A friend from church has offered me for sale her old Canon manual focus lens now that I am getting a Canon 20d. She shoots with Nikon digital now and has no need for them. Will these work on my 20d?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Canon Lens Compatablity
- Thread starter Wes Jordan
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Wes Jordan said:
If it is a manual focus lens then it is likely to be based on the lens mount used by canon before they switched to the EOS EF mount. (The EOS EF mount was released in 1987.) The vast majority (probably all) of the consumer lenses released with the EOS mount were autofocus lenses -- with an optional manual focusing mode.
It is possible to get an adapter to mount the earlier lenses on an EOS EF mount, but it isn't worth the hassle. The older lenses don't have as much image coverage as the EOS EF mount lenses which results in dark corners with many of the lenses. In addition, since the older lenses relied on mechanical apeture control the camera body is not able to open and close the apeture. The result is that you must manually open the apeture to take a light reading, then manually close down the apeture and set the exposure manually on the camera before taking a picture. So ultimately it is not worth the hassle.
Wes Jordan said:
No, not at all. The Canon digital camera use the EOS system which was introduced for auto-focus film cameras.
I'll bet it's that switch in lens mounts that got her mad enough at Canon to drop them and go with Nikon. Back when all the companies were switching over to autofocus only Nikon did not change mounts. So Long time Nikon users did not have all their lens become obsolete with the switch. I'm sure Canon learned something and now the EOS lens work with digital they are not so dumb as to loose their customer base again.
On the other hand my 1970's vintage Nikon Lenses mount on my new Nikon DSLR. and the new Nikon optics mount on my 70's vintage film body with some exceptions
But do NOT discount film and manual focus. Let's say you go on a long backpacking trip. How would you re-charge the 20D battery? and film still has better quality then most DSLR cameras. My old camera will still work even with no battery installed. If she has an old Canon and a set of good Canon Prime lenses then you can actually do better quality work with then than with the 20D but you have to wait to process the film and (likely) scan it to digital files.
ChrisA said:
Pretty funny...how did you know I would be backpacking in Denali this summer? That is very true but I was hoping to afford a battery grip (yeah right and in addition to a 70-200 f/4L) and then buy a huge pack of AAs because I hear the 20d sucks the life out of AAs real quick.
It keeps going... and going... and going...
Buy the energizer lithium AA's (silver with blue writing) they last a crazy long time in most applications. (and the lithium battery seems a bit lighter that regular alkalines).Wes Jordan said: