Old lens on new camera?

[Baardmans]

Hallo all,
A question for the people with photographing expertise.
As I want to enter GB's and SIG's in the future I thought of upgrading my old camera.
It is a Canon EOS1000 with film so museum worthy.
My only digital camera is on my stupid phone and not so good.
Because I have a good lens on my old camera I was thinking to get a digital Canon.
But can I still use the old lens on the new digital Canon?

[FabianAUT]

Usually yes. If you get a digital canon the camera will have the same mount for the lens than your old one.
Sometimes old lenses provide very good quality and even some pro photographers swear on them. ( quote" They dont build lenses like that anymore" ) And in most cases "old glass" has much better optics than the newer cheap kit lenses.

The only thing you have to deal with ( depending on what lens you have and what camera you get ) is that you most likely have to focus manually.

May i ask what lens it is?

greetz

[Baardmans]

Thanks Fabian,
The lens is just a Canon lens 35-75mm 1:3.5-4.5 with manual and auto-focus nothing fancy.
Just read it of the lens I can't find the box anymore. It isn't a standard lens I know I paid a lot extra back then.
I remember playing with extreme closeup when I first got it about 2 decades ago and those pics where very sharp and colorful.
And that is handy in our hobby.

[CJSomerset]

I'm not a Canon buff, so I can't be sure. But I reckon you should be fine fitting your lens onto a newer camera. Only thing is (depending what body you buy) the focal length may change a bit. Also if you buy new, it will probably come bundled with a similar lens anyway.

[FabianAUT]

Im sorry Baardmans but it looks like a made a mistake there. Im a Nikon user and i never had any problems using old lenses.
But i had a closer look at Canons lenses and it looks like Canon did change their mount...

You could still use your old lens but you will need something called an FD lens to EOS adapter.
Have a look at this Video, it should explain most things:

Again, sorry about the misinformation!

[Joker56]

Hi Bert
you should be able to use the lens but Canon now have several lense mounts , to memory as follows FD , EF & EFS , they are not all interchangeable, you will need to confirm when you purchase your camera , I made the mistake of selling my FD lenses before I moved to the Far East , which meant I had no lenses for my Canon Eos 1 NRS ,only for my Eos 550 D . Hope this helps mate.

Peter

[Baardmans]

Thanks everybody!
Especially the youtube film from Fabian made it a lot more understandable.
I will most likely need the adapter to fit the lens on the new body en then go manual.
I will take the camera with me to the store and hopefully they have the adapters at hand.
That way I can see right away how and if they work together.

[pmarshall]

From the sound of it you've got an autofocus EOS 1000 - this will be using the EF mount.

Putting that on an EOS Digital will work ( EF lenses work on EF-S mount cameras but EF-S mount lenses won't fit on EF mount), however unless you buy one of the Full Frame sensor cameras you will experience a 1.6x Focal length multiplier ( i.e. a 50mm EF lens works as an 80mm lens ).

You will find the new camera will most likely come with a kit 18-55mm lens, which is pretty similar to the original lens anyway ( but will work as the equivalent of a 28-80 ), and you can probably try your old lens too.

HTH

[TonyCnyc]

Hi Bert, if your old film camera is an "EOS", any of its Canon brand lenses should work fine any any current Canon EOS digital SLR. They both use the same mount. The "FD" mount mention before was their mount prior to going to auto-focus EOS line back in the mid-80s. The "EF-S" refers to their EF 'short' lenses made specifically for their crop sensor digital cameras; those do not physically mount on their old film cameras or current full frame digital SLRs. Keep in mind that most Canon DSLRs like the Rebel/Kiss line have crop sensors, meaning the imaging sensor area is smaller than the normal 35mm film frame. This give an effective 1.6x magnification relative to your EOS 1000; approximately 56-112mm. Which for closeups of your models is not a bad thing necessarily. But if you buy a new DSLR, more than likely they come bundled with a kit lens anyway. You might find the kit lens would fit your needs as well.

[Baardmans]

Thank you Tony and Pmarshall,
I looked again an it is indeed an EF-lens so it will fit. ( I did not know what it meant, I do now though)
I never spent much time photographing so much is new to me but not having a film will make it that much easier.
Time to watch out for when one is "on sale" here.
Cheers mates!