Newbe has question on lens

[ChasDennis]

I am really new to photography. My question is if I buy a good canon lens for my Canon rebel XSI camera. Do I have to stay with canon bodies? or can the canon lens work on a nikon bodies?

Thanks

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by ChasDennis

I am really new to photography. My question is if I buy a good canon lens for my Canon rebel XSI camera. Do I have to stay with canon bodies? or can the canon lens work on a nikon bodies?

Thanks

There are adapters for that purpose, but I couldn't give you specifics. I think you are somewhat committed to the investment in a platform, but that should not keep you from considering a change. We (my wife and I) started with Canon (for many years) and made the switch to Nikon a few years ago..so we shoot with both

[OsmosisStudios]

You cant get a Canon lens onto a Nikon body, but you can get a Canon lens onto a Nikon body with a simple adaptor.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by ChasDennis

I am really new to photography. My question is if I buy a good canon lens for my Canon rebel XSI camera. Do I have to stay with canon bodies? or can the canon lens work on a nikon bodies?

For the most part, no. The mounts are physically different, as well as having different electronic communication protocols.

Nikon lenses can be physically made to match the Canon EOS mount with an adapter ring, but there will be no electronic communication between the lens and body. (You can't go the other way around, because you'd have to make the mount on the Nikon shallower. It's easy to add to the mount with a ring, but reducing from the mount typically means replacing the lens's mount, or adding a glass element in an adapter to act like a teleconverter if you want the lens to focus to infinity). And with Nikon lenses, G lenses take a bit more to adapt to Canon EOS, since you have to add some form of aperture control, since the lens doesn't have a manual aperture ring.

Also, because of the lack of electronic communication, adapting a Nikon lens to work on Canon EOS with a dSLR is not the same as using a Nikon lens on a Nikon body. You will not have autofocus. You will not have aperture control from the body. You will not have wide-open metering. Your EXIF will have missing lens information (focal length, aperture used, etc.). And you can only shoot with the camera in Av or M mode, because the body cannot adjust the aperture in the lens.

If you're an oldtime film shooter who's used to shooting with manual lenses, this actually isn't that big of a deal, but it might be more than you'd want to deal with if you're a newbie to SLRs. Still, it is one way to share glass between a Nikon and Canon dSLRs. I know of some manual lens shooters who buy Zeiss lenses in the Nikon ZF versions, so they can use it with both systems because they can always slap an F -> EOS ring on it.