can one mount a canon EF lens originally designed for film cameras on canon DSLR? would certain functions not work (like autofocus) if one were to use them on a DSLR? or would they work normally when mounted on a DSLR? thank you! Virtually all of the EF line will work on any of the new digital bodies. In almost all cases, metering and autofocus will work.<1>
Having said that, if you purchase one of the high end models (EOS-1Ds, 5D), the sensor size is the same size as a traditional 35mm frame, and so everything will work just as it ought.
If you purchase a lower cost model, e.g. 30D, Digital Rebel, etc, you'll find that they use a smaller APS-C sized (25.1 x 16.7 mm) sensor which effectively crops the photo by a factor of 1.6. <1> There is some benefit to this: as you're taking the prime, center part of the lens' image, chromatic and geometric abberations, as well as vignetting of your traditional lenses will be mitigated. On the other hand, if you have zoom lenses, this will tend to reduce their usefulness, say, a 24-80mm becomes, effectively, a 39-128mm lens -- negating the wide end. Canon does make a line of lenses designed for their APS-C based cameras, the EF-S line, and when reading those lens specs, the numbers hold true: 50mm means 50mm.<2>
As an aside: the smaller, APS-C sensors also tend to have a greater pixel density, which like smaller grains on film, require more light to activate: the native light sensitivity will be lower and thus noise will be higher when they are pushed to higher sensitivities (ISO 1600+).<3>
A very active point of contention is whether or not Canon will, as it achieves economies of scale, bring the larger, 35mm sensor to its entire product line: This would probably lead to the discontinuation of the EF-S line. The working consensus at this time is that due to the inherently costly nature of producing these chips, it will not be possible, in the foreseeable future to sell "full frame" digital cameras, competitively, at prices cheaper than the 5D.
A fantastic site for lens reviews, exhaustive: http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.h...
An authoritative digital camera body review site:
http://dpreview.com/ You can use your old lenses on your new DSLR. You might get s little distortion on the outer edges of the image (something about the aspect, I think) but it works just fine. The AF will work, as will the metering, etc.
I love my Canon DSLR, and I loved my Canon 35mm before that, and several lenses have made the transition with me. you can use your old lens from the film slr camera on the dslr for as long as it's the EF lens series They will work just fine if you have one (or 2). |
