In 2016 when my wife and I had our daughter Zoe, I started getting back into film photography. I was on paternity leave and began to acquire more vintage cameras. For the longest time I have used manual focus film lenses. They’re cheap to acquire through sources like thrift shops, eBay and used camera stores. They are usually great image quality if you know what to look for. The only drawback is they have no autofocus.
I currently shoot digitally with a Sony A7II which uses a Sony E-Mount system. Before that, I shot with a Fujifilm XT-1. These two camera systems is where I got into the world of manual focus lenses. I’ve accumulated a lot of manual focus lenses. I believe my current count is upwards of 20+ lenses. Now these lenses are of various mounts, Nikon, Canon FD, m42, Leica screw mount, etc. These lenses require mount adapters to be used on my Sony A7II.
Wouldn’t it be nice to get autofocus with these lenses?
Why yes it would be nice, and through the power of technology, I can! A company from Hong Kong has made an autofocus adapter for the Sony A7II called the Techart Pro. By adapting all my autofocus lenses to Leica M mount, I can attach it to the Techart Pro adapter and autofocus my lenses. The adapter costs me $379 USD and took me awhile to arrive as it was coming from Hong Kong. There were some bumps along the way. The first adapter they sent me was DOA, would not even turn on. I contacted customer service and sent the unit back. They sent me another adapter and it worked fine. They even covered the shipping for me to send it back! Then adapter is great and allows me to save money on lenses by buying vintage.
This is how my collection started. Small. The gear shown in this photo:
- Pentax ME Super
- Pentax Spotmatic F
- Nikon FM with accessories
- Panagor 135mm f/2.8
- Nikkor 135mm f/3.5
- Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2
- Fujinon 50mm f/1.9
- Fujinon 55mm f/2.8
- Canon FD 50mm f/1.4
- Canon FD 50mm f/2
- MIR 1b 37mm f/2.8
I bought an Ikea drawer unit to hold just my camera gear. Since the top photo was taken, I acquired 5 more cameras, 60 rolls of film and at least 12 more lenses. One day I’ll take a photo of everything but I think for sanity’s sake, its better I don’t.
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