topic Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses? in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

Norwegian97 — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 13:45:18 GMT

I bought an adapter on eBay to use my old FD lenses on a T5i body. The adapter itself works and the lenses mounts perfectly to the body. But the problem is that when the adapter w/lens is attached my camera tells me it needs its "lens firmware" upgraded. What does this mean?

Basically I can't do anything on my camera when the FD lens is attached, does anyone know why I've got this problem? Have anyone else used FD lenses on a T5i?

Thanks for answers!

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

jazzman1 — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:53:35 GMT

Which FD lens is it that needs a firmware update? What's the lens specs??? From what you're saying, you have to download a lens firmware update from Canon support, and install it. Use the software that came with your camera. Or get it here:

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

RobertTheFat — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 20:22:20 GMT

@Norwegian97 wrote:
I bought an adapter on eBay to use my old FD lenses on a T5i body. The adapter itself works and the lenses mounts perfectly to the body. But the problem is that when the adapter w/lens is attached my camera tells me it needs its "lens firmware" upgraded. What does this mean?

Basically I can't do anything on my camera when the FD lens is attached, does anyone know why I've got this problem? Have anyone else used FD lenses on a T5i?

Thanks for answers!

I think it means that the camera recognizes that the lens, despite the adapter, doesn't provide the information expected of an EF or EF-S autofocus lens and that it can therefore not focus on the subject or set the aperture or correctly meter the scene. Which means that in the end you'll probably tire of the experiment, buy some modern lenses, and try to sell the old lenses and the adapter on E-Bay. If you're really lucky, you may get enough for the lot to recoup your expenditure for the adapter and therefore break even. But I wouldn't bet on it.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

ebiggs1 — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 13:16:47 GMT

The title of your post really says it all. " Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?"

That is correct. FD lenses do not work on Rebels. There is no firmware update to make them work. Yes it is possible to bolt a FD lens to a modern DSLR but the concept of them working is greatly exaggerated. There will be no AF and no metering and no info from lens to camera.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

Norwegian97 — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 13:19:36 GMT

So why do they make the adapters for FD to EF when they dont work?

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

ebiggs1 — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 13:43:21 GMT

Yes, why? A good question. Somebody makes an adapter for almost any combo you can think of. The fact is with enough trouble and fiddleing you can get one to work. But "work" and "work well" a are two very different things. I have a great white FD 600mm lens, amomg others, that I have tried every way possibile to get good useable results from. With big expensive lenses like it, it does make some slight sense. But for most other FD lenses, it simply is not worth the effort. Even after this, the photos, from my 400mm, 500mm and 600mm, are not as good as a modern DSLR lenses provides. My advice is to abandon this idea and leave FD lens in the past where they belong.

You could get a piece of glass from the hardware store to "work" but how well is the issue.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

Norwegian97 — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 23:39:37 GMT

Won't it be able to get adapters with small microchips programmed to "fool the camera" to think it can communicate with it?

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

RobertTheFat — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 01:32:57 GMT

@Norwegian97 wrote:
Won't it be able to get adapters with small microchips programmed to "fool the camera" to think it can communicate with it?

You'd also have to fool the lens into thinking it had an autofocus motor and the ability to allow the camera to dictate its aperture setting.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

TCampbell — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 15:40:06 GMT

@Norwegian97 wrote:
Won't it be able to get adapters with small microchips programmed to "fool the camera" to think it can communicate with it?

If you're willing to spend an unlimited amount of money then I suppose you can get someone to build you just about anything. The problem is... there's really not much of a market for this sort of thing. I've noticed that most people tend to try them, and are disappointed with the results and ultimately abandon the approach in favor of just spending that money on EOS lenses.

FD lenses were never intended to be used with EOS bodies. FD lenses are completely mechanical and have zero electronics. They are from a different era in photography. EOS is "Electro-Optical System". The lenses are electronically controlled for focus and aperture control (if it's a zoom lens then zoom is manually controlled by you).

The adapters have to fool the camera. Also they alter the back-focus distance (which affects focus). Typically adapters are made only for specific lenses and not generic for just any FD lens.

The adapters are not popular (nor is there really a market for them) because they don't work well.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

ebiggs1 — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 17:13:38 GMT

"Won't it be able to get adapters with small microchips programmed to "fool the camera" to think it can communicate with it?"

No! The answer is no. They don't work on a modern DSRL. They belong to a bygone era and should be left there.

What you can get to work produces results that are usually not as good as the average kit lens. And the kit lens is likely going to be cheaper!

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

Peter — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 21:56:58 GMT

M42-mount is easier to use with an adapter. My adapter works well with 7D, 5D and 1000D but not with my newer 6D. The light metering flashes every 10th second. Think I need an adapter without microchips.

http://kameratrollet.se/2013/03/08/fototips-fokusera-manuellt-som-en-kung/

If you are Norwegian you will have no problem to read it.

With croped sensor size you will not hit the mirror.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

Leecanon — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 04:54:06 GMT

I saw in YouTube one guy in Korea shoot vintage lense with his crop body Fujifilm. He turned ON the mode "shoot without lens".
I don't know t5i has this program mode or similar. My self also looking for the cheapest ways to use our old but solid lenses for manual focus in video and still pictures. Good luck.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

kvbarkley — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:19:01 GMT

There is no such mode for Canon Rebels.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

fpicabia42 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 15:58:13 GMT

I ran into a similar problem with my EOS-1D Mk II. I had bought a Helios 44-2 vintage lens and a M42-EF adapter to make it fit he camera body. This adapter had no way to close the contacts with the AF system, so I always got an error message when I tried to use that lens and adapter with that camera.

It turns out that they make adapters wth "AF chips" attached-- little pieces of metal that close the contacts on the AF system on the camera body. As long as the contacts are closed, the camera is satified that there is a lens attached to the body, even if it can't receive any focus information from the lens (it thinks the lens has been switched to manual focus mode).

So I bought an adapter with AF chips attached, and the lens worked just fine with the EOS-1D Mk II.

Fast forward to when I bought a used EOS T5i... I thought I'd be ahead of the game knowing that I had an adapter that had the AF chipset. However, I ran into the problem you describe here. Since the adapter was telling the camera it had a lens attached, the T5i thought it should try to update the lens firmware.

I thought I was stuck, but then I remebered I still had the old M42-EF adapter-- the one without the AF chips. Sure enough, when I tried it, the T5i and vintage lens worked together just fine. I do remember that when I switched to video mode, I got a message asking to make sure there was a lens attached.

So, the T5i must be able to operate without a lens (though I don't see how that would be useful at all). And it allows us to be able to use vintage, manual focus lenses with that camera body.

Hope this helps!

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

ebiggs1 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 17:02:58 GMT

I enjoy playing around with the old FD lenses probably because I have so many. But I would not buy one. They are so inferior to even the cheapest modern Canon DSLR lens. CA must not have been as big of a concern to film as it is to a digital sensor.

I must have every adapter made for this conversion.

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

fpicabia42 — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:46:54 GMT

No question that the vintage lenses aren't as sharp as the modern ones, but they are quite a bit cheaper, and fun to experiment with...

Re: Canon T5i won't work with FD lenses?

ebiggs1 — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 16:20:20 GMT

Agree with the fun part. The old FD's are pretty sharp its really the CA that's bad. Plus it make them appear not sharp.

If you had a sharp old FD lens it is probably just as good today as it ever was. However, there were some horrible cheapo lenses back in the day and they are not worth the time or money to try and use.