Canada Post is literally giving me an Ulcer - Ed Mika

[ontarian]

Thats certainly a relief Harley, thanks for letting us know.  Hope you like it.

[Harley]

I haven't been able to put it down since I got it installed! 

From initial shots, I may have to remove a layer or two from the shims to get sharpness at infinity, but I'll need to play with it more to know for sure.  The autofocus confirmation is working, but the lens is making me wish my 7D had a split prism focusing screen that would show me a little shallower depth of field. 

I feel like because of the way I have to interact with this lens that it is going to push me to be a better photographer.  It's definitely making me think more about the shot before I take it.  I'm really enjoying it, Ed.  Thanks!

[ontarian]

Harley, make sure you tighten the 3 screws evenly.  If you tighten one fully with the others not in it can have an effect on the exact final positioning.  Before peeling shims of which you have 6 stacks of 3 I would suggest loosening the 3 screws, pressing hard and evenly down on the adapter, and retightening them at first fairly tight all the way around and then again final tight all the way around.  Take care not to strip the heads though or you'll have to use the spares.  A really good test for infinity is stars I find btw.  By dropping shims down to 2 layers thick you will note that infinity is surpassed by a large margin.  I don't think this is very useful because it just means nothing is in focus at focus ring rotation stop and because the rear glass element of the lens goes even farther into your camera than it needs to and will likely hit on a 1D series body where right now with 3 shims it does not.

[Harley]

Thanks for letting me know.  I won't mess around with the shims except as a last resort.  Infinity focus seems close but not perfect. 

FYI, the original screws from the old mount were standard, not Phillips.  They had tapered 45-degree countersink heads.  It seems like from your instructions you expected them to be Phillips head.  Also, one of the new screws doesn't "bite" going in, so I think I may have a stripped hole.  I pulled out the first new screw I tried in that hole and used another to the same effect.  Even though the whole mount feels pretty flush and solid, that's probably what's creating the slight blur at infinity.

[Harley]

By the way, I tightened the screws the same way I would a spare tire -- progressively going around two or three times and tightening each evenly.

[ontarian]

Flat head screw is news to me.  We bought 3 of the lenses, on in the 30k serial numbers, one in the 50k and one in the 70k and all where phillips.  I do have same pitch but longer and with a hair larger diameter prototype screws that we are considering going with in the future that I could send you with maybe a slightly better chance for bite.  Looks like someone had taken your lens apart in the past perhaps.  email me at edmikapics@gmail.com to remind me of your address and I will send the screws (by some other way than bloody Canada Post Small Packet Air Mail).

[Harley]

Ed, I sent you a detailed email. 
For the benefit of others, I'll summarize here though.  They look more like a small pan head screw rather than the 45-degree countersunk like I first said.  They are countersunk and flush and the body is milled in a way that looks like it's factory, not some after-market adaptation that an owner or repair shop made.  My serial number is 27k.

[Harley]

Here's a photo of the old FL lens mount, the old (black) screw, and the new stainless screw.  Notice the hole at the lower left of the lens mount is machined to allow the old cap head screw to sit flush.

[rumorzmonger]

Ed, this is just a thought, but if you're shipping a lot of these items outside of Canada, you may want to look into using a courier service that will take your parcels across the border and mail them using the US Postal service.

I don't know how common these companies are, but my sister in Vancouver who sells a lot of books finds the cost to ship with Canada Post to be prohibitive (and slow), so she uses a local service that takes all of her packages down to Washington state once a week.  She seems to get much faster delivery in addition to the significant cost savings.

[ontarian]

It appears that there was a version 1 and 2 of the lens.  Other than not providing a flat head screwdriver with the conversion kit I think it should still work fine. We evaluated using two very similar screws types imported from Japan and went with the narrower one since the thicker one was difficult to fully tighten and we were afraid users would strip the phillips screw head.  We may have to migrate to the slightly thicker thread if the version 1 of the FL55 1.2 has stripping issues or we will send out both types with each kit going forward so the version2s are not too tight.

I'm sending you a set of the thicker screws to the address you provided me now, thanks for offering to do the beta testing.

[ontarian]

Thanks for suggestion rumourmonger, I'll definitely look into it.

[ontarian]

THE CHIPS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited I could vomit.

The 14 adapters I've pre-sold are going out the door tomorrow morning using some other better service than Small Packet Airmail.  I'm also going to be offering those 14 very patient buyers some ridiculously good discounts on future EdMika product releases.

Also once that is taken care of the Ebay listings should go up again soon too.

[LanceF]

I called it, Thursday   Let me know when you are able to sell me one

[ontarian]

Will do Lance.

For those interested in instructions on how to make your FD 200mm 1.8L, FD 300mm 2.8L, FD 400 2.8L, FD 500 4.5L, FD 600mm 4.5, FD 800mm 5.6L white super telephoto lenses fully work with infinity focus on EOS bodies without distortion adding and light robbing additional optics, check out the two below videos I made of the lens calibration with use of the EdMika EF-FD 0.75mm brass adapter.  My apologies for the amateur presentation. - Ed Mika

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytgt1d1Ts8I
	Small | Large

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ3_jG7LqM8
	Small | Large

[Harley]

Happy to participate in the beta-testing...  Thanks for the alternate screws.  I'll keep you updated.

BTW, the photos I'm getting with the lens are really wonderful.  The color rendering with this FL lens is unlike anything else I've tried.  Great product, Ed!  Worth the wait!