How do I use FD mount lenses with an EOS body so that I can buy old second hand lenses that I don't need so often?

Is it possible?

Steve

-- Steve Pearce (spearce6@yahoo.com), July 29, 2001

Answers

It's possible, but not very practical. There are two types of adapters for FD/FL to EF (EOS) lens mounts. Both are kind of expensive and are hard to find. One is used primarily for macro since it does not allow infinity focus. The other type has several glass optical elements in it, that causes it to act like a small tele converter (about 1.2X I believe). That effectively reduces the aperture by about 1/2 stop and is used primarily for long lenses.

Neither adapter allows the camera to control the aperture so you have to meter and shoot in stop down mode. Aperture priority and manual modes do work and meter fine though. Also, there is no auto focus and the AF indicators don't work either. Since few EOS cameras have good view screens for manual focus, most people regard this as a not- to-good option. A split image screen was made by Canon and can be fitted to the 1, 1N, 1V, 3, 5, 600/630, 620, 650, A2/A2e.

If you are determined to do this, a better way would be to use 42mm screw mount lenses with an adapter. The adapters are still being made (often sold by Russian fisheye vendors on ebay) and the lenses are considerably cheaper than the Canon FD stuff. Since everything is manual and stop down anyway, you don't loose anything with the screw mount lenses.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), July 29, 2001.