FD 50mm 1.8 lens on EOS.

[EdNeely]

Hey,

I have purchased a 50mm f/1.8 FD lens for my Canon 500D/T1i.
Naively, i assumed the adapters would be easy, cheap and simple to achieve what would be achieved on the old film cameras and after researching more i have realized that this is probably not the best idea.
The concept of being able to adjust the aperture manually and no AF seemed attractive because i like to use the movie function a lot and with the EF lens, it is fixed to f5.6, plus it is much cheaper!

If someone could tell me what i need to do to correct this horrendous error i have made, that would be great.

Is there anything i can buy for it? Or should i simply put the lens back on ebay and put up with the EF.

Thanks in advance,

Ed

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by EdNeely

.
The concept of being able to adjust the aperture manually and no AF seemed attractive because i like to use the movie function a lot and with the EF lens, it is fixed to f5.6, plus it is much cheaper!

What EF lens are you using?

The FD lenses *can* be adapted to the EF mount: you need adaptors that use a glass element (and are therefore not much good) or you can have the physical mount changed (expensive!). If you've got a real cherry lens, then get the mount swapped and enjoy. For a run-of-the-mill 50/1.8, dont bother.

[inkista]

Right idea. Wrong mount system. If you can return the FD lens, do it. The main mistake you made was assuming Canon manual lenses would be the best fit for Canon EOS. They're not. The mount flange-to-image-plane distance changed when Canon went to EOS. The old FD/FL mount's thinner than the EOS mount. So, to have the lens achieve focus to infinity, you either have to jam the lens farther in than the mount goes, or use an adapter that acts like a small teleconverter to get the focal length farther away from the image plane. And the cheaper that adapter is, the worse the image quality of the glass will be.

Get a Contax-Yashica mount Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.7 instead. Or if you really have no money, the OM-mount Zuiko 50mm f/1.8.

The six lens mounts that can be adapted to Canon EOS with simple adapter rings (i.e., that are thicker than the EOS mount) are M42 (aka Pentax screwmount), Pentax-K, Nikon F, Olympus OM, Contax/Yashica, and Leica R. You want to avoid Canon FD/FL and Minolta MD/MC. You definitely want to get a lens that has an aperture ring on it, otherwise you'll have no way to control the aperture.

And, if you can afford it, getting the lens modded to remove the stop-clicks on the aperture, and to add a gear-toothed ring on the focus ring might be worth it.

You do need to understand that using photo lenses for video is a big compromise, particularly when it comes to zooming and focusing.

And no, you do not want a manual lens for a "fixed" f/5.6 aperture. You want it for the focus "throw" of the manual focus ring. It's much larger and more precise than what you'll get on an autofocus lens.

Using a manual lens can be a royal PITA. You have no autofocus, and no way to control the aperture from the camera body. You have to use stop-down metering. And you're limited to the M and Av shooting modes, since your camera cannot control the lens's aperture setting. Also, you'll have holes in the EXIF information where the lens info goes (focal length, aperture, max. aperture, etc.)

Honestly, unless you're planning on using your dSLR for nothing but video, it's probably better to just get the EF 50mm f/1.8 II.