We have inherited several old Canon cameras and quite a few expensive
looking lenses. My husband is thinking of buying a new digital Canon
and using the old lenses with it. I have a feeling that this won't
work quite as simply as he thinks.  It has already occured to us that
the focal lengths won't be the same. How much of a problem is that?
Will there be other problems?

P.S. I can't figure out what category to put this in.

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Request for Question Clarification by aht-ga on 25 Feb 2004 07:28 PST

jose-ga:

Can you tell us what the model numbers/names are for the old Canon
cameras? That would help in determining if they share a common
interface with the current crop of digital SLR-body cameras from
Canon.

---

Clarification of Question by jose-ga on 25 Feb 2004 07:48 PST

Yes, but it will take me a day or two.

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Clarification of Question by jose-ga on 25 Feb 2004 12:39 PST

So far I have found ... a Canon EOS 5 camera.
And an enormous lens labelled Canon lens EF 400mm 1:5.6 L Ultrasonic.
The lens has an extender on the 'back', labelled: Canon Extender EF 2x.

I think we have more stuff though.

jose-ga:

The most expensive pieces of equipment in a photographer's kit bag are
usually the lenses; they make or break a shot. Those Canon lenses are
easily each worth around $800-$1200 each.

The benefit of Canon having such a rich photographic equipment
heritage is that they feel obligated to provide digital solutions for
owners of older Canon equipment. So, it should be no surprise that
Canon has several digital SLR-body (D-SLR) cameras that are compatible
with the lenses you have.

Of the current suite of D-SLR cameras from Canon, the best bang for
the buck is the Canon Digital Rebel/EOS 300D:

http://www.canoneos.com/digitalrebel/index.html

http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/300D/eos_300d_review.html

This unit is priced below $1000 US, and is an excellent fit for a
pro-sumer type user; ie. a consumer/amateur photographer. It's 6.0
megapixel sensor is a little smaller than a 35 mm film frame, so the
effective magnification of the lenses will be less than when the
lenses are used on a traditional 35 mm SLR body, but other than that,
everything else is compatible.

Generally, any lenses for the Canon SLR cameras, should fit on the Digital Rebel. 

I hope this helps! If you find anything else unique in the box of
lenses and cameras, please let me know.

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

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Request for Answer Clarification by jose-ga on 26 Feb 2004 03:56 PST

Not a "Request for Answer Clarification" but just to say ...
read your answer, and very happy with it. Before rate and close the
question I want to see what other lenses I can find at home and post
them here this evening.

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Clarification of Answer by aht-ga on 26 Feb 2004 08:12 PST

jose-ga:

I'll keep an eye out for your follow-up post with the information
about the other lenses. And, please, do take note of dtc-ga's comments
below, in checking out your other lenses. The other cameras' model
numbers will probably be a good place to start, but since we know you
have at least one EOS 5 with at least one EF 400 mm lens, there will
be at least one or two other EF lenses used for wide-angle and
'regular' shooting too.

The conversion ratio between the range of the lenses, and the
effective range when used with the Digital Rebel, is 1.6x. That is, a
400 mm lens becomes a 640 mm lens, an 18-55mm lens becomes a 28.8-88mm
one. Here is a review on the Digital Rebel that talks about this a bit
more:

http://www.macworld.com/2004/02/reviews/canondigitalrebel/

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/eos_300d-review/index.shtml



Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Answer by aht-ga on 27 Feb 2004 08:25 PST

You should still have access to add Clarification Requests for at
least a month, and the Comments section remains open forever (or as
long as forever is, in this Internet age).

Thanks!

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

I have run out of time and we are about to go away for a week so I'll
be off line ... sorry not to update you both. I very happy with the
answer I have had to this question, and the comments have really added
that little bit extra. So I am rating this now.

Can I add the missing information when I get back? I'll try.

I think that you are going to be lucky because I understand that Canon
do have a top-end digital that can use the old lenses.

I am sure that a Researcher will be able to identify the machine that
I have in mind but it would probably be helpful if you could list the
model numbers of the cameras that you own.

