A6500 and Canon lens?

[Simon65]

Hi all,

I will shortly be upgrading from an A6000 to a A6500 and just wondering if anyone here uses Canon lenses on theirs and which adapter, does the IBIS work ok? I had the Idea of getting a good Canon zoom lens, if its cost effective..

Cheers

 

[bdbits]

I've not had one, but from what I understand the MC-11 is the one usually recommended. As with most AF adapters, compatibility is lens dependent, so it helps if you have some idea in advance of which lenses you want to use with it. I believe the MC-11 is either very broadly compatible, or at least supports the most popular Canon lenses. I have heard Metabones is also supposed to be decent, again lens-dependent.

Hopefully my under-informed opinion will prompt others to jump in, lol.

 

[serhan]

My experience with both MC-11 and metabones are similar to what you said eg you need to search adapter for specific lenses. IBIS works. I know there are some youtube videos also.

Sigma is mostly compatible with Sigma lenses though it works with Canon lenses: https://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/mc-11-compatible
Metabones compatibility list: https://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB-EF-E-BT5

I have not used them lately much as we have now lots of native lenses available which are smaller and probably more compatible with the latest Sony af's esp with linear motors. It was more useful to adapt in the early days...

I've not had one, but from what I understand the MC-11 is the one usually recommended. As with most AF adapters, compatibility is lens dependent, so it helps if you have some idea in advance of which lenses you want to use with it. I believe the MC-11 is either very broadly compatible, or at least supports the most popular Canon lenses. I have heard Metabones is also supposed to be decent, again lens-dependent.

Hopefully my under-informed opinion will prompt others to jump in, lol.

 

[Richard Crowe]

My original plans were to use my Canon lenses with a mirrorless Sony body... When I purchased my first Sony mirrorless camera, an A6500, used from eBay with an MC-11 adapter, I thought that this would be everything that I needed. However, I realized that that all my Canon glass would work not as well as I expected on the A6500. So, I picked up a used Metabones adapter with the same lukewarm results. Some lenses worked O.K. while others did not work at all. None provided the superlative autofocus capability that I was hoping for.
Believe it of not, I seemed to get the best autofocus results with a relatively cheap Viltrox focal reducer. This was especially true when shooting with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS and 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS ii lenses.
I wanted to know if the touted autofocus capability of the A6500 actually lived up to its reputation, so I purchased a native Sony e-mount lens: the inexpensive Sony 50mm f/1.8 OSS. It worked wonderfully on the A6500 - I especially enjoyed the eye-AF, although the A6500 was not equipped or full time Eye-AF. I liked the Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens adapted with the MC-11 but, found the AF a bit problematic. So, when I found a great price on a used Sony 85mm f/1.8 lens, I snapped it up. I absolutely love the Sony 85mm for portraits outdoors...
When the A6400 was introduced with a better focusing system including full time eye-AF and animal-eye AF, I sold the A6500 plus both the adapters and the focal reducer and purchased the A6400.
I have now completely transitioned to Sony mirrorless after selling all my Canon cameras and glass. I have not regretted the decision.
However, there is one fly in the ointment, which it took me a while to realize. When shooting with a Sony crop format camera, I need to deliberately make sure that I give enough headroom to the subject, I tended to cut the headroom a bit tight until I realized that I needed to pay attention to this. Now that this has come to my attention, there is no longer a problem...
By the way, I have shot dog portraits for years and have done quite well with Canon gear starting with Canon SLR film cameras. However, the Sony animal Eye-AF is a game changer! Photographing lively wiggly puppies with continuous autofocus (AFC) combined with full time animal Eye-AF is a super combination and a joy to use...

 

[Dan Euritt]

a6500 would be a big step up from a6000, but fwiw, if you can live without IBIS the a6100 is only $749, and it has the latest Sony real-time tracking capability.

Canon-brand lenses on the mc-11 will be limited to 3fps af-c, because that combination emulates a-mount lenses. The Metabones adapter has a mode where it emulates e-mount glass with Canon-brand lenses, but I've seen contradictory claims about how well it works, and Metabones adapters have a history of issues with poor machining on some of their adapters, aka metal shavings being generated when lenses are mounted, too tight, etc. Maybe a used Metabones adapter? New is expensive.

I would be inclined to look at full-frame e-mount lenses, like the cheap Samyang primes, Tamron zooms, etc.

 

[Richard Crowe]

I had misplaced my Viltrox Focal Reducing Adapter when I sold all of my Canon gear. I thought that I had mistakenly shipped it attached to one of the Canon lenses I sold but, luckily I found it in a lens bag. It is up for sale on the Buy and Sell section of this site...