I took an old lens from my favorite film camera – and put it on my digital camera. My mirrorless camera has never felt more retro

I’m admittedly a bit gear-obsessed – and my camera collection spans both digital and film. But, as much as I love analog, developing film is expensive. That’s why I decided to experiment – and put an old film lens onto my digital camera.

I have an old Pentax K1000 that I use to shoot the occasional roll of film. And I have Fujifilm gear that I use as a wedding and portrait photographer. Lately, I’ve taken to shooting with a warm diffusion filter to exaggerate the retro look of Fujifilm’s film simulations, because the lens plays a key role in getting a more retro look to images.

The lens is half the image quality equation. Film lenses weren’t as close to perfection as modern lenses, often lacking some sharpness, but creating lovely halos of light and beautiful lens flare.

I started to wonder, if the lens is half the equation, could I adapt a film lens onto my digital camera for a more analog look without the film costs? I found a K Mount to X Mount adapter that cost less than developing one roll of film and twisted my Pentax-M 50mm f/1.7 onto my Fujifilm X-T4.

The K-mount Pentax 50mm f/1.7 has been around since the late 1970s and remained in production until around 1984. The lens is a rather compact nifty fifty and has that retro look because, well, it actually is retro.

Using the lens on my X-T4 felt similar to using the lens on my K1000 in that it’s a fully manual lens. Manual focus tends to slow me down, but that’s a good thing. I’m not worrying about how many film frames I’m filling up while adapted on my mirrorless, but I am taking the time to manually dial in the focus.

There’s no auto exposure when adapting a film lens to digital, either, as there are no electronic contacts for the camera to communicate with the lens. I dialed in the aperture on the lovely clicked aperture ring on the lens and took advantage of the mirrorless’ electronic EVF with exposure preview to dial in the remaining settings.

The images I captured with the adapted film lens are sharper than I expected, but fall off to a lovely bokeh at f/1.7. The lens gives light sources a little more of a halo or glow than my native glass.

Mixed with film simulations like Eterna Cinmea and Across (monochrome), I loved the soft colors the film-digital combo created in soft lighting. When a patch of afternoon sunlight started streaming right through the window, I was able to create some moody, dramatic shots with deep shadows.

I didn’t mind the manual focus or all manual exposure. Perhaps what I missed the most about my native lenses was the weather sealing. Using a dusty old film lens risks adding dust to the camera sensor. I gave the inside of the lens a good cleaning with a blower before using it, and my mirrorless seems to be unaffected – though admittedly, baking Christmas cookies with an abundance of flour and sprinkles was probably a riskier type of shoot to do with this setup!

Retro feels like a photography buzzword as classic designs return to digital and younger generations try film for the first time. But trends often bring higher costs with them. Adapting an old film lens with an inexpensive adapter was a refreshingly affordable way to bring some nostalgic charm to my digital camera.

No, using a film lens on digital is still not quite the same thing as true analog. But it brought a bit more diffused look, soft colors, and slower shooting with manual focus – and my digital camera has never felt more retro.

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