Here's this Altson CEF-NZ adapter.
This adapter allows for autofocus.
It allows for aperture control, which I think is the biggest one.
Quick note before we get more into the video there were definitely issues.
I looked at the photos and just not great.
I think potentially it was shake reduction related.
I was using aperture priority. The camera was selecting like 1/25th of a second,
so you really need good shake reduction to make that work even with the 50, but not so much.
Other issues like focal length on this specific 100 to 300 millimeter it wasn't registering
the correct focal length and that's an issue, especially for shake reduction.
Not totally sure, anyways a lot of the photos are blurry and not great
but we're gonna continue onward. Let's keep going!
Out of the lenses I have, this one is probably the best functioning.
No surprise really because it's the most electronic of the group.
I just have a few of the older film era full frame lenses.
I don't really want to spend 300 bucks on an adapter that I won't get the most use out of.
Although I have to say that EF lenses, I think, are the most
future proof of the old DSLR, SLR era lenses.
What I've noticed with the Z5 and probably all of the Nikon Z mount
cameras is that when you adjust the aperture in autofocus mode...
Larger apertures will be nice, but it goes down to f/5.6. The actual aperture changes
and gets smaller even when it's just in live view mode. Once it hits 5.6 it stops getting small.
My speculation... at least... is that it's doing that to simulate the look of it, but the problem
is is that it hurts autofocus. Because you have a f/1.8 lens you should be using f/1.8 to focus.
For what I paid I think it's a decent option. Just because you get aperture control.
Autofocus I feel like is a bonus at this price point.
I don't remember the focal lengths and all that for my other EF lenses, but I did test them out
and all the apertures seem to work fine with this adapter, which I think is the main thing.
I have the 1.31, I believe, firmware on there. So which is the most recent.
No updates since 2020. I really don't expect them to do much else.
So straight normal autofocus works. It does pull up the low light functionality more often.
Go into the 'i' menu, switch it to pinpoint autofocus, that also works!
All of the adapters have a big list of lenses that they support
or have been tested, and if you care about full functionality definitely go with that list.
I'm not planning on buying any expensive EF lenses. Just need it good enough
to get aperture control and for me the autofocus is a bonus.
The Altson does not have any type of tripod mount.. tripod connector.. on there.
Not surprised considering what it paid at least. I don't know
if it was ever more expensive than this, but not having that is fine in my case.
Definitely don't want to put some big lenses on there, won't be nice! hah.
Probably mentioned this in another video before,
but I do think EF lenses are the most adaptable. The ones that'll exist the longest, in general.
Because there's so many mounts, new ones, the mirrorless ones that do adapt these lenses.
At least to some degree. E-mount definitely has adapters like this available.
You can probably find ones on micro four thirds, I'm sure. And in general if you get an EF lens
you'll probably be able to use it for a good long time. Even more so than the mirrorless ones.
I think the negative is that you do need some type of electronic control,
which if you care about that definitely go film era where aperture rings were more available.
But with EF you do get a good level of control as long as you get that electronic adapter.
When you adjust your aperture from f/1.8 down to 5.6 or lower you're gonna struggle
with autofocus especially down there. Just based on how this camera works with it.
Looking at the Altson website, it has no information about the
Z5 so I wasn't even sure if this combination would work at all...
Switching out lenses 100 to 300 millimeter f/4.5 to 5.6.
That was a lot quicker, but the bare minimum it appears to be getting focus.
So I have the camera in auto ISO set to 1/320th of
a second and the aperture we'll just uh well maybe adjust it if we need to.
So far this lens is struggling a lot more with autofocus. That technically works..
technically does focus, but not great.
At 5.6 not getting a lot of light.
I didn't notice when I switched to the larger focus area it was
having more trouble than the standard focus area.
So far this one is also not as bad as I was expecting. Autofocus is a very mixed bag.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You know what.. I think this dynamic area might work.
Those birds are fast! It was saying "low light AF" and it's very much not low light right now.
Wow, it somehow... picked them out.
Struggling a little bit. Probably thinking what the hell is this thing
looking at me. You can tell that it's definitely using the battery pretty quick.
dududu dudu...
It's not that bad. It's not that bad...
Dynamic area AF!
Here it is not working well.
Trying to get that little bird on the street...
interesting.. interesting...
duu bau bau bau bau... da dau dau...
The wind.. Dau wiiind!
'merica... 'merica!
These birds are always out here doing their thing.
All I can do here is when they fly into the wind they're going a lot slower.
All right, this lens autofocus is worse but it does work technically.
A lot of quirks to it. I think I'm done!
Like I mentioned earlier in the video, focal length had some issues
being registered properly. I think it was fine for the 50, but not for this zoom lens.
Shake reduction has some potential issues, for sure. So I'd probably need to try this
combination just with no shake reduction at all to see if that helps the situation.
Aperture seems okay. It is registering and changing as it needs to as far as I can tell.
Besides that, don't use the automatic modes. Aperture priority it was given low shutter
speeds. Now, you could use the camera and give it like a minimum shutter speed, which actually might
work okay. Probably want to use manual focus manual aperture everything with this adapter.
Price wise I paid 60 bucks, which I think is the top end of what I'd even considered with this.
There are other adapters like the Fringer one that are said to be pretty decent,
but I would not even consider spending 300 bucks to get like a band-aid solution in this case.
Just probably not worth it, although if it's good it's good. I just.. I'm not gonna be the one to
find out paying that much for it, so yeah, it's fun to mess around with. Especially if you can
get at a low price and you have a bunch of EF glass and a Z camera it kind of sort of works!
Anyways, I'm Scott of Photography Banzai
Hope you enjoyed the video, thanks.