A Tale of Two Fifties

Adapting lenses has always come with its challenges. Aperture is rarely ever coupled to the camera, and the lack of autofocus can be debilitating. Still, that doesn't stop people who are up to the challenge, especially when it comes to fans of the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lenses. In the DSLR era, the 50mm f/1.8 lenses were the easiest upgrade from your standard kit zooms. They were affordable. As people move on from the EF system, plenty of users have expressed interested in bringing their lenses to their new systems, and in terms of the 50mm f/1.8, the version II and the STM are the most popular. Creators familiar with the Canon EF lenses know they require electronic connection to control aperture. When not attached to the camera body, they default at their wide-open aperture. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a huge detriment, especially if you're one to shoot wide open when possible.

While there are ways to to adjust the aperture, it can be tedious, especially since it requires you to have a Canon EF body with you. If you're looknig for a more straighforward way to control exposure with the EF lenses, our ND Throttle adapters are a viable workaround.

It's not specifically for use on adapters that are stuck on their widest aperture, but the ND Throttle adapters are a popular tool for filmmakers. It's rooted in the fact that shutter speed is locked in to the chosen framerate of the recording. If a camera was forced to shoot at 1/60th or even 1/125 in bright sunlight, shooting with a wide-open aperture would almost guaranteed overexposure, even if the ISO is set to be as low as possible. Without any tools like a neutral density filter, you would need to stop down to create a proper exposure.

Max aperture, no neutral density

Stopped down

Max aperture with ND Throttle

ND Throttle is also popular because you don't have to sacrifice your depth of field for your exposure. Capitalize on your lenses beautiful, natrual bokeh without having to worry about overexposure.

ND Throttle covers the exposure, especially in the event that manual aperture control is not possible with a lens-to-camera combination. Some newer Canon EF lenses, such as the popular 50mm f/1.8 STM are also prone to a completely different incompatibility. Canon STM lenses require electronic connection for aperture control, and also focus (even manual). This same limitation is also the case on Nikon lenses designated as AF-P.

Without focus, STM and AF-P lenses are basically unusable on a fully-manual adapter. Best case scenario, the lens can be to its minimum focus distance when on a native camera and used for macro when adapting it to a different camera system.

All hope is not lost, however. The Pronto adapters are the perfect solution for a lens like the 50mm STM. The Pronto adapter physically moves the lens back and forth, which accommodates the lens' lack of manual focus. While the adapter is only made for the Leica M mount, this adapter would allow the EF lens to pair with the Pronto. To ensure the best focusing results, I set the lenses to infinity when mounted on a Canon camera before adding it to the Pronto setup.

On our A7r II, the focus is snappy with the Pronto adapter, and switching between close and far subjects is pretty seamless. In a scenario where I'd usually prefer a fully-electronic adapter, the Pronto is a good substitute, but only in a scenario where I'm not changing my aperture at all.

Depending on the lens and the technologies used, some features may not work if you're using a manual lens adapter. But we're not always out of options. Sometimes all it takes is some creative thinking, and you're able to use those long-loved lenses on your modern cameras.