Oops!

I now see that the very competent aht has already asked!

I beg to differ with part of aht-ga's answer. Aht-ga wrote,
"Generally, any lenses for the Canon SLR cameras, should fit on the
Digital Rebel." Not all Canon lenses will fit the Canon digital
bodies. The Canon EF line of lenses--those lenses designed for Canon
EOS bodies--will fit the Canon digital cameras. But the millions upon
millions of older lenses (the FD series, for example, the series that
preceded the EF lens line) will not fit.

Canon has never had a policy of having all lenses work with all camera
bodies. Saying that Canon feels "obligated to provide digital
solutions for owners of older Canon equipment" is, at best,
misleading.

(Sorry, aht-ga, I don't mean to sound as if I'm picking on you. I just
want to set the record straight.  <s>)

Let me take a moment to define a couple terms. SLR means "single lens
reflex." In other words, there's one lens, and the viewfinder and the
film share the image that that one lens produces. (Some cameras are
designed as a twin lens reflex system, so there are two lenses on the
front of the camera, one to send an image to the viewfinder and one to
send an image to the film.) EOS is short for "electro optical system."
All Canon EOS cameras are SLRs.

Canon introduced the EOS line of cameras in 1987 (the line really
became popular around 1990), and the EOS line brought with it its own
line of lenses. These new EF lenses wouldn't fit on older camera
bodies, and older lenses wouldn't fit on the EOS bodies. The company
certainly realized that the change might alienate millions of people
who owned lenses that couldn't be used with the new, advanced bodies.
Canon mounted a big marketing campaign to convince their customers
that the switch would mean improved convenience and performance, even
if it meant having to buy a new set of lenses. The amateur
photographer who only owned one camera body and one lens wouldn't care
too much. It was the serious amateur who owned two, three, four, or
more lenses who was hurt the most by the switch. Pros, too, lost out,
though many continued using their older, still useful Canon equipment,
ignoring the EOS line. But if a pro buys equipment, it's a tax write
off, so that helps somewhat.

If anyone would like to read the Canon company's history, I can
recommend this site:
http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/

Jose, since you specified that one of your lenses is an EF lens and
that the camera it works on is in the EOS line, you're in good shape.
Please be aware, though, that a 400mm lens is not an everyday lens. It
has special uses, and the typical amateur photographer will never need
to buy one. You might wish to sell it (if so, I could point you toward
some honest dealers). But if you want to use it, please be aware that
you'll need a rock-steady tripod for it. There's no way you can
hand-hold it and get sharp photos. BTW, using a 400mm lens on a Canon
digital camera will effectively make the lens's focal length longer,
as you mentioned: it'll be about a 640mm lens. And that's not even
factoring in the removable 2x teleconverter. (I'm not a big fan of
teleconverters, but that's another story.)

Good luck with the equipment!

dtc 

Relevant background: Long-time professional photographer who has used
Canon equipment for all my 35mm photography since day one.

This comment from dancethecon-ga with further info much appreciated.
This stuff came from my father also with more than one tripod. I think
he used this lens to take long distance wildlife photos. If we wanted
to try it out, how do you use the tripod? Sticking the tripod on the
camera is not going to support the very long lense is it? Do you
somehow support the lense with a tripod?

You should be able to fix the big lens to a tripod.

There's usually a bush somewhere on the body of the lens.

Thanks probonopublico-ga.

dtc:

Thanks for the correction, and I do stand corrected! I focused too
much on the EOS 5 that jose-ga mentioned, and the EF lenses,
forgetting the legacy before them. Which meant that I am incorrect in
using the blanket statement "any lenses for the Canon SLR cameras", I
should actually have stated "any EF lenses for the Canon EOS SLR
cameras".

After jose-ga has had the opportunity to identify and post the other
lenses here, we will know whether or not they too will be compatible.

Thanks again!

