topic Re: Can a FD lens be adapted to the 6D? in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Can a FD lens be adapted to the 6D?

Iluvmycam — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 17:25:36 GMT

I have some old Canon FD lenses. I was thinking about buying a 6D. Can a FD lens be adapted to the 6D?

Thanks!

Re: Can a FD lens be adapted to the 6D?

TCampbell — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 17:43:23 GMT

"Technically" yes... but with great effort, you're doing surgery on the lens, there's no benefit, you'll have no auto-focus (and no focusing aids such as those that used to exist in film SLRs with a split-prism focusing aid in the viewfinder), no automatic aperture control, and the results are usually poor.

So the overwhelming advice given to EVERYONE who asks this question (this comes up a lot) is: DON'T DO IT!

For the same reason you don't try to find a floppy disk drive for your current computer... leave those FD lenses in the past.

Re: Can a FD lens be adapted to the 6D?

Skirball — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 19:00:58 GMT

@TCampbell wrote:

For the same reason you don't try to find a floppy disk drive for your current computer... leave those FD lenses in the past.

Awesome analogy.

Re: Can a FD lens be adapted to the 6D?

RexGig — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 21:24:50 GMT

Eddie Houston in the UK makes, or has made for him, an FD-to-EOS adapter. He also converts FD lenses to use on the EOS mount. He claims that his adapters will allow FD lenses to focus at infinity. These are not mere flange adapters, as they contain at least one optical glass element. I have not yet tried one, but as I live near a dealer that sometimes sells some quite decent, desirable, pre-owned FD lenses, may try one of Mr. Houston's adapters, someday. (He has an Ebay "store.")

Canon made a pro-level FD-to-EOS adapter, that is a teleconverter, that works with specified longer focal length FD lenses. These sell for collector's prices these days, as Canon made relatively few. Most I have seen listed were heavily used by pro photographers. I seem to recall that Canon only made them available to working professional photographers, back in the day, to keep them in the Canon camp during the big transition to the EOS mount in the 1980s.

Re: Can a FD lens be adapted to the 6D?

TTMartin — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 22:18:33 GMT

@TCampbell wrote:
"Technically" yes... but with great effort, you're doing surgery on the lens, there's no benefit, you'll have no auto-focus (and no focusing aids such as those that used to exist in film SLRs with a split-prism focusing aid in the viewfinder), no automatic aperture control, and the results are usually poor.

So the overwhelming advice given to EVERYONE who asks this question (this comes up a lot) is: DON'T DO IT!

For the same reason you don't try to find a floppy disk drive for your current computer... leave those FD lenses in the past.

The other thing is lens design and manufacturing has made enormous strides since the days of your FD lenses. Todays consumer STM kit lenses that come with a Rebel have image quality that rivals first generation L lenses. So while some of those FD lenses were outstanding in their day, today for the most part would be considered mediocre.

Re: Can a FD lens be adapted to the 6D?

RexGig — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 21:44:48 GMT

TTMartin is correct, in that most FD lenses are, by today's standards, not so wonderful, optically. This is especially true of the wider-angle lenses, as some engineering changes were needed to optimize wide-angle lenses for high-resolution digital.

Of course, if one already has them, and they have been well-preserved, an adapter may well be an economically sound investment. Stopped-down a bit, even older lenses can behave quite well. On the other hand, decent FD lenses are now desired by some mirror-less camera shooters, to adapt to their cameras, so selling FD lenses, to help fund EF/EF-S lenses, might well be the better option.

I am certainly not a Canon historian, but recall that some FD-era telephoto lenses were quite excellent, and had a different model designation, FL, if I remember correctly. These are valued much more highly than the more normal and short tele focal lengths. (I did this research several years ago, when a local seller had some very long white Canon telephoto lenses available.) Considering the price of big white EF lenses, these can be an attractive option, if AF is not necessary, such as when using a long lens on a tripod, focused on a nest.