I have a canon rebel slr and my grandfather has many lenses from his older canon (35mm). any help would be nice. Canon lenses using the EF mount which was first used for film cameras do work directly on most Canon digital cameras (on 350D/Rebel XT I tested myself, using a lens from my older Canon Elan 7N film camera) without losing any abilities.
For older lenses that don't usually fit, there are adapters that can help you fit the lens on a digital camera, however caveats include loss of resolution near the edges and loss of autofocus. Would'nt think so.Although if the lenses fit properly to your camera,should be no problem.Perhaps it would be a good idea to contact Canon on thier web site Canon EF lenses will work on either Canon DSLR or EOS film cameras.
If they are older FD mount lenses, there are adapter rings available, but there are many caveats that apply - see http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-manua... for the gory details. | 