Having a larger flange focal distance also has benefits. The sensor is safely tucked away in the camera body, protecting it from dust and the elements while changing lenses, etc. The smaller flange focal distance is one reason mirrorless cameras and cinema camera sensors collect dust more often!

The cheap adapters are hit and miss. Sometimes they’re too loose and the lens rattles on the mount. This is dangerous because the mount can get damaged. It also means there are enough sized gaps to allow dust or moisture to seep into the camera body and ruin your sensor.

This is why the modern trend has been to move to lens mounts with smaller flange focal distances. Even the ubiquitous Arri PL mount was dropped for the LPL mount with a smaller flange focal distance of 44mm.

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In the first scenario, you want to adapt a lens of a mount with a larger flange focal distance to a camera system with a smaller flange focal distance. You can do that, as long as you find some way to make up for the extra distance (blue thingy). The gear that makes up the distance is called a Lens Adapter.

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Then there’s the problem of the image circle. Lenses made for smaller sensors or film sizes might seriously vignette on larger sensors, even if you could find an adapter. A good example is C-mount lenses on a Micro Four Thirds Camera.

Thank you! Canon provides three variations of the RF-EF adapter. One of them can take rear filters instead of the typical front filter.

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The better manufacturers provide thin slivers of metal that you can add (like a rubber gasket) to fine tune the distance. This process is called Lens Shimming. Lens shim kits are usually only found from better manufacturers.

There are other factors which determine which lenses can be adapted to which mounts. One of these is the fact that some lenses have protruding elements that move when focusing or zooming, etc. This protrusion is acceptable because the flange focal distance the lens is designed for will take this into account. However, using such a lens on a camera with a smaller flange focal distance might cause the protrusion to scratch the sensor or hit the mirror assembly in a camera.

Finally, the biggest drawback of using lens adapters is distance error. No matter how well an adapter is made, there are always minute variances that change the distance. Poorly made adapters might not be perfectly level, and will cause optical side effects.

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It is not uncommon for Hollywood DPs to have custom adapters made to adapt specialized lenses for a certain camera. E.g., medium format lenses from Hasselblad and Mamiya have been adapted for 65mm film and IMAX cameras. They have the budgets, so why not?

Next are the electronic contacts, which might or might work ‘as advertised’. A camera circuitry is usually designed to read and ‘understand’ the data coming from lenses by the same manufacturer. There are also patent and licensing issues on cutting edge technologies like auto focus, image stabilization, metadata, etc.

You create another lens that manipulates the optical qualities of the first lens to make it work somehow. Such an adapter has one serious drawback – it changes the aesthetics of the original lens. The primary reason for using a lens is for its aesthetic and technical benefits (one hopes). Why would you compromise that? Two good reasons:

Don’t go for the cheap lens adapters, especially when the lens and the camera body are expensive. I understand budget concerns. If you really have to, at least try them on in a relaxed environment many times before you commit.

It is this last consideration we are most concerned about in this article – the distance between the lens mount and the sensor. What’s so special about this distance?

However, if a manufacturer changes a lens mount, it could mean years of investment down the drain. Camera manufacturers don’t often change lens mounts, but there have been cases in the past where they have abandoned long-entrenched lens mounts for totally new designs.

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One of the most critical decisions any camera manufacturer makes in designing a camera system is deciding the distance between the lens mount and the sensor.

Flange Focal Distance is a terrible name for an interesting and useful feature. Don’t get bogged down by how bad it sounds. It’s actually pretty simple!

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The bottom line is, unless you are experienced enough to have strong preferences for certain third-party lenses, I suggest you stick to the lenses made specifically for the body of your camera.

This last point is what we should be most concerned about as cinematographers. The other aspects are too technical and doesn’t impact our work.

In this article you will learn everything you need to know about the flange focal distance and how it impacts lens compatibility. Whether you’re a professional videographer or cinematographer, understanding flange focal distance can unlock a world of creative possibilities.

Nice overview, very well explained, thanks! But it looks like you mixed up one picture, the one shown below this “…an official lens adapter like the Canon range of EF to RF adapters:” It seems to have a lens, which is not needed here (and might degrade the quality).

Sometimes the lens adapters are too tight, and won’t come off or on. Trust me, you don’t want to be in this position on a shoot. It looks highly unprofessional. If you get truly mad and twist and turn the lens adapter any which way, you’re in danger of scratching your sensor.

Let’s say a certain feature was allowed, like autofocus. An adapter will never be as good at autofocus as the native camera body. The proprietary circuitry cannot always be reverse engineered, as has been shown by the worse autofocus performance of third-party lenses.

As you can imagine, this did (and continues to do so) cause untold grief and suffering on countless souls who invested in a system believing it will last forever. This is why it’s important to understand this feature, and to make sure you don’t get trapped again.

If you want to use a lens made for another camera system on your camera body, then knowing the flange focal distances can help you understand whether it will work or not.

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The lens mount is like a piece of puzzle, one half of which is on the camera body. The other half is on the lens. The lens will have the other piece of this ‘puzzle’ so the two can be locked together:

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E.g., You can’t use Sony E mount lenses on a Canon RF mirrorless body because the RF-mount is designed so that the mount sticks 20mm away from the sensor; while the E mount needs 18mm to work the way it is designed to. One will have to break the RF mount to the get the lens 2mm closer to the sensor.

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The transition from DSLR systems to mirrorless systems has mandated changes in lens mounts cross the board. The distance has become typically smaller so the camera bodies can become smaller. This has a great benefit, as we shall see later.

In the second scenario, you can’t do the reverse because the lens will then have to be inside the camera body. Most times, you can’t saw open a camera body to stick a lens in. Yet, people have found ingenious ways to get it done, with some compromises:

On the other hand, you can theoretically use Canon RF lenses on a Sony E mount camera with an adapter whose width will make up the difference. I say theoretically because how do you make an adapter that’s only 2mm in total thickness while also having enough depth to fit both the lens and the camera body?

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In the last fifteen years or so, I’ve used all kinds of adapters, from really cheap ones to expensive adapters. I’ve never been truly comfortable with adapters. It’s always one more link in the chain that can go wrong.

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I hope this article has helped you understand the importance and practical utility of the flange focal distance. If you have any questions, please ask me in the comments below.

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Once this decision has been made, it cannot be changed without changing the system itself. This single parameter actually dictates a lot of things.

The lens mount is a construction that allows a lens to be attached to the camera body. It is made of metal and sometimes has electronic contacts (in gold in the above image) so information can be transmitted between the camera body and the lens.

The lens mount exists to integrate camera and lens into one seamless system The lens adapter is now responsible for the same function. If it fails, it’s a third wheel in the relationship.