What will the EF-RF control ring adapter do for me?

[West Coast Birder]

I’ll preface this by confessing that I’m a cheapskate. I’m always on the lookout for a deal and most of my gear is either from the refurb store or used.

When I ordered my R5 during the recent refurb store sale, I also ordered a STANDARD EF-R adapter, well, mainly because it was available for $79 which sounded pretty good to me. I am curious though - do any of you have the more expensive adapter with the control ring and do you find it useful? I have a standard adapter on my R7 and it does everything I want from it but then again, one never misses what one doesn’t know anything about. Just wondering if perhaps, the control ring adapter justifies its higher price by providing an indispensable feature.

 

[anglefire]

I have both the standard "cheap" ring and latterly bought the ring with the control dial on it. Reason being I now have two R cameras so wanted to be able to have two EF lenses on if I wanted to.

And having used the control ring on the RF24-105 L I bought with my first "R", the R5, I found it really useful so when I got the R3, decided to get the one with the control ring too. And it works really well.

I have it set to change the focus setting as that is the thing that I like to change most depending what I am shooting.

It is the one I use if going out with the RF lens on one body and EF on the other.....

 

[Lubos-PM]

I have an adapter with a ring on the R5 and have the ISO change set on it.

 

[Joeseph]

I have a "standard" EF-RF adapter so no clue what I'm missing. Also have a RF 24-105mm lens and I can say the ring on the end is purely decorative - can't see it ever getting used!

 

[anglefire]

I have a "standard" EF-RF adapter so no clue what I'm missing. Also have a RF 24-105mm lens and I can say the ring on the end is purely decorative - can't see it ever getting used!

Frankly I think you are missing out. But to be fair it does depend how you use the camera. The only issue I have found is the ring can be easily knocked and it change setting. But on the R5 I just lock the camera which still allows (due to my settings) me to change shutter and aperture without hindrance. And a quick press of the lock button allows change of the focus points (in my case)

On the adapter that issue doesn’t seem to arise.

I would say give it a go. Got nothing to loose

 

[West Coast Birder]

Thanks. I’ll wait for it to come on sale at the refurb store at some point and pick it up.

 

[bobpal]

I use the ring to adjust exposure comp on both the adaptor and the two RF lenses I own. I also have an adaptor without the ring and don't like it as much because the ring is missing. I bought it from a friend at a good price because he got rid of his EF lenses.

 

[Mike_d]

I got a 3rd party non-control ring adapter when I got my R6 because that's all that was available at the time. I eventually got a Canon control ring adapter, sure I'd find a use for the extra control. I tried, but eventually gave up for the following reasons:

1) The R6 has three dials which seems sufficient
2) The control ring has a very limited subset of functions that can be assigned to it
3) The control ring adapter clicks are very soft, requiring more attention to hit the right spot, compared to the hard clicks on the camera's dials
4) My 3 RF lenses have smooth turning control/focus rings, making #3 even worse
5) Canon changes the location of the control ring from lens to lens, making it impossible to develop muscle memory

Overall, I think it was a good idea with poor implementation, so I just don't use it.

 

[Greyswan]

I use the control ring to change ISO, and find it makes a difference with that in shooting wildlife. If I were shooting studio product sor static objects, no, it wouldn't make a difference. But still nice to have.

 

[Northroad]

I use it for Kelvin temperature. Comes in handy when you want to warm up a snowy scene.

 

[KD_Reno]

With my R5 I almost always use auto ISO. The three dials are set up for shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation. I honestly don’t know what I would use an adapter ring for if I had one. I did get a control ring adapter for my wife’s R7 and set it up for EC.

 

[Anton Largiader]

I have one with and one without. I initially set it to EC but found that I was changing it too much by accident. Looking through the options, for the R3 at least there are already dedicated controls for everything. On the R7 (where the ring adapter is used) I should set it to control ISO, because that's the common control that doesn't have a dedicated dial already, and the one for which I end up doing crazy scrolling to go from Auto to 12,800. I think I'm going to do that right now!

 

[apersson850]

The control ring has a very limited subset of functions that can be assigned to it

Please define "very large set".
There are 18 different settings for the control ring on my R-series camera. I've found the selection of the AF area to be most valuable to me. From small point to big zone with an easy twist. I've set it not to be active unless metering is, so there's no accidential changes.
Although I don't have the plain adapter, I do have the filter adapter. Mainly for the ND filter when doing video, but I also do have a polarizing filter for that one. It has a dial too, but that's to adjust the filter. I usually miss the control ring pretty quickly when I use that adapter.

 

[Anton Largiader]

There are a lot of duplicates in the 18. ISO, ISO when you press *, shutter, shutter when you press *, etc.