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

You're welcome, aht-ga. I figured that that was what you meant, but it
didn't quite come out that way.  :-)

Jose, the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L lens comes with a detachable tripod
mount.  If it's not attached to your lens right now, it should be in
the collection of equipment somewhere. You're right, it'd be risky
attaching the camera to a tripod and hanging such a long and heavy
lens on it.

Going off on a tangent for a moment, some photographers who use
extraordinarily long and heavy lenses (your 400mm lens does not
qualify for this category) will use two supports, one for the camera
and one for the lens. These supports can be a combination of a monopod
and a tripod, or two tripods. Most times, however, one good tripod
will suffice, as long as it's the lens that is mounted to the tripod.

Again I wish you well with your equipment. I'll check back here from
time to time to see if there's anything else I can contribute.

dtc?

LOL--I don't understand it. Sometimes I get extra characters after I
type my initials at the end of comments. Instead of "dtc," I've seen
"dtcc," for example, and I didn't type in the extra "c." In my above
comment I only typed "dtc." Somehow the posting software added the
tiny "tm" tag to my name today. Strange!

OK, let's see what happens this time. I'm only going to type "dtc,"
and I'll triple check it to make sure the cursor stops immediately
after the "c." (OK, it's not a big deal, but I'm curious!)

dtc?

Wow!

Dancethecon really knows his stuff!

Great stuff, Dancey.

Thanks for the compliment, Bryan. I've seen you comment in a few photo
threads. Are you an avid amateur photographer?

As I mentioned in one comment many months ago, I don't do much
photography these days. About five years ago I was able to change my
professional focus to your bailiwick, writing. I still do some
photography, but not much. That doesn't mean that I don't keep up with
it; I do.

Writing didn't come out of the blue. English was one of my majors (how
I got into full-time photography is a looooong story), and even when I
was doing photography and running my business, I wrote articles that
were published in various journals. Some years would be sparse--only
one or two, maybe--but other years I might do ten or so. Now I'm
writing novels and doing the occasional freelance editing job.

I do miss taking photos and teaching photography, so this spring I'd
like to take some friends who enjoy photography out for some casual
photo lesson trips.

dtc

Hi, dtc

I'm certainly not an 'avid' photographer but I've had a lifelong
interest and I try to keep up-to-date. At one stage, I had a lot of
Nikon kit, including a HUGE mirror lens.

I could certainly do with some of your lesson trips. I bet they'll be great fun.

Good luck!

Warmest regards

Bryan

Bryan,

I never owned one, but I've used mirror lenses. (As a working pro, I
had a couple sources that would loan me lenses that I needed only
rarely.) One shoot in particular was fun: I got to stand next to the
runway of a major US airport photographing passenger and cargo jets as
they took off and landed. I used an array of lenses for that job,
including a 500mm mirror lens.

Here's a photography web site you might like to explore:
http://www.photo.net

If you go to this page and click on the links in posts by Jay Hector,
you can see some car racing photos that Hector made with a mirror
lens:
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=006xJv

Best wishes,
dtc

This discussion on Canon lenses has been extremely helpful. Thanks for
all the tips. I have had a Canon Rebel for about 10 years and am
considering a Canon Rebel EOS digital. Can anyone tell me if it
advisable to use my old lenses, an EF 35-80mm, with it or should I buy
a new one?

BTW I'd have seen a so called 'fd to eos adapter' a sort of ring that
adapts from fd lenses to an eos body. If you type 'fd eos adapter'in
ebay for example (or in google) you'll find it, definitely.

BR Bob
 
PS On the otherhand, I realy don't know if there are any disadvantages.
- Do somebody know more about this?

As several folks have implied, lenses are generally the most expensive
part of any "camera system." I have an old Rebel G, the Digital Rebel,
and the 10D. As long as you have "EF" lenses, you can use them with
any of the newer Canon cameras. The only tricky things are there are
some "strictly for DSLR" lenses that Canon has come out with that can
only be used on specific models, such as the Digital Rebel and the
20D.

Hope this helps. And, if once you have your system put togeter, if
you're interested in checking out some photography tips on taking
better family photos, consider visiting
www.best-family-photography-tips.com.

Good luck