lens compatibility

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by RichBrew

eeyore,

Maybe it is a case of age. The zoom I had re-chipped was only two years old. It caused massive exposure problems on a DSLR (usually underexposure, and not predictable), but since Sigma serviced it, it works fine.

RichBrew

thats a slightly different problem - the old sigma lenses dont work at all on the dslr (or at least not on canon) they just give err99 - i'd have expected a 2 year old lens to be digital compatible anyway so that might be why they did it cheaper

[RichBrew]

Originally Posted by eeyore

thats a slightly different problem - the old sigma lenses dont work at all on the dslr (or at least not on canon) they just give err99 - i'd have expected a 2 year old lens to be digital compatible anyway so that might be why they did it cheaper

I think the real problem is that the camera manufacturers don't share any technical information with third party lens makers, so they have to work out any new developments themselves. When the D200 was designed, Nikon obviously gave no thought as to how Sigma and the rest would cope with compatibility issues (or cared, for that matter). I'm sure Canon are like-minded in that respect.

RichBrew

[eeyore]

i think you are probably right - from a photographers point of view the worst thing manufactuers did was to go to proprietary mounts - imagine how it would be if one mount fitted all cameras (like the old M42 did) - you could buy the best lens , and best body regardless of make ( I'd like a D2X fitted with a canon 100-400 iS lens) and could buy the best new body in each generation without having to change all your lenses - it would be terrific - which of course is why they wont do it because canon dnt want me buying from nikon and vice versa

[Interpreter]

It looks like I was getting mixed up between the AF and FD lenses. In my local photoshop the new lenses for Canon are boxed and called EF lenses. The secondhand ones are unboxed and in the window and called AF lenses. This may have caused my confusion. Sorry.

Just to add to the confusion, if all EF lenses fit all EOS cameras how are the 1.4 and 2.0 extenders explained? They are lenses. The rear end fits the mount on the body of the camera and the front should mimic the body mount to accept the EOS lens, the electronics being carried through to give AF and AE. According to popular theory, this doesn't happen and the front of the extender will only accept certain lenses. Does this apply to all of the Canon extenders, or just the modern ones? (There was a Mk 1 version I believe, which has been replaced with a Mk ll.)

[jamesandpip]

Thanks very much for the advice - I have been umming and arring about a dSLR for a long time but could only afford it if I could use the old lenses effectively - it'll be a while before I've got the money together for any new lenses! It sounds like they shouldn't be a problem but I think I will take them into the shop just to make sure they fit before I buy!
Thanks again!

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Interpreter

It looks like I was getting mixed up between the AF and FD lenses. In my local photoshop the new lenses for Canon are boxed and called EF lenses. The secondhand ones are unboxed and in the window and called AF lenses. This may have caused my confusion. Sorry.

Just to add to the confusion, if all EF lenses fit all EOS cameras how are the 1.4 and 2.0 extenders explained? They are lenses. The rear end fits the mount on the body of the camera and the front should mimic the body mount to accept the EOS lens, the electronics being carried through to give AF and AE. According to popular theory, this doesn't happen and the front of the extender will only accept certain lenses. Does this apply to all of the Canon extenders, or just the modern ones? (There was a Mk 1 version I believe, which has been replaced with a Mk ll.)

All ef lenses fit all eos bodies - however only those listed as compatible on the canon website will fit on the canon tele converters because although the mount on the teleconverter is the same as that on the camera body - the TC has glass elements to provide the magnification and the front one of these is so far forward that it fouls the rear ellement of some lenses.

The canon TCs were specifically built to work with canons pro lenses - presumably on the theory that people wouldnt want to fit a tc to a narrow apperture lens - and thus they didnt bother to make it compatible with these lenses - the narrow apperture lenses with which it will work such as the pump came later and were thus engineered to be compatible with the TCs

Some third party lenses will work with the canon tc - for exampole the tamron 90mm macro will , but some such as the bigma wont - also some will fit initially but will foul the lens element during focussing/zooming risking damage to the tc and/or lens

I think this applied to both versions of the canon tc. Therefore if you want to fit a TC onto other canon lenses not listed you are best off buying a third party one like tamron , sigma or kenko. That said as interpreter mentioned further up using a TC on an f5.6 lens is a dodgy proposition at best anyway.