EF lenses for film Canons

[photonoobie]

Hi

Quick question - do EF lenses work on Canon film cameras? If so, since EF lenses don't have manual aperture rings, how is aperture controlled by the film camera when using the EF lens?

I have not done film SLR photography and am considering this.

Thanks

PN

[nicotine]

It depends on the film camera. If it's a Film camera from the 90's then it uses the EF mount, anything older than that probably uses the FD mount.

[photonoobie]

Originally Posted by nicotine

It depends on the film camera. If it's a Film camera from the 90's then it uses the EF mount, anything older than that probably uses the FD mount.

Thanks for that. Another one though, assuming I get a 90s Canon film SLR, does this mean they have the aperture dial on the body as per the dSLRs?

[nicotine]

Yeah I believe so. I have an old film Rebel and my dad has an A2E and both have similar controls to our dSLRs.

[photonoobie]

Ok thanks to the info -good to know!

[Swisstony10]

I have a Canon EOS-something film body, and a 400D which I upgraded to - both use the EF lens mount, so my lenses are all interchangeable, and both have the same exposure/aperture/program/manual controls..

Russ.

[daft_biker]

All Canon EF lenses fit all Canon EOS bodies. The aperture is controlled in the same way on both film and digital....from the body.

Canon EF-S lenses don't fit film cameras as EF-S lenses only fit on some DSLRs.

At the end that goes on the camera EF lenses have red dots and EF-S lenses have white dots. If both the camera and lens have red dots you're fine

[photonoobie]

Thanks guys, that's certainly cleared it up!

Does anyone find manual aperture controls beneficial to have on the lens?

[inkista]

Yes, it's good to have an aperture ring on a lens if you're adapting it from a different mount system and it has no way to talk to the camera--that way you still have a way to control the aperture.

For example, if you use an F-mount adapter ring to put a G-mount Nikon lens onto your Canon camera, the lens will physically mount, and you can shoot through it, but you can't control the aperture, since there's no aperture ring. With an F-mount lens, you can use the aperture ring.

I use adapter rings for Olympus OM and Contax lenses (and have used an adapter for a Nikon F-mount lens), and I have a cheap Russian (Hartblei) tilt-shift lens that all have aperture rings, and absolutely no communication with the body. I can shoot in M or Av modes only and must manually focus, because the camera can control the iso and shutter speed, but not the focus or the aperture of the lens.

The reason I use those lenses is because my Olympus OM is a 50mm f/1.2 I found for less than $300. The Contax lenses have Zeiss glass (again for <$300). And the tilt-shift was $400. To get similar glass in an EOS mount, each of those lenses would be well over $1k. I also shot in the days of film when you had to twirl the aperture ring and the focus ring for every shot, anyway, so it's not a big deal to me.

With the Canon EOS mount, you can adapt multiple mounts with adapter rings that don't have glass elements: Pentax K, Leica R, M42, Nikon F, Nikon G (special adapters required for the aperture ring problem), Contax-Yashica, and Olympus OM are all usable on EOS cameras. Just not Canon FD .

[photonoobie]

Thanks Inkista, nice to learn those facts. Do those cross manufacturer adapters affect IQ?