The Problem with mirrorless Lenses 📷😮 What is Flange Distance?

What is Flange Distance in Camera Lenses?

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📧 LET'S CONNECT:

[berto]

Why would anyone want to use a mirrorless lens on a dslr? Nobody ever does that.

[Pixillnow]

It would seem that mirrorless cameras have the advantage here then. If you can put mirrorless lenses and standard lenses on a mirrorless camera body but only standard lenses on a older body why would you think that’s a disadvantage?

[phoenixvette]

YAAAAYYY Social media is officially dead. This is the third video today where the person said absolutely nothing important and wasted my time. Thank you for freeing me. Keep enjoying the sound of your own voice.

[AB_]

We’ve reached peak ‘unpackaging stuff while recording a video’ right here.

[mikeuptonphoto]

That sounds like mirrorless lenses have a leg up on DSLRs because with an adapter ring they can be more versatile.

[tgmwright]

"the problem with new technology is it's not compatible with obsolete technology"

[Andrew-vije]

This is a great start to the conversation around lens mounts but to clarify:

Flange focal distance is a property of a lens mounting system, not the lens. It seems like a minor point but it's crucial if you want to understand the logic behind lens mounts.

Mirrorless camera bodies using mounts like x, e, rf, etc have shorter FFDs than older mounting systems designed for DSLRs.

Lenses for mirrorless cameras are designed to be very close to the sensor, which is why you can't use them on anything but a short flange mirrorless mount system. If you were to try to mount it on a camera mount with a longer FFD like EF, the lens would be too far away from the image plane to be able to create a proper image.

But you can mount EF lenses (which are designed for that longer FFD) to mirrorless cameras because you can use an adapter to increase the distance between the lens back and image plane. For the reverse scenario of mounting a mirrorless lens on A DSLR, there's no way physically for an adapter to somehow subtract space to get the lens close enough to the sensor (the lens would be shoved into the body of the lens🥲)

If you're wondering why shorter flange distances were introduced, since the cameras don't have mirrors between lens and sensor (mirrorless) you can bring the lens closer to the sensor and there are many technical advantages to this but the TL;DR version is that a shorter FFD allows manufactures to make smaller, faster, and debatably sharper lenses.

The focus should be on the advantage of buying a mirrorless camera, not the disadvantage of "mirrorless" lenses. Most will have many lenses and few bodies.

If you have the budget to buy the native lenses for mirrorless cameras, go for it. Eventually (and already) you'll see better lenses for these mounts.

And if you don't have the budget, or are swapping between camera bodies with shorter and longer FFDs, buy older DSLR lenses with the corresponding adapter.

[hy]

Why would you want mirrorless lenses on dslr when you could get similar dslr lenses for way cheaper

[vincicheung]

actually you can put a sony e-mount lens on a nikon z camera, using an adapter, cuz nikon z cameras have shortest flange distance (16mm if I remember correctly)

[patrikkoren]

Shorter flange distance is actually mirrorless advantage. You can use DSLR lenses, so it is one feature that DSLR can't do. And I guess there are pretty much none new DSLRs released, so people will rather buy mirrorless systems now.

[trippplefive]

People usually try to adapt older lenses to newer cameras, not the other way around. Thanks for this helpful video.

[zeframm]

This isn't a disadvantage. The closer rear focus distance is easier optically, so it is easier to do neat things in the lens like abbreviation correction.

[federico_b._]

Shouldn't they work kinda like extension rings for macro? So i guess if you wanted to you could technically put an RF lens on a canon EF camera and make it work as a macro lens?

[njpc]

This is one of the most “shit I need to put a video out for the algorithm but I’m totally out of ideas” videos I’ve seen so far

[stuartswindellcampoy]

Good thing about using mirrorless lenses as opposed to old dslr lenses is that the short distance between the flange makes it better quality than the gap of old dslrs

[Mark.Brindle]

I'm using all my EF 'L' primes on my R3 - everything is perfect. I have even purchased several EF lenses since i switched to the R3, such as a 600mm L prime.

[WatchesAndPhotography]

It’s not a disadvantage at all in this context, it’s an ADVANTAGE, because closer flange distances has the potential for smaller more compact lenses compared to DSLR lenses of their equivalent focal length.

The only disadvantage I would attribute to mirrorless lenses is that they are usually focus-by-wire, whereas DSLR lenses have a nice manually focusing helicoid. You can even focus them with the camera turned off.

[SKOMPAS]

“Mirrorless cameras have a pretty big disadvantage when compared to older DSLR lenses”

This makes as much sense as..

My Subaru outback has a pretty big disadvantage when compared to being pushed in a shopping kart

[The_Daliban]

Why are we comparing bodies to lenses?
Also why is that an issue? In what scenario would you want to attach rf glas to an old camera.
The bigger issue is that Canon blocked third party lenses as a whole

[fgt]

I've discovered only few disadvantages: battery lifetime, EVF and shutter lag and power/wake up lag time. Last two are problems only for action shooting. And yes... if you wanna shoot some astro - sometimes it's much more easy to find some object through optical viewfinder.