I used to have a canon t5o with a standard 50/1.8 lense. Frustrated at the lack of control I had over my pics, I bought a EOS 500 with a Ef 35-80 4-5.6 II lens. I'm not sure, but I think my images are't as sharp as they were with the T50. I was wondering if FD lenses are better that Eos lenses or is my lens one of the low range eos lenses ? On the whole its a great camera and I love the control and excellent metering !

-- Fiaz Khan (fiazmahsud@hotmail.com), April 24, 2002

Answers

Sadly a brand new low-end zoom lens (and I'm afraid the 35-80 lens you mention is exactly that) is going to have worse image quality than a 25 year old 50mm 1.8 lens.

Luckily for you, however, there's an inexpensive solution - buy the Canon EF 50mm 1.8 lens. It's going to give you the same image quality you got with your FD lens, only with autofocus to boot.

-- NK Guy (tela@tela.bc.ca), April 24, 2002.

It is not the SYSTEM that is at fault, but the lens.

In my opinion, the best EOS lenses are better than the best FD lenses, but that should be expected since technology has moved on to allow production of better lenses, cheaper.

NK Guy is right, that if you get a 50mm F1.8 for your EOS setup, it will give pictures that are just as good if not better than the FD lens gave.

-- Isaac Sibson (isibson@hotmail.com), April 24, 2002.

There is a usually a big difference between the quality of a prime lens and the quality of a zoom (prime is sharper). That's the difference you're seeing.

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), April 24, 2002.