Info needed about EF Lenses & the 10D

[Meerkat17]

Hello all,
I've been reading more and more about the 10D and like what I read. Also, I've seen the results of many of the shots submitted to this forum - the G5 I have, has got me back into photography and I love the camera but I'm wanting more of the things which it can't give me.

The questions I want to ask are :

I already have an EOS 1000F SLR and a couple of Canon EF lenses - Are these lenses going to work OK with the EOS 10D?

The reason I ask is simply, on many the lenses I see advertised they are saying "designed specially for the digital camera" can someone clarify this for me?

Thanks in advance, regards.

David

[Belmondo]

Yes, they will work. The only lens in the EF lineup that won't fit a 10D is the kit lens from the Rebel. It reaches too deeply into the body and interferes with the mirror.

[Jon]

They'll work fine.

"Designed for the digital camera" can mean any number of things, from that the optics are optimized to work with the sensor of a digital camera, to the optics are optimized to cover the sensor of a digital camera.

The cells on a digicam's sensor will respond best if the light comes directly in at as close to right angles as makes no difference. Some lenses may be designed to give exit rays this optimal path. That'd be "optimized to work with the sensor". These lenses would also work just fine on film. That's good.

The sensor on most digital cameras is smaller than a 35 mm. frame. So a lens designed for a digital camera doesn't have to be designed to cover as large an area - which makes design cheaper and easier. That'd be "optimized to cover the sensor". These lenses wouldn't fill the frame on a 35 mm. camera, so you'd get what looked like severe vignetting out of the lens. That's bad.

[GPR1]

EF lenses will work fine with the 10D. The kit lens with the DRebel is designed for the smaller imaging sensor in the DRebel (and 10D, they share the same sensor). It has a smaller image area than 35mm film. If you use the kit lens on a 35mm film camera you'll get vignetting at the corners. When you use regular EF lenses with the 10D you just use the center part of the lenses image. A happy consequence of that is the center portion is generally where the lens is sharpest, so you get the best out of each lens.

Enjoy the 10D. I have one as well, and love it.

Greg

[Jesper]

The great thing with the Canon EOS system is that every Canon EF lens works on every EOS camera*. So your old Canon EF lenses will work on your 10D without a problem.

The "designed for a digital camera" means something different with different lens manufacturers. Nikon has a number of "DX" lenses for their cameras, which only work on their DSLR's that have a 1.5x crop factor. Sigma has a number of "DC" lenses, which, similarly to the Nikon DX lenses, only work on digital SLR cameras with a 1.5x or 1.6x crop factor.

Canon also sometimes mentions "designed specifically for digital EOS cameras". Contrary to Nikon and Sigma, that doesn't mean you can only use those lenses on digital EOS cameras - they work equally well on EOS film cameras. The thing is here that Canon designed the lenses in such a way that internal reflections etc. are minimized so that these lenses work particularly well on digital EOS cameras (I don't know the exact details...).

*: One exception, the EF-S 18-55mm kit lens that comes with the Digital Rebel only works on the Digital Rebel, but you can't even buy it separately.

[Meerkat17]

Thanks everyone for the quick response - looks like I'll be joining the 10D guys very shortly! :lol:

David

[DocFrankenstein]

Does anybody know what the "designed for digital" means on the pack of Sigma 70-200 f2.8 ex?

[Jesper]

Does anybody know what the "designed for digital" means on the pack of Sigma 70-200 f2.8 ex?

Since it isn't a "DC" lens, it's not a lens with a reduced image circle (i.e. a lens which can only be used on an 1.5x or 1.6x crop factor camera). Probably it means the same as what Canon means when they use these terms (see my explanation above).

By the way, the Sigma website doesn't say anything about "designed for digital" on the lens description page (http://www.sigmaphoto.com/html/zoom_intro.htm).

[DocFrankenstein]

It's a star shaped sticker on the box "compatible with digital cameras"

[Jon]

It's a star shaped sticker on the box "compatible with digital cameras"

Means it passes the photons needed to activate a CCD/CMOS sensor as well as those needed to affect silver halide. No, wait, those are the same photons! It's a marketing ploy.