Does Aperture Priority work with a manual-aperture lens on a Canon DSLR?
Asked 2/19/2012
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I’m using a manual-aperture lens with no electronic contacts, so the camera cannot read or control the aperture value. On a Canon DSLR such as the 60D, can Aperture Priority still meter correctly and set shutter speed automatically? Are there any practical limitations compared with an electronic lens, such as a darker viewfinder, flash TTL behavior, or exposure bracketing?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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Aperture priority mode works just fine with a manual lens (or no lens at all) on my Canon 550D so I assume it will work on a 60D
What happens is that the camera display shows an aperture of "F00" and the camera will set the shutter speed based on the amount of light it can see (making the result picture exactly the same as if you set the aperture in the camera).
Note that the viewfinder will be darker than with an electronic lens because it will also use the aperture you set (normally the viewfinder always uses the max aperture and the camera only stops down when you press the shutter or the DOF preview button)
My experience with this is in shooting macro pictures with an hand held reversed lens (from the point of view of the camera no lens at all) and the metering works just as well as it does with a lens attached.
So:
Can the camera calculate exposure - absolutely yes.
Does TTL flash metering work - yes, with the same rules as Av mode with a lens (shutter speed will be the same as with no flash, flash used for fill).
Can I bracket exposure - Yes (just tested it now, never tried to use bracketing with no lens before).
Originally by user2481. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2481
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. On Canon DSLRs, Aperture Priority can still work with a manual-aperture lens, even if the camera cannot detect the lens or aperture value. The camera meters the light that actually reaches the sensor/meter and sets shutter speed accordingly. Typically the camera will display no usable aperture value (for example, “F00”).
The main practical difference is that the lens is already stopped down to the chosen aperture, so the viewfinder gets darker as you close the aperture. With an electronic lens, the viewfinder usually stays bright until the shot is taken.
Based on the shared experience, metering works fine even with a reversed lens or effectively no lens communication at all.
TTL flash and auto bracketing were not clearly confirmed in the provided answers, so they can’t be stated with certainty here. In general, any function that depends only on the camera’s through-the-lens metering is more likely to work than anything requiring aperture data from the lens.
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