Canon Rebel: Lens from film camera compatible with digital camera?

[Benboxer]

Canon Rebel: Lens from film camera compatible with digital camera?

[rpcrowe]

Yes... However the lens must be an EF lens from an EOS auto-focus camera. These lenses will fit any EOS digital camera.

However, if the lens is from a Canon manual focus film camera such as the AE1 or A1, it will not work on an EOS camera without an adapter. However, with most adapters, the manual focus lens will not focus to infinity!

[Wirefox]

My daughter has an EF70-210 f/4 from 1986. It works fine with the 450D and my 40D. It sounds a little clunky (no USM) and hunts a tad more than modern lenses in low light but the quality is very good indeed.

[inkista]

...However, if the lens is from a Canon manual focus film camera such as the AE1 or A1, it will not work on an EOS camera without an adapter. However, with most adapters, the manual focus lens will not focus to infinity!

If the lens has "EF" in its name, you can use it. If it has "FD" or "FL" in its name, you'll have to adapt it to use it, and it probably isn't worth it. The adapters without glass elements in them cannot achieve focus to infinity. The ones with glass in them act as mini teleconverters so the lens can focus to infinity, but then they're usually cheap so the cheap glass will make the lens softer, and you're also losing a little max. aperture, and the focal length increases a smidge. To achieve infinity focus with FD/FL lenses on EOS without this kind of adapter, the real crazies will replace the lens's mount, but they usually have their own parts machining facilities.

One more thing most folks forget to tell you. While you probably don't want to adapt Canon FD/FL manual focus lenses, there are six manual focus SLR mounts you can adapt to Canon EOS with simple adapter rings (no glass). So if the lens is from a film SLR that uses the Nikon-F, Olympus-OM, Pentax-K, M42, Contax/Yashica, or Leica-R mounts, you can also use it on a Canon digital SLR. However, you will have limited function. Since the lens can't communicate with the body, you have no autofocus or aperture control from the body (you have to use the ring on the lens). The upshot of this is that you only have stop-down metering (where the metering is performed with the lens actually stopped down, not wide open as with EOS lenses), and you can only shoot in the Av or M camera modes. And your EXIF will be missing some information. If you're an oldtime manual film shooter, it's not a big deal to use one of these lenses. But if you're used to auto-everything, it may be more of a PITA than you're willing to go for.

[Azizkadhi]

Yes... However the lens must be an EF lens from an EOS auto-focus camera. These lenses will fit any EOS digital camera.

However, if the lens is from a Canon manual focus film camera such as the AE1 or A1, it will not work on an EOS camera without an adapter. However, with most adapters, the manual focus lens will not focus to infinity!

Reading from your thread I fished out my EOS-A2E from my yester years and indeed both my lenses(EFS 18-55mm and EF 75-300mm) from my Canon Rebel XT fit into the A2E but not vice versa! And yes, it does sound a lot crunky though. Should I experiment and take film?