What is the Difference between lens types?

zeckdude

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What is the difference between a "L" Lens, a "EF" Lens, a "EF-S" Lens, an "AIS" Lens and any other lenses out there?
 
"L" is Canon's designation for their top of the line lenses. "EF", "EF-S", "AIS" all designate what camera bodies the lens is designed to work with. It's mainly refering to the lens mount, and what connections there are between the lens and body. Some cameras can use other types of lenses than the design they were intended to work with, but all features may not be functional.
 
As far as the Canon lenses go:

EF
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1](Electrofocus) [/SIZE][/FONT]is the 'standard' lens mount for Canon EOS camaras, 35mm and digital.

EF-S ([FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Electrofocus-[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Shorter back focus distance) [/SIZE][/FONT]is designed to fit 'crop sensor' Canon bodies (20D, 20D, 350D, 400D etc) but WILL NOT physically fit on a full frame (35mm) body. They give a smaller image circle to cover the smaller APS-C sensor. because of this they use smaller elements and they can be made slightly more cheaply.

As ksmattfish pointed out, the Canon 'L' range is their top-end 'luxury' lenses, usually weather sealed and built to last using very high quality (and expensive!) glass. Canon do not (yet) make any EF-S lenses with the 'L' badge, although some of them are of extremely high quality, such as the 10-22mm and the 17-55mm f/2.8.

The older 'FD' lenses will not fit the current Canon bodies without an adaptor, and because it contains a lens element this degrades the image ,and also you wont be able to focus to infinity.

Nikon lenses have come in lots of different varieties over the years, these links may give you an idea of the different types and what they will fit.

http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenstype.html

http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html
 

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