In my current class at Pontotoc Technology Center, my students all have new Canon mirrorless cameras.

The mirrorless scene is an interesting and exciting evolution in photography, one made possible by the fusion of digital imaging sensors and the instant read-and-feed technology that lives in our smart phones.

Because mirrorless cameras don’t have mirrors, the imaging sensor is close to the lens, and that makes possible one of the most exciting things you can do with your mirrorless camera: use adaptors to mount almost any lens.

Adaptors might not be for everyone, but it was one of the main reasons I bought my first mirrorless camera a few years ago. I have a bunch of old lenses, from stuff I retired, to items I found for pennies at a yard sale or on Ebay, to old camera bags that people give me when they clean out their hall closets.

There are generally two kinds of adaptors: active adaptors, which communicate with the camera, and passive adaptors, which simply hold the lens in the right place and let you do all the photographic finessing. Active adaptors can be expensive, but passive adaptors are very cheap, and the idea of working in an all-manual manner can be very satisfying.

One of my favorite lenses to adapt is the 50mm. There were so many 50mm lenses made, mostly in the 20th century. And because 50mm, about two inches, is a very practical size in human and manufacturing terms, that most 50mm lenses are cheap, and pretty good.

After class Monday, I grabbed my Canon FD 50mm f/1.8, and put it on my Fujifilm mirrorless camera with an adaptor. I photographed my Chihuahua Summer, because she’s pretty photogenic. She played with her toys on the living room floor, which is crazy cute.

One feature that really helps when using old lenses on a mirrorless camera is a focus peaking, which shows a kind of shimmering in the viewfinder where the image is sharpest, and it makes it easy to focus.

So if you have a mirrorless camera and want to add a creative element to your imaging, an adaptor might be a nice addition to your kit.