Old FD lens to EOS? Or is it nor worth it?

[CapturingLife]

Hello ya'll DPSers!
I'm so sorry if you're sick of hearing from me. *blushes* I'm a lurker and read a lot, especially whenever I have a question about photography, I just search it up here. But I don't seem to find an answer for this in the search box today. :-?

I just found a box with my mum's old Canon FD 50mm 1:1.8 lens in EXCELLENT condition. (She had a Canon AE-1 Program camera, which I now have for decoration in my room, and this was one of her lenses. -I also have her 80-200mm lens, but it's in bad condition. It's up on the shelf for decoration too)

I just bought a Canon Rebel XS -EOS 1000D- and had really wanted to get a 50mm lens soon anyway, so this find was thrilling. I did some Google searches and I read that I can use an adapter for the FD lens to my EOS body... but I want to know exactly what sort of adapter is the best option, and where is the best place to buy it, and how much am I looking at to spend on this?

Is the quality going to be as good, or at least comparable?
If I invest in an adapter, is it good to start looking at other old FD lenses to use on my new EOS? Or is the adapter not even worth it and I should just put the FD 50mm on the shelf with the others?

Thank you SO SO SO SO SO much!
~Capturing Life
(Danica)

[Doug Pardee]

The simple answer is: don't bother.

EOS adapters for FD lenses generally give poor results. They tend to be not quite so bad on telephoto lenses, and Canon did make a professional-grade adapter for some of it's long L lenses that worked nicely except it will cost you about $1000 if you can even find one for sale (and it won't work on the 50mm lens).

An EF 50mm f/1.8 won't cost you much more than an adapter, and will give you autofocus and much better quality photos.

The FD lenses are only of use on the old Canon film SLRs that were designed for them, and on the new Micro-4/3 mount DSLRs from Olympus and Panasonic. On micro-4/3, they can be used with an adapter that doesn't have any [cheap] glass in it.

Here's a photo one person made with an FD 50mm f/1.8 on an EOS adapter:

[OsmosisStudios]

Inkista will be better at this, but from what I know...

You can get Adaptors or you can get it re-mounted. With adaptors you need an FD -> EOS adaptor, and they usually (always?) have a glass element in them to allow them to focus to infinity. Sadly, this robs them of image quality.

Re-mounting the lenses is considerably more costly (almost the cost of a new 50mm f/1.8!) but does a better job: certain people have gotten into the business of taking the FD mounts off FD lenses and replacing them with EOS mounts. It's not 100% (no metering, manual aperture, etc), but it does get you the same quality. A friend of mine uses an old FD 50mm f/1.4 in this fashion: it cost him ~$75 to get it re-mounted.

[inkista]

Given that the EF 50mm f/1.8 II is about $100, it's not worth it.

Generally, the FD->EOS adapters act like teleconverters, and will reduce your sharpness and max. aperture, and will add to the focal length. Some FD lenses can be remounted if the rear element doesn't go too far into the body, but most of them can't, and it's typically not worth it unless a) the lens was an L, or b) you like messing about with machining new parts and glass elements as a hobby.

The main problem is that the mount flange-to-sensor/film plane distance of the FD mount is smaller than that of the EOS mount. So, physically, the lens needs to sit closer to the back of the camera than it can (you can't shove the lens further into the body than the mount area with an adapter ring) to achieve infinity focus.

Also, the EF 50 f/1.8 II will give you autofocus and wide-open metering, while the FD 50/1.8 won't. It's worth the cost of the EF to have those features for most people.

[CapturingLife]

SOrry I didn't reply earlier! It's been crazy and hectic here for the start of the Holiday season.

Thank you one and ALL! I really appreciate it, though I am slightly disappointed that I can't use my mum's old lenses for my new camera. That would have been too much fun, and she would have really enjoyed it.

I'll just invest in an EF 50mm. Does it make a difference if I buy Canon brand, or an off brand? Does the Canon's work better? (I'm just curious. I am a Canon girl and am thinking I'd rather just spend a little extra and get the brand name. But I don't know if it's a must)

Thanks again!!! You all saved me from a LOT of frustration!

[OsmosisStudios]

Different lenses act differently.

The Canon 50 f/1.8 is a nice lens, though I've found the bokeh to be rather harsh. It's also almost 100% plastic, which to me is a deal breaker.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by CapturingLife

Does it make a difference if I buy Canon brand, or an off brand? Does the Canon's work better?...

Depends on the lens. For a 50mm f/1.8, probably not. For normal-on-a-crop, the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 is probably a better lens, but it costs four times as much. :^). So, the short answer is "it depends."

When you go for a third-party lens, the biggest difference between it and a Canon lens is where future compatibility with the EOS mount is concerned. Canon will (hopefully) make sure that any tweaks they do to the camera mount for new features will not cause their old lenses to stop working. [Obviously, they didn't do this when they went from FD/FL to EOS]. But they have no such obligation when it comes to other brands's lenses.

Sigma/Tamron/Tokina/etc. lenses may require rechipping if the EOS mount's electronic signalling changes. So, be careful if you're looking at older used 3rd party lenses to make sure they work on the dSLR body you have. Any ones you buy new are going to be compatible with the current mount, but may in future require rechipping. The likelihood of this is rather low, but it does exist.