DSLR for Canon FD Lenses?

[DanPatrick]

The lens registration distance for Canon FD lenses is 42mm.  Is there any 6+MB DSLR body made that will accept these older Canon lenses?

Thanks, Dan

[Jonathan Wienke]

Nope. And there probably won't be.

[DanPatrick]

Dang!  I have a beautiful 2.8 300mm FD lens that is just crying for a digi body.  Dan

[Jonathan Wienke]

Canon switched from FD to EF to allow electronic control of the lens rather than mechanical control. The odds of a DSLR being built with a mechanical lens control interface rather than electronic are only slightly better than the odds of pigs flying.

[Ben Rubinstein]

Technically if you were to throw a pig into the air then it could 'fly' for a second or so. Canon will NEVER support it's FD lenses. Shame really, the Canon A1 was a superb camera, the only body I ever really loved, and the FD lenses are selling at silly prices at the moment. My brother gave me his AE-1P with 50mm to sell on ebay. I'll be lucky to get £25 for an excellent, fully working camera.

[DanPatrick]

Thing is, I've accepted that Canon won't ever have a body that will take FD lenses.  My question is, is there ANY other DSLR body that will, even if everything is manual?  My 2.8 300 would take many thousands to duplicate for my Canon DSLR.  If there were another make body whose lens registration distance would permit using the old FD lens, even manual all the way, it might be worth it financially to buy one, just for that lens.  It's the lens that takes the picture, not the body. And that's one of the finest lenses I've ever shot through.  Dan

[Jonathan Wienke]

The answer is still no, for all the same reasons, but more so.

[Ben Rubinstein]

The lens regestration of FD lenses is shorter than any current SLR on the market. To accomodate FD lenses without an optical covertor would entale a completely new design of camera from the bottom up. It's just not going to happen, ever.

[DanPatrick]

Hey, you can't blame a guy for trying!  Dan

[francois]

Dan,
Have you seen this adapter.

Here's the description:
This adapter allows for Canon FD and FL type lenses to be mounted onto a Canon EOS body.

Unlike other simple mount adapters, this is an optical adapter which is actually at the same time also a short teleconverter, which increases the focal lenght by a factor of 1.25x, and reduces the lens aperture by approx. one f/stop. This adapter allows for focusing at infinity.

Francois

[francois]

After more investigation it looks like Canon offered an adapter for FD lenses on EOS mount. Kiev Camera also offers an adpater and at $57.00 it is cheaper than the Hama on B&H website.

HTH,
Francois

[Willowroot]

What's the mount-to-sensor distance of the Olympus DSLRs?  Cameraquest has mount adapters for most manual lenses to the Olympus but not FD ...

[DanPatrick]

The problem with any of those adaptors, unfortunately, is that they introduce optics into the mix.  And it's the pure optical excellence of the 2.8 300mm that is so desirable.  I'm afraid that might be affected.  Oh,well... Dan

[Jonathan Wienke]

Any FD > EF adapter will either add optics (usually crappy) to the mix or else cost you infinity focus.

[BJL]

What's the mount-to-sensor distance of the Olympus DSLRs?  Cameraquest has mount adapters for most manual lenses to the Olympus but not FD ...

A: The Olympus Four Thirds lens registration distance is less than 42mm! About 38mm I believe.

The good news is that this makes it capable of using just about any 35mm film format SLR lens incuding FD with an adaptor that is basically just a ring of appropriate thickness with the needed bayonets or screw threads on each side; no optical elements needed.

The bad news is that it seems rather unlikely that anyone will do it, and if they did, the "sensor crop" would be very substantial: the Four Thirds frame covers only a bit more than one quarter the area of the 35mm film frame. That basically limits the adapted lenses to telephoto work. (And someone mentioned a 300mm FD lens.)


Suggestions:
a) eBay the old lenses to a film/manual focus/FD loyalist, and move on.
 swap the FD lenses for similar old Nikon or Pentax lenses, since those can be mounted on many DSLRs, including Canon's, with simple "ring adaptors".

[DanPatrick]

42mm, hmnn.  Just for the purposes of discussion, does anyone know if there's an existing adaptor to use Canon FD lenses on the Olympus E1 or Evolt/E-300 cameras?  I'm assuming (without specific knowledge) that one can shoot manual and manual focus on those cameras.  Is there any other physical reason why an FD lens would not be usable on those bodies?  Wish it were an APS-size CCD, but apparently no one makes such an animal with a short enough lens registration to utilize FD lenses.  Also, if my Canon 20D APS-size CMOS yields a 1.6 multiplication factor for 35mm lenses, what would a 'four thirds' size CCD multiplication factor be, anyone know?  Thanks, Dan

[DanPatrick]

Oops, meant 38mm!  Dan

[jd1566]

Although it's fun to play with old lenses on new digital bodies, the realities of doing this and taking successful photos is a bit thin.. I have played around with old pentax screw mount lenses on my Canon 20D.  Although it's fun for a while.. constant over and under exposure as well as difficulty in focusing make this solution a hobby at best.  Sell the lens and go for a new Eos setup.. Do as others have already suggested..
As for 4/3rds, it has a 2X multiplication, or thereabouts.. But be careful because there is no "MULTIPLICATION" going on.. you're just using a smaller portion of the lens is all.

[DanPatrick]

Well, if there was even a possibility of using my old FD 2.8 300 with the Olympus, I'd certainly look into it.  First of all, there is the economic question.  Were an adaptor available or able to be made, add that cost to the price of a used E-300, under $500, to get the albeit manual use of one of the great lenses ever designed.  To get the new equivalent for my 20D would cost $5000.  With on-camera review and histograms, I don't know what the problem would be with exposure and I doubt focussing would present much of a problem with that fast telephoto lens.  Wide open, which is the way I've shot it about 85% of its life, the depth of focus is about 13 inches at reasonably close distances.  It's pretty dramatic. Multiplication?  No smaller-than-full-frame camera, like my 20D or the Nikon D2X, really multiplies the range of 35mm lenses, but they rather 'crop' the projected image.  Results from the 1.6X of the 8MP 20D are acceptible to me and I imagine results from the only slightly smaller 8MP CCD of the E-300's 2x would be, as well.  Can you imagine being able to shoot through only the 'heart' of a sensational lens - and effectively having an f/2.8 600mm!  I'd sure like to try it.  Dan:)

[Willowroot]

Just a caution, the E300 focussing screen is next to impossible to actually manual focus with.  This is just from playing with it in the store, but I could hardly tell when I was in focus.