Adapater needed?

[AthrunXT]

I want to buy my father a Canon zoom lens for Christmas and he has a Canon AE 1 Programmer from like the 70's or something. I was wondering if the current zoom lenses will fit on his camera of if I will need an adapter.

[Belmondo]

Yours is just the opposite request of what we usually see. So many people have new EOS cameras, but want to use some of the very fine FD-mount lenses that are still floating aorund. They are what an AE-1 would use.

My suggestion would be to look around for high quality used FD lenses. There are lots of them, and a good place to start looking might be KEH
http://www.keh.com/shop/product.cfm?bid=CA&cid=06&sid=newused&crid=12516238

One problem in using an adapter to use a new auto-focus lens on an older body is that it if it worked at all, you would have to use it in fully manual mode. None of the automatic features of the AE-1 Program would work with EF lenses.

In any event, the newer lenses will not fit older bodies. I would really recommend against it, even if an adapter exists (and I'm not sure it does.)

[rklepper]

FD lenses also tend to be much less expensive than the EF lenses.

[Andy_T]

With the number of people selling off their old gear to move to digital, eBay might be really the way to go here.

Especially if you are looking for L lenses (e.g. 135/2.0 L, 85/1.2 L) that are quite expensive in the EOS system, but not so expensive for FD, as they can not be used on the EOS system.

Best regards,
Andy