TAMRON SP 200-500mm F5.6. model 31A (1 Viewer)

[upstarts1979]

I bought this lens for my canon F1 in the 35mm era.
As a birder I tend to only go for record and habitat shots and I now have a bridge camera.

Can this lens be used with modern DSLR cameras?
Its a pity that my lens is no redundant as I hardly ever used it.

B John

 

[Stephen Fletcher]

If it was bought for a Canon F1, then it will have an FD mount, unless it is an older version then it will have an FL mount. The only way you can get it to fit on an EOS is if you buy a FD to EF adaptor, there are quite a few on ebay, but it will only function with manual settings, and you will probably lose some focussing at infinity as it wasnt designed for use with a modern DSLR so the distances to the focal plane will now not be correct.

I have a large box full of FD lenses, F1's, F1n's and A1's, not really worth anything but sentimental value.

 

[gwing]

Maybe

The lens is obviously lacking autofocus and reputedly suffers from colour fringing on modern cameras but by all accounts is a decent lens capable of good results.

Although it may not be compatable with the more recent Canon cameras it will work OK on some other brands with an appropriate adapter. Such as on my Pentax, so if you want to get rid of it I might be interested in giving it a good home

 

[upstarts1979]

The lens is obviously lacking autofocus and reputedly suffers from colour fringing on modern cameras but by all accounts is a decent lens capable of good results.

Although it may not be compatable with the more recent Canon cameras it will work OK on some other brands with an appropriate adapter. Such as on my Pentax, so if you want to get rid of it I might be interested in giving it a good home

Depends how much you grease my palm8-P
:t:John

 

[Zackiedawg]

Note too that with an adapter, this lens will be compatible with any mirrorless interchangeable lens camera - such as the Sony NEX, Olympus & Panasonic M4:3, or Samsung NX...and possibly a few others such as Pentax's new K-01 or Nikon's 1 series.

These adapters are just simple spacer rings - very cheap - and some of the older mirrorless cameras can be picked up used very cheaply - if you're handy with manual focusing, you might even pick one of these cameras up yourself. Otherwise, market it to mirrorless users who might be interested.

 

[gwing]

This particular lens is already firmly attached to my Pentax and not coming off so the mirrorless boys will have to do without

I must say I'm delighted with the lens and impressed with the test shot's I've been able to take. What you need most for a lens like this is of course good light - and that has been very lacking of late so it hasn't been out in anger yet. There is a slippery (but not unexpected) slope associated with a lens like this though. My trekking tripod with minature ball head simply isn't man enough for the job, my heavy tripod without question is but it's 3-way pan/tilt head is pretty unusable for moving subjects so something else was needed. I took the good advice from folks here in the forum and went for a gimbal head (the real cheappie one from ebay) and it is like night and day, absolutely superb. Of course the lens is very front heavy and, particularly with a light SLR on the back, needs an extra-long QR plate to balance it out properly so that comes with next month's pay check.