except
that the Sony models just sort of like have this longer tube on the bottom.
And the reason for that is because they basically just have
this adapter built into them.
So if you look at the Sony version of the 24 millimeter Art series lens from
Sigma, or at least the original one, you'll notice it almost looks more like
this because it's got that adapter built in. And then you can pop this lens on
here, turn on the camera, just like before I have full autofocus in photo,
but now if I go to video mode, I even have full eye autofocus in video mode.
And you can hear the
autofocus on this loud lens clicking. (angry lens noises)
So for several months now, this has been one of my main
fun vlogging style setups. The Sigma 24 millimeter on the a7IV.
And it works fantastic.
The only downside is that this is a very loud lens, but otherwise it works
exactly the same as a native Sony lens would.
I have all control over aperture, everything the same as if this were a
Sony mount lens from the beginning. But now we can take things a little bit further
and go into some of the gray area with the MC-11, because if you do what I did
and you try to research it before buying,
you're going to see the official list of compatible lenses.
And it's a lot of Sigma lenses, like most full frame EF Sigma lenses will work.
It will NOT work with EF-S lenses, which are Canon's crop sensor lenses.
So full frame lenses only.
And it does officially say that it's not compatible with Canon EF
lenses, but as I just showed you,
it totally is.
You're just not going to get the full autofocus advantage, even though
you do still get it in photo.
So clearly it's completely possible for the adapter to
autofocus with Canon lenses,
and that's probably something that could be added in a firmware update,
but I'm guessing like Sigma just has no motivation to do that because
it's a huge advantage to having Sigma lenses as you get the full autofocus.
Now I'm suddenly like a conspiracy theorist, but anyway–
oh it even says right here, I didn't even notice this on the side.
It says "Designated Sigma Lenses Only." But this is one of those
things where it's like, just try it and, and see if it works.
This has worked on all of my Sony cameras, the FX3, the a7SIII,
and the a7IV.
One of the great things with Sony cameras is the E Mount is,
you know, basically universal across the whole mirrorless lineup.
And why this is really cool is because Canon's EF lens series is a bit older,
but it's massive.
Like there are just so many different lenses from Canon, from Sigma,
from other companies as well.
And now you can just adapt all of them to your new Sony camera, which is great.
If you're somebody like I was where you're sort of stuck in the Canon system.
And the idea of jumping to another system just sort of seems overwhelming
because you'd have to change out all these lenses,
you might still be able to use a lot of what you already have. But even if you're
not an existing Canon user, the EF lineup
is a really good value because the lenses are amazing.
There's like every focal length, every aperture, every zoom range
you could pretty much think of.
And because they're being phased out in favor of RF lenses for Canon's
mirrorless mount, they are much more affordable now than they've ever been.
And then you can even start experimenting in pretty strange
ways because Sony's mirrorless lens line, while it is really impressive,
I did not realize before I switched to Sony how full their lens line is,
and they just keep adding more lenses.
But their mirrorless cameras have really only been around for
less than a decade at this point.
And all these other lenses from other companies like Canon, actually, this
is a Tamron lens, have been around for a lot longer. But what I've
been able to do is something that goes against the laws of nature.
This is the Canon AE-1.
This is a film camera from the 1980's.
My grandfather gave me that camera a number of years ago,
and when he did, I got this little adapter, which is an EF to CF– CF, I
guess that was Canon's mount prior on these cameras before EF was CF.
And then they said, "C-ya later, C-iF I care, we're gonna go to EF."
So I could take these older
Canon, or Tamron lenses in this case,
and now this would go on any Canon EF camera. But in this case, I'll
just put this other adapter on here, which is the Sigma MC-11.
And then I'll put this 40, 45 year old lens on this
10 month old camera.
Yo dawg, I heard you like adapters
so we put adapters on your adapters
so you could adapt while you adapt.
I'll try to hold this as still as I can and record a little bit
so you can see the example here.
There we go.
Now we have
The a7IV going through the MC-11 adapter going into the EF to CF adapter,
going into a 40 plus year old Tamron lens.
I've also got this one, which is a 50 millimeter 1.8.
This is like the old nifty 50.
This is a Canon lens...FD.
That's the mount: FD.
I F'D up before when I was talking about what mount I thought this was.
There's really no need to adapt this lens because the Sony nifty 50 is like
$200 and you know, has full autofocus
and doesn't look quite as bizarre as this one does. But what's fun with lenses
like this is even though they're older and it feels like that
would be more vintage,
they're actually super cheap.
You can get them for sometimes like, well under a hundred dollars.
So what's really fun is if you're somebody who has newer Sony cameras,
or any Sony camera, I guess, any E Mount camera and you want to kind of
branch out with your lenses without breaking the bank, you could get the Sigma MC-11
adapter and just sort of go crazy with any EF mount lenses that you want to try
adapting on here and see if it works.
And then you can have a ton of fun
by experimenting and trying new things.
And if you know me, you know, I'm always a fan of trying to
breathe new life into and find new uses for
really nice things that just seem to be out of date and forgotten.
And this adapter is a great way for you to do that and to expand
your lens lineup on a budget.
So from my experience, what this seems to me is that the MC-11 is the best
adapter for putting Canon EF lenses on
a Sony E Mount camera.
But if you just look at it specifications, it's going to seem a little bit limited,
but as you can kind of tell by me just sort of going very haphazardly
with all of these different lenses, there's a lot that you can do with it.
And it opens up a lot of really cool creative options for you and
your workflow, and just having fun with your cameras and stuff.
It's also a great way to help you make the leap from Canon to Sony without
having to start over from scratch with an entirely new lens lineup.
And speaking of awesome lineups, thank you to everyone who helps support
my channel through Patreon and
Youtube Channel Memberships!
And if you want to see how that Sigma 24 millimeter lens stacks
up against the Sony 24 millimeter,
check out this video right here.