F/S: Canon 5D with shaved mirror and Bill Maxwell focusing screen

[EricWHiss]

Hi,
I've just ordered a 5D II so am selling my 5D camera body.  This camera has a shaved mirror to allow for many different leica, zeiss, contax, olympus and other alternative lenses to be adapted.  Since I used this camera primarily with older Leica and Olympus OM zuiko lenses I also had an EeS focusing screen treated by Bill Maxwell to make manual focusing easier.  

The camera comes with original box, papers, cables, 3 batteries, charger and original focusing screen, E-eS focusing screen.   I'm thinking $1200 for the camera plus shipping and paypal.

I have the following items available to buyers of the camera.... ask if you are interested.
Bill Maxwell Hi-Lux treated E-eS focusing screen $125
Battery Grip with handstrap  $150
Leica 50mm sumicron ROM (latest  version) with caps  $390

e-mail me at artist(at)eh21.com or PM me here.
Eric

[EricWHiss]

I had a question about how many frames on the camera and if the camera had any hot pixels.  I'm happy to post a RAW image for download - if this helps.  Will do so tomorrow.  

The maxwell hi-lux treated focusing screen is approx $200 value - and really helps for manual focusing.    
 
Mirror shaving:
Why do it?   So you can adapt lenses which protrude into the path of the mirror and would other wise not work.
Why use alternative lenses?  Mostly because canon wides don't have a great reputation and/or are expensive.   Some older lenses have a unique look or nice bokeh as well.

How much did I shave?  about 4.5mm -  I only wanted to shave it once so took off a fair bit.

Will this affect metering or AF?    I haven't noticed this.
Does it affect the view through the viewfinder.   Yes - the very top part of the viewfinder is a bit darker.

What are nice alternative lenses to use?    My favorite is the 55mm f/1.2 zuiko - just awesome for portraits and things.  I also use the leica 80 lux (better than the canon 85mm f/1.2 in my testing), the leica 50 lux, leica 21-35 (now sold) and the Olympus OM zuiko 50mm macro and 28mm wide.   The old zuiko's are quite light and compact and make a great travel kit.  They are all better than my canon glass.   A really great lens paired with the canon 5d is the leica 100 apo macro.  Beautiful!

So if alternate glass is so much better than canon - which Canon lenses did I keep?   I liked the 70-200 f/4 zoom and the 90mm tilt shift.

Okay so if you want to use alternative lenses the Canon EOS body style is great because it has a shorter flange to film/sensor plane distance than other cameras -which means you can adapt all kinds of lenses to it.  It's a lot of fun too and you will get a look that's different from all the other shooters with 5D's.


Now all that said - if you want a this its a good deal as its all set up with the mirror and focusing screen.

Other questions?

[Snook]

Wouldn't those lens' work with the 5DII as well? Just wondering as there are no new lens for Canon I would image the problem of shitty lens would still be a problem and even more so with more megapixels to show those faults?
I just sold all my Canon zoom lens and thinking of going all prime. Would you suggest those lens on a 1DsMII and would they fit or would the mirror need to be shaved also?
Thanks for the information.
Snook

[EricWHiss]

Snook,
Well yes, I am certainly hoping these lenses will work on my 5D II when it arrives and I'm not offering up very many of my alternate glass for that reason - just the 50mm summicron ROM because I have the 50mm summilux ROM also.   I don't have any data on which lenses work on the 5D II so will have to test it out.   My guess is that some of them will work fine, but some of the wide alternative glass will stick back in the mount far enough for the mirror to hit - and I may have to shave it too.    I think it turned out that the whole mirror box was adjusted to calibrate focus so each 5D had slightly different amounts of clearance ....  Some lenses would work on some 5D's but not always.  

As far as the 1DSMkII - I dunno but there used to be a great resource at pebbleplace that listed what lenses worked and which didn't.  I'll try and find it.   I think the guy who put up the site is a member of this forum.   Maybe he can chime in with more help?

I'll bet the 80mm lux and the 100mm apo macro will fit without mods on your 1DsMkII and be wonderful.  

Eric

Wouldn't those lens' work with the 5DII as well? Just wondering as there are no new lens for Canon I would image the problem of shitty lens would still be a problem and even more so with more megapixels to show those faults?
I just sold all my Canon zoom lens and thinking of going all prime. Would you suggest those lens on a 1DsMII and would they fit or would the mirror need to be shaved also?
Thanks for the information.
Snook

[EricWHiss]

Here's the website I was thinking of that has the fantastic database for contax and leica lens compatibility with Canon cameras. Pretty sure, John who put this nice site together posts here on LL.    His database shows which lenses work with no mods, which work with mirror shave, etc.  He's got data for both Leica and Contax lenses.  


http://www.pebbleplace.com/Personal/Leica_db.html

[EricWHiss]

I've uploaded some shots taken with this camera - one of the hills across from my house with the leica 100mm apo. It was a bit windy out but you can see the buildings...  A second shot with caps on and a 5 second exposure with noise reduction turned off for those want to examine if there are hot pixels.  I think you can get accurate frame count from these RAW files as I'm not sure what it is. It could be around 28,000 - I used it a lot in 2006 but bought my leica DMR in 2007 and my Rollei 6008 later that year so the 5D got less and less use.    I bought this new on 12/21/05 according to my records.
Later I'll take some shots of the camera itself.
 
RAW files from camera taken today are here:
www.eh21.com/canon5d-samples-RAW/