FD Lens Convertors

Puffingbilly · 29 Mar 2006 at 13:29

Hi

I was wondering if any of you guys have ever used one of these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Canon-AF-...604598804QQcategoryZ30033QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I have a couple of FD lenese for my old Canon A1 and was wondering weather it's worth trying them on my 20d

Cheers Puff

Sleepyd · 29 Mar 2006 at 17:14

Which lenses do you have?

I believe those FD converters have glass in them - as a result of that you lose quality and you lose a stop or more, so unless you have really good FD glass then it's not worth missing AF, smaller f-stops and quality in my view.

Puffingbilly · 29 Mar 2006 at 17:41

I have an 85mm 1.8 SSC & 50mm 1.4 SSC that i would't mind trying but maybe it's not worth the hassell

Just a thought though seems a shame to not use them

wez130 · 29 Mar 2006 at 17:54

i've got the converter, but have yet to use it as i have no lenses heh, i keep meaning to pick a couple of cheap ones up.

Alex53 · 30 Mar 2006 at 15:36

I've looked at this before and ended up deciding I'd rather save up for the EF lenses I wanted.

The really good FD lenses are not so much cheaper that its worth losing AF, not because MF isn't fine, but because unless you have a 1 series or a 5D its not easy to MF through a small, dim viewfinder designed for AF.

I remember having a look through an old MF Canon camera with its bright, huge viewfinder with a split screen to help you focus and realising how much our new cameras depend on AF.

You might aswell pick up and old film body for peanuts and use the FD lenses on that. Your digital camera can be a useful meter and preview tool to use alongside your film camera. I know a good medium format landscape photographer whose way of embracing digital was precisely that. Digital might not offer him what he needs in terms of a huge negative with loads of detail and quality, but he still carries a 20D and shoots it alongside the medium format. The info the digital body saves him wasting film and having a better idea of what he will get when he develops the film, and lets him enjoy photography that bit more with immediate results as well as the traditional ones.