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What are some old 35mm lens that can be made to work on a DSLR?

S

SAWYER

Lifer
On my local craigslist there are always old SLR's and lens, but I really don't know what will or can be made to work on and XTi. Also what are some old lens that are great to buy if you come across?
 
If you have an XTi older Canon FD lenses will be very hard to get working. The Canon FD mount has a shorter flange focal distance, so any FD->EOS adaptor needs to have optics inside. Canon made a very expensive FD-->EOS adaptor for long tele lenses, but very few were made. You can get third party adaptors, but the quality variation is huge.

However, you can get simple mechanical adaptors that will allow other mounts to work on EOS. Nikon F, Pentax M42/K, Olympus OM, and some other older mounts will work on EOS. However, these lenses are completely manual, meaning you need to stop down and focus manually. Some adaptors have AF confirm contacts that will allow your XTi to show the AF confirm dot, but other than that almost everything must be done manually.
 
Originally posted by: Sawyer
Doesn't sound like it's worth it
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I don't think it is either.

What lens are you thinking of in particular? I would just spend a little more and get some a good used copy of a Canon EF prime like the 28mm f/1.8, 35mm f/2, 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8, or 100mm f/2 instead of bothering with old, MF lenses. You can find any of these lenses for less than $350 in mint condition.

With the exception of some expensive glass (Zeiss, Leica, etc), most older lenses don't perform better than newer ones, and the hassle of manually doing everything will annoy most people.
 
Too bad you don't have a Nikon. They can mount 50 years worth of lenses; lots of good deals on CL for older glass.

More info
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Too bad you don't have a Nikon. They can mount 50 years worth of lenses; lots of good deals on CL for older glass.

More info
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you can mount 50 years worth of nikons on canons too, and often with less potential trouble than on many common nikons! 😀 (the meter always works, for one thing, including aperture priority mode)
 
i love my takumar 50/1.4 on my canon... The quality smacks the 50/1.8 upside the head and more for only $60 (don't have SMC version tho) plus $20 for the AF confirm adapter.

It is a pain to use though. I will say that.
 
Originally posted by: ghostman
I had a Peleng 8mm fisheye lens at one point. It was a manual-everything lens and fun to use. Mounted on my XTi.
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It's easier to use a wide angle or fisheye lens manually than a normal or tele lens.

With a wide lens, you have so much DoF at just about any aperture that accurate focusing is not a necessity. However, with something like a fast prime, manual focusing is very hard without a split-prism focusing screen (which most DSLRs do not have by default).
 
Anything with a Canon EF mount or EF-S mount will work. Specifically lenses for Canon's "Rebel" line of film cameras, more than that exist of course, its the EF or EF-S mount that will work.
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Too bad you don't have a Nikon. They can mount 50 years worth of lenses; lots of good deals on CL for older glass.

More info
Click to expand...

Unless the camera is to new and the motor is not in the lens!
 
Originally posted by: Alyx
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Too bad you don't have a Nikon. They can mount 50 years worth of lenses; lots of good deals on CL for older glass.

More info
Click to expand...

Unless the camera is to new and the motor is not in the lens!
Click to expand...
Most older lenses are manual-focus; I assume that's what we're talking about.

The D40/D40x/D60 will not auto-focus with non-AFS lenses. But they can mount and use any Nikon F-mount lens, even non-AI lenses.
 
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