Particularly with the various shortages Canon has seen this year in batteries and accessories, you’ve probably wondered if third party lens adapter options were viable.

Not to mention, of course, the price difference.

I decided to take the plunge myself after some careful comparisons.

I’ll go over my impressions of the Meike lens adapter below, but first, here’s why I chose the Meike in the first place:

• Several reviews seemed to warn that some third party lens adapters caused vignetting in the images taken. I noticed that the official Canon adapter had ribbing on the inside, yet all the adapters people said caused vignetting did not. While I don’t fully understand why the ribbing helps prevent this, I figured I should specifically look for adapters that also had this feature. The Meike is one of only a few that does.
• While reading opinions on Viltrox adapters and other brands, the name Meike came up from others several times. More frequently than most of the others.

The Meike Lens Adapter’s Build Quality

The biggest stand out feature of this lens adapter, apart from the aforementioned ribbing to prevent vignetting, is the weather sealing. That’s a nice plus on cameras like the EOS R that aren’t weather sealed themselves.

Each end of the adapter is a metal mount construction, which is important for a piece that’s bridging two other expensive components.

I’ve even used this lens adapter with a Tamron SP 70-300mm VC lens and, while any lens that long is a little unwieldy, I never felt like the lens wasn’t secure.

Each end snaps pretty firmly into place with a satisfying click, and there is no play or wobble in the connection. It feels as solid as I would expect from the Canon adapter.

In terms of length, it seems to add almost exactly 1 inch to the length of any attached lens. Comparatively, the official Canon adapter says it’s 0.9 inches.

Autofocus and Controls

I would say these are both excellent. I’ve used this lens adapter with two Tamron EF lenses – the SP 35mm VC USD and the 70-300mm I mentioned above. I’ve also used the adapter with a Yuanguo 50mm given to me as a gift.

With both Tamron lenses focusing was pretty quick, and that was especially true for the 35mm which is a newer series from Tamron. My Tamron 35mm seems to focus just as quickly as my native RF 50mm f1.8 lens.

In a couple low light scenarios I noticed both Tamrons had a little trouble autofocusing, but I suspect that’s more a shortcoming of the lenses than the adapter. Reviews I’ve watched of both those lenses cited those issues even on cameras where no adapter was needed.

In retrospect I do wish I’d gotten an adapter with the control ring, since the ring is really handle on my RF lenses and having that functionality on the older EF lenses would be nice. However, I knew what I was buying when I got this adapter so it’s not a fault.

Closing Thoughts

I find the Meike EF to RF adapter to be a suitable replacement for the Canon version, both because it’s cheaper and more readily available right now. It doesn’t seem that you’re making any sacrifices on autofocusing, even with third party lenses, and the build quality is solid for the price.

One note if you haven’t used a lens adapter much before is that, while no fault of this particular adapter, the extra inch of length does make smaller lenses like my 35mm almost telephoto in length, and would make larger lenses like a 24-70mm pretty long.

Some people may not care as long as it works, but it’s worth considering if you’re a smaller person or find heavy lenses difficult to work with on longer shoots.