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General discussion

Compatibility with Canon FD lens

by saycheez Jun 14, 2008 3:39AM PDT

I have inherited an old SLR camera "Canon AE-1 Program" and two lenses "Canon FD 135mm/3.5" & "50mm" with it.
Can I use these lenses on any newer digital SLR's from Canon?

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

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Unfortunately

by kalel33-20416052469708587370302374692233 Jun 14, 2008 6:55AM PDT

the quick answer is ... no - FD lenses can't easily be used on EOS

The more complicated answer is that FD lenses can be used but either the image quality suffers or there are other drawbacks.
Canon did once make a good optical type adapter for using FD lenses on EOS but it only works on certain tele lenses plus it is VERY expensive .Figure on at least us$600 2nd hand !!!Added to that it does degrade optical quality very slightly (allthough it helps that it only fits some of the very best professional lenses)

There are cheapo adapters available on ebay (about us$40) to use allmost any FD lens on EOS but because they need to have built-in corrective optics they aren't really worth using -the image quality is not very good.

There are also simple (non optical) adapters that allow you to use FD lenses on EOS -BUT- these are only uasable for close up macro work.It's impossible to focus to any usable distance at all

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Old FD lenses are not applicable to

by jump1127 Jun 14, 2008 9:52PM PDT

new Canon DSLR. I'd suggest that you change the lense to newer EF lenses for any new Canon DSLR camera.

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