Can you use the same lense on both a film and digital SLR?

Question

I have a Canon EOS Rebel Ti (film SLR) and I am thinking of buying a digital Rebel XTi or XT. I have two lenses that I use with my Rebel Ti, a 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III and a 28-90mm f/4-5.6 III. Would these two be compatible with the Rebel XTi or XT?

Answer 1

Yes,  as both use Canon's EOS lens mount sytem.

The only slight drawback will be the crop factor of the DSLR. This means your lenses wil have a narrower field of view.

http://photography.suite101.com/article....

The 28mm will now become about 45mm.

So the 18-55m kit lens is handy to get the same effective wide angle coverage you now enjoy.

Answer 2

The best answer to your question is.....  it all depends.   I have a Rebel digital and a Canon 10D.  Both use electronic auto focus lenses.   The Rebel will not accept the all the lenses I use for my 10D.   I found that out the frustrating way.   Silly me,  I thought they would and did not pay attention to the lenses I was carrying on a day of shooting.   We went out to the gulf to take shots of pelicans.  I had hoped to use my zoom lens to get some really nice shots.   After, getting my XTi loaded onto the tripod and ready to take pictures.... low and behold, I had an error message that the lens was not compatible.  The camera would not operate...period.   The other lens I had with me was a 28-80mm that did work, however not very well.   All the pelicans in my pictures looked more like specks of dust in the sky.   Let my bad experience help you in not getting lenses that will not work.   Take your camera with you to try out the new lens, or have the sales person show you on the box that the lens will absolutely be compatible with your Rebel.     That is my best advice.

Answer 3

It should be.  The lenses I had with my film Rebel work just fine with my Rebel XT.

Answer 4

Yes, but remember that you have to use the full size lenses, or else they will show vignetting (corner cropping) on the film camera.

Also keep in mind, that digital Rebel has 1.6x magnification factor due to smaller sensor size. Because of this your 28-90mm lens will become an equivalent of 45-144 and your 75-300 will work as 120-480 when mounted on digital. This may be a good thing if you like long telephoto, but you will lose the wide angle benefit of your shorter lens.

So you may consider getting the digital rebel with 18-55mm kit lens, which will perform like 28-80, but it will not work with your film body (it will mount, but it will show vignetting).

LEM.