M42 to EOS Adapter Experience ?

[HMFIC]

Anyone have any experience using an M42 to EOS adapter? I have a collection of really great, old Pentax Asahi lenses that I want to try to use with the Canon 400D I bought from jarrettszcz (great camera, thanks again Jarrett!)

I have found plenty of dumb adapters but I'm thinking I would really like to have at least one programmable 'chipped' adapter that supports the autofocus confirm at least. This one has some great reviews but I'm just not willing to shell out $75 + shipping for it. http://haodascreen.com/m42.aspx

I see many on eBay, but I'm just leery about putting one on the camera body without knowing for sure that it's not going to blow something up and also spending money on something that doesn't work correctly.

Anyone have one? Opinions? Experience with doing it?

Thanks!

 

[HMFIC]

Surely there has to be one of you photographers out there that have done this?

 

[Zombie]

I asked my buddy grphx about this...his reply was

My friend Tom used an adapter and he has gotten a nikon lens to work on canon, and used some super old, yet super good lens to work on his modern Canon 40D. if it works, it's awesome. Not really "ghetto" or "cheap" or anything. If others say it works, then do it

he also wonders what lens you are wanting to use.

 

[HMFIC]

Thanks Rob.

I'm planning on trying out the lenses below. They are all M42 mount and the idea is that they require manual focus when you do this.

Asahi Takumar 3.5 / 200
Asahi Auto Takumar 1.8 / 85
Asahi Auto Takumar 1.8 / 55
Asahi Super Takumar 1.8 / 55
Asahi Auto Takumar 2.3 / 35
Vivitar Wide Angle 2.8 / 35

The adapters are pretty proven but I want one with the electronics on the chip that fool the camera into thinking it's a Canon lens and allow the focus indicator light to work, which supposedly gives you a little help in doing the manual focus. Some of them are also programable for lens and aperture data too.

I've also read that people don't like the focus indicator and that it's not reliable. They suggest doing a focusing screen mod to the camera? I don't know anything about that but I'd at least like to try these lenses out and see how they perform. There are reviews out there and reports on the 200mm are great, but I want to try this for myself as part of my learning process as well.