Stupid question (fd to EOS adpater?)

[Whaler]

:o . . . . . and it's probably been discussed. Will an older Canon FD lens work on a newer Canon digital body? If so how? In manual mode, would I set the aperature on the lens and adjust the shutter speed according to the view finder meter reading .

[Eric DeCastro]

no, I heard of making an adapter or buying one, but not all lens'es will work that way. some physically won't fit the rear element. but there is an answer, maybe someone has a link to the site that showed how to do it.

[ssim]

Some lenses will but everything is manual. There were a few pure Canon made adapters but these are very hard to come by from what I hear. There are some third party adapters available but I think you'll really have to hunt for them.

Try belmondo, I think he went through this with a 600 he bought.

[Belmondo]

Try belmondo, I think he went through this with a 600 he bought.

That I did, and this isn't a stupid question. There are some great FD lenses out there, and they're getting cheaper.

There are generally two different FD-EOS converters available. There is a generic unit that you can buy almost everywhere for less than $100. There is a Canon-built FD-EOS converter that you will occasionally find used and on eBay, and it sells for $500 or more.

Because of the design of the lenses/adapters, the FD lens cannot sit deeply enough into an EOS body to achieve infinity focus, The cheap converters do nothing to correct this, so you will not be able to use an FD lens for long shots. The Canon converter corrects this problem optically, but actually magnifies the image by 26% in so doing. Effectively, it becomes a 1.26X teleconverter.

The generic (cheap) converter will work with almost any FD lens with the limitations described above. The Canon converter will only work with certain FD telephotos because it has a protruding element much like the current 1.4 and 2.0X teleconverters. Any lens that has a flush rear element and does not have a recess in the back of the lens to acommodate the protruding element, won't work with it.

Optically, it seems to work just so so. I've taken some shots with the Canon converter and the FD 600mm f/4.5 lens on my 1D MkII with really spotty results. Even though I now have the ability to focus to infinity, the best results appear to be at closer distances.

The cheap converter would be a fun way to play with some really good old FD lenses. Just understand before you start, you're not going to be able to focus to infinity.

AS has already been mentioned, everything is manual, so get yourself a good meter.

[Whaler]

Wow! I'm glad I asked you guys. I saw this on flea-bay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3868155683&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT and had a crazy thought. Toooooo much trouble and money. I think I'll just wait and pick up the 135mm.