Old 35mm Lenses on a Rebel XSi

[Trenshy]

I found 2 telephoto and 1 wide angle lenses from an old 35mm canon. I've been reading that some old lenses work well on new DSLRs.

Anyone know where to find an adapter or how to make the lenses fit?

I have a Canon Rebel EOS XSi.

Thanks!

 

[Derrel]

Canon autofocusing cameras will NOT work with older, manual focus Canon 35mm lenses. Canon autofocusing cameras will work with 7 types of 35mm lenses, like Nikon F mount, UNiversal Thread mount,m Olympus OM, Yashica/Contax,and a few others like Leica R lenses, but will not work with Canon manual focusing lenses.

Canon manual focusing lenses for their "old" cameras are pretty much orphans these days. They CAN be used in reverse-mounted mode for macro shots, however.

 

[Trenshy]

Canon autofocusing cameras will NOT work with older, manual focus Canon 35mm lenses. Canon autofocusing cameras will work with 7 types of 35mm lenses, like Nikon F mount, UNiversal Thread mount,m Olympus OM, Yashica/Contax,and a few others like Leica R lenses, but will not work with Canon manual focusing lenses.

Canon manual focusing lenses for their "old" cameras are pretty much orphans these days. They CAN be used in reverse-mounted mode for macro shots, however.

Gotcha. It was worth a try. When I found them I thought I struck gold
Thanks tho

 

[Big Mike]

If they are Canon EF (autofocus) lenses, then they will work just fine.

If they are Canon FD (manual focus) lenses, then they will not mount to the camera, and thus not work.

 

[bigtwinky]

Define old.

One of the reasons I went with Canon is that I found my mom's camera bag after she passed away and no one wanted it. I kept it in a closet and a few years later found it again. She had an older Canon film camera, from the mid to late 1990s. I took the lenses to a photo store and tried them on an XSI and they worked fine.

Turns out they weren't great lenses and have been since replaced, but I had no issues with using them (other than my skill).

Dont quote me but I think the date that Canon switched to a different mounting system was 1987 or so.

 

[Diamond Dave]

Almost any lens will work on almost any camera with the right adapter. :mrgreen:

It may not (and most likely won't) autofocus, though.

Oh yeah--you can buy adapters anywhere--B and H, adorama, Amazon, if you know for sure what the two mounts you are mating are.

 

[icassell]

Almost any lens will work on almost any camera with the right adapter. :mrgreen:

It may not (and most likely won't) autofocus, though.

Many will not be able to focus to infinity, though.

 

[Overread]

depends on the adaptor - the bare (no glass) sort might remove infinity focus as the lens has to move away from the camera by a small amount. However there are many which have glass elements in which restore infinity focus

 

[RyanLilly]

depends on the adaptor - the bare (no glass) sort might remove infinity focus as the lens has to move away from the camera by a small amount. However there are many which have glass elements in which restore infinity focus

But the glass elements can degrade image quality. Most of these adapters are probably pure crap, or really expensive. Now any of the ring adapters for the other lenses listed above that use no glass, can be had for about $5-10 on eBay.

 

[Overread]

So can UV filters but people still use them and get good shots

Its the sort of thing though that really needs someone with experience to have tested though. I know quite a lot of people dismiss the Raynox Diopters because they only cost around £40-50ish (and even cheaper when sold on sale) and yet in a recent test a lens setup using a Raynox diopter has been shown to be superior to the canon MPE for high magnification photography.

 

[RyanLilly]

Very good points, I'm sure there are some good adapters out there, but with the majority of them coming from no-name brand Chinese manufacturers, some reviews from qualified people would be needed. There are defiantly some cheap lenses and adapters out there that actually have quite good optical quality. I found several no name M42 lenses on ebay (135mm, 28, and 50mm all 2.8) that turned out to be pretty good, and it was worth a chance at $20 total. Also most of the glass-free adapters that I have used are built very solid, and the overall quality is good.

There are gems to be had for sure, but buyer be ware.

 

[usayit]

Very good points, I'm sure there are some good adapters out there, but with the majority of them coming from no-name brand Chinese manufacturers, some reviews from qualified people would be needed.

You are missing one point. Adapting old (FD/FL) lenses to an EOS camera is much more complicated than simply mounting it via an adapter. The problem is the flange distance of the FD/FL mount (42mm) versus the EF (EOS) mount (44mm). Its not the quality of the adapter.. its how to maintain infinity focus via the proper flange distance. If the lens mount's flange distance is shorter than the camera body mount, optics are required to compensate.

Adapting M42 mounts is quite easy since the flange distance for the M42 mount is 45.5mm compared to the EF/EOS mount's 44mm. All you need is an adapter with the proper attachment points that places the lens 1.5mm further from the film plane.

Lens mount - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This is the reason why m4/3rd mount cameras are one of the most adaptable. Their flange distance is only 20mm which is of great interest to rangefinder shooters that have lenses designed with flange distances in the 20's.

 

[RyanLilly]

To clarify, I meant that adapters with an optical element can be used to maintain infinity focus, but such adapters are generally regarded to have poor image quality.

Different people have different opinions about image quality, so there may be acceptable products to satisfy some people, but for must the results are not worth the cost and efforts.

Alternately, in the interest of using inexpensive vintage lenses, you could dump the FD lenses, and find some of the plethora of lenses that can be used with simple, optics-free adapters.