Old Cannon FD lenses on new SLR digital cameras?

Question

I have several FD lenses for an old Cannon camera, and i want to upgrade to digital, is there a nice digital camera, moderately priced that i can use these lenses with? Either with an adapter or direct connection, I know i won't get autofocus, but I don't really want Autofocus, so a Digital without that option would be just as good as one with autofocus.

Answer 1

There are lens adapters out there, you should be able to find one from sites like http://www.adorama.com or Ebay with a simple search for "FD to EOS." These converters are, to put it simply, bad. You'll see a very significant decrease in quality that would give less-than-par results even with professional lenses. There's a converter that Canon made, but it only worked with some of their more professional "L" glass and it's extremely rare (and by extension, expensive). If you have a macro FD lens, you could buy an inexpensive FD to EOS adapter, pop the glass out, and you'd essentially have a small extension tube. Keep in mind, though, that these lens will not be able to focus to infinity with this modified adapter.

If you wanted to stay the cheap and manual focus route, you could buy some older Nikon lenses. A Nikon to EOS adapter is needed, of course, but these are quite cheap on Ebay (maybe $10 or so). Funny thing about older manual-focus Nikon lenses is that the older ones, especially those with non-AI designation, work better on consumer Canon DSLR's than consumer Nikon DSLR's. Metering will not work with non-AI on the consumer end of Nikon DSLR's (D40 series, D80) while all Canon EOS will be able to meter with the lenses in manual mode. Many of the older Nikon lenses have optical quality on par or better than the newer lenses that they offer. A few decades ago, SLR cameras and lenses were still more of the professional realm, and thus I think it's hard to find a bad manual focus Nikkor lens. A good half of the lenses that I shoot on my Canon are Nikon because, like you, autofocus is not a concern to me and I try to get the highest optical quality for the lowest price possible. If you were to want to sell your older FD lenses, you may be able to fetch some cash on Ebay, Craigslist, etc... and buy some older Nikon-mount lenses. Just a suggestion of course, I have some FD's on an AE-1 that I could never bring myself to part with. If you choose to keep your FD lenses*, you could still buy an adapter for cheap, it'll still be higher quality than no lens at all.

As for a camera, I usually recommend the EOS Rebel series unless you know why you'd need a higher-level camera. The Rebel XT, for instance, will yield professional-quality results in skilled hands. You'd be looking at about $400 or so for a new Rebel XT, and I honestly don't see many improvements that the newer Rebel XTi or XSi offer over the XT that justifies the price difference (Though with the XTi coming down in price, it's worth a consideration). If you'll be working in harsher conditions, the

*Which isn't a bad idea, film will yield higher resolution than virtually any 35mm-equivalent DSLR. Another option is to buy a mid-range film scanner that will convert your negatives to digital files. While you still have to pay for film, and developing if you don't do that yourself, you can get results that are even higher-resolution than the professional 35-mm equivalent DSLR's. Just another option.

Answer 2

no, the lense mount is different.

There may be a lense adapter out there, but I haven't found one yet.