Unfortunately I found that using the Control Ring, I cannot scroll the ISO to Auto. Big bummer.

 

[RDKirk]

Frankly I think you are missing out. But to be fair it does depend how you use the camera. The only issue I have found is the ring can be easily knocked and it change setting.

In the settings tab that sets the ring functions, you should see each function has two versions: a version with a down arrow and an identical setting without the down arrow. The version with down arrow requires the metering button (by default, a half-press of the shutter release) to be activated before the control ring becomes active. The control ring will be active only as long as the metering system is active (by default, 15 seconds).

 

[RDKirk]

I’ll preface this by confessing that I’m a cheapskate. I’m always on the lookout for a deal and most of my gear is either from the refurb store or used.

When I ordered my R5 during the recent refurb store sale, I also ordered a STANDARD EF-R adapter, well, mainly because it was available for $79 which sounded pretty good to me. I am curious though - do any of you have the more expensive adapter with the control ring and do you find it useful? I have a standard adapter on my R7 and it does everything I want from it but then again, one never misses what one doesn’t know anything about. Just wondering if perhaps, the control ring adapter justifies its higher price by providing an indispensable feature.

The EOS R cameras can put the additional programmable control to good use. I use it to control ISO in manual mode and exposure compensation in auto-exposure modes. The nice retro-feature of the control ring adapter is that it puts the control ring in one position with all the EF lenses (whereas it changes position a bit on RF lenses).

The other camera models may or may not need the additional control, depending on how you use them, but I'm still running out of programmable controls before I run out of actions I want to program to them.

In the settings tab that sets the ring functions, you should see each function has two versions: a version with a down arrow and an identical setting without the down arrow. The version with down arrow requires the metering button (by default, a half-press of the shutter release) to be activated before the control ring becomes active. The control ring will be active only as long as the metering system is active (by default, 15 seconds).

 

[anglefire]

In the settings tab that sets the ring functions, you should see each function has two versions: a version with a down arrow and an identical setting without the down arrow. The version with down arrow requires the metering button (by default, a half-press of the shutter release) to be activated before the control ring becomes active. The control ring will be active only as long as the metering system is active (by default, 15 seconds).

I shall try that one in the field, I've enabled it and the only issue I have with that is it is only active when pressed and not for 15 seconds afterwards (R5) and it doesn't scroll around the bottom to say what mode is selected.

 

[West Coast Birder]

The EOS R cameras can put the additional programmable control to good use. I use it to control ISO in manual mode and exposure compensation in auto-exposure modes. The nice retro-feature of the control ring adapter is that it puts the control ring in one position with all the EF lenses (whereas it changes position a bit on RF lenses).

The other camera models may or may not need the additional control, depending on how you use them, but I'm still running out of programmable controls before I run out of actions I want to program to them.

In the settings tab that sets the ring functions, you should see each function has two versions: a version with a down arrow and an identical setting without the down arrow. The version with down arrow requires the metering button (by default, a half-press of the shutter release) to be activated before the control ring becomes active. The control ring will be active only as long as the metering system is active (by default, 15 seconds).

That’s pretty useful information. TFS! It does seem like this would be worth getting. I’ll be on the lookout for a used copy.

 

[Mike_d]

Please define "very large set".
There are 18 different settings for the control ring on my R-series camera. I've found the selection of the AF area to be most valuable to me. From small point to big zone with an easy twist. I've set it not to be active unless metering is, so there's no accidential changes.
Although I don't have the plain adapter, I do have the filter adapter. Mainly for the ND filter when doing video, but I also do have a polarizing filter for that one. It has a dial too, but that's to adjust the filter. I usually miss the control ring pretty quickly when I use that adapter.

"Very limited subset", that is, many more things can be assigned to one of the buttons. Granted, many would make more sense on a button than a dial or wheel, but I'd still prefer to have more things assignable to the control ring.

I have AF method assigned to QC2 so I can easily run through them with my thumb.

 

[ShipleyNW]

I went mirrorless this summer. I was excited about the availability of the control ring. I'm all about buttons and dials. I bought a second converter with a ring while I was using EF lenses, then I bit the bullet on some RF lenses that had the rings built in.

But now that I've been doing it for six months or so, I've never gotten comfortable with the control ring. I'm so used to working the camera with my right thumb and forefinger that I forget that my clumsy left hand could have a purpose too, and when I try, it feels awkward. I can never find the ring. I think I've got mine set to EC, but there are quick ways to get to that from the back of the camera.

Maybe someday I'll figure out the exact right purpose for that ring for me, and I'll spend some time practicing with it. But for now it gets about as much use as the unconfigurable 'Rate' button on the back of my R5.