Using Canon FD Lenses with Canon EOS Film & Digital Cameras

Everyone is going digital! eBay is getting flooded with old Canon FD gear. Using a simple EF/FD adapter, you can use FD lenses on your EOS film or digital camera. Just remember; the sensors used on the 10D, 20D, 30D, 50D, and digital Rebels are smaller than 35mm format. EOS film and full-frame (35mm format) digital cameras use EF mount lenses, special EF-S mount lenses are designed for use with the smaller sensor. So, if you use an FD (or EF) mount lens on a camera designed to use EF-S lenses, what does that mean? Basically, that means a 1.6x crop factor. The film camera lens is designed to cover a 36mm x 24mm area (35mm format). Because of the smaller sensor on these cameras, this area will be "cropped" down to 22.5mm x 15.5mm. This changes the effective focal length of the FD (or EF) lens by a factor of 1.6x. For example, a 50mm lens becomes an 80mm lens (50mm x 1.6 = 80mm), a 70-210mm zoom lens becomes a 112-336mm zoom, etc. Of course, this becomes detrimental on the wide angle end as your 19mm fish-eye will get bumped up to a 30mm. Also note that FD lenses will not communicate at all with your EOS body so, you must focus and set exposure manually. If you're capable of doing this, you can find some very nice glass at rock-bottom prices!

Canon EOS 30D with Canon FD 50mm f/1.2 Lens using EF/FD adapter

Canon EOS 30D with Canon New FD 300mm f/4.0 using EF/FD adapter