EOS Rebel T7 Adapter for Canon A-1 Lens

[bsnowman28]

Question on camera lenses old to new

is there an adapter for canon a1 lens to canon rebel t7?

[MikeSowsun · Accepted solution]

There are FD to EF adapters you can buy, but there are problems associated with using these adapters. 

1) These older FD film era lenses are manual focus, manual aperture lenses. You camera was never designed to use these types of lenses, so they are difficult to use.

2) The adapters must include corrective optics in order to maintain focus for distance. These corrective optics are bad for image quality.

3) The adapters act like a 1.26x teleconverter and the resulting focal length makes the lens act like short telephoto lenses. (this could be an advantage in some cases)

[MikeSowsun · Accepted solution]

There are FD to EF adapters you can buy, but there are problems associated with using these adapters. 

1) These older FD film era lenses are manual focus, manual aperture lenses. You camera was never designed to use these types of lenses, so they are difficult to use.

2) The adapters must include corrective optics in order to maintain focus for distance. These corrective optics are bad for image quality.

3) The adapters act like a 1.26x teleconverter and the resulting focal length makes the lens act like short telephoto lenses. (this could be an advantage in some cases)

[bsnowman28]

Thank you Where can I get an adapter?

[amfoto1]

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@bsnowman28 wrote:

...Where can I get an adapter?

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There are five FD to EF adapters currently listed at B&H Photo:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/products/Lens-Adapters/ci/3420/N/4077634486?filters=fct_camera-body-m... 

Four of these have the optical element "to support infinity focus". But all of those also have the effect of 1.4X magnification.

• The Vello adapter is the simplest of these, with a non-removable optical element and no electronic contacts.
• The two Fotodiox adapters have a removable optical element (for better image quality when more distant focus isn't needed, such as shooting close-ups, macro, maybe portraits with some lenses). The more expensive of those also has an electronic chip that allows Canon camera's Focus Confirmation feature to work. (Note: lens is still fully manual, both focus and aperture control. In order to use Focus Confirmation you will probably need to install a standard EF lens on the camera, select One Shot focus mode and choose the AF point or points you want to use... then switch to the adapted lens. Unless something has changed, lenses I used via chipped adapters on other Canon cameras have required this setup in advance with a "real" lens, before Focus Confirmation would work on the adapted lens. The settings couldn't be changed when the adapted/chipped lens was on the camera. Focus Confirmation is the "beep" the camera makes or in some cases a green LED that lights up in the viewfinder and/or flashing AF points.
• The Zuma adapter is the least expensive, but it also is the one FD to EF adapter that does not have the "corrective optics". This will make for the best image quality and make for 1.0X magnification (instead of 1.4X), but most adapted lenses will not be able to focus to infinity. This might be okay with a macro lens that only needs to focus close, or with a portrait lens that will mostly be focused around 8, 12 or 15 feet, or with a very wide angle lens that has very deep depth of field when a fairly small lens aperture is used. 
• I don't know how the expensive Urth adapter differs from the others. It appears to use an optical element, but doesn't say if it has a magnification factor or whether that element is removable or not. It also doesn't appear to have a chip to support Focus Confirmation.

You can find other brands of FD to EF adapters at other retailers, on Amazon, on eBay, etc. You'll have to do some investigation to determine the features those adapters offer.

***********

Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7DII (x2), 7D(x2), EOS M5, some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR

[deebatman316 · Accepted solution]

No there isn't an official adapter from Canon that goes from FD-EOS/ EF. Adapting FD lenses are marginally usable on EOS cameras. Everything will be manual ie manual focus, manual aperture control. Also with an adapter you would loose focus to infinity. Also it will be very hard to manually focus lens because today's cameras don't have a split prism focus screen. Though 3rd party adapters are available it is not recommended. The lenses would be soft to todays standards. The EF-S 18-55mm kit lens would outperform old FD lenses on a digital camera. Old film lenses didn't show as much imperfections on 35mm film that a digital camera would show. Also EOS is an all electronic mount. There is no mechanical aperture control lever or mechanical drive shaft for screw drive Autofocus. Hence the name Electro Optical System (EOS).

[bsnowman28]

Thank you Where can I get an adapter?

[deebatman316]

There are plenty of online options such as B&H Photo.

[amfoto1]

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@bsnowman28 wrote:

is there an adapter for canon a1 lens to canon rebel t7?

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Yes, there is....

BUT, they don't work very well.

A Canon A1 uses the old FD/FL mount. A Rebel T7 uses modern Canon EF mount.

The problem is that the lenses designed for for EF mount focus deeper inside a camera than the lenses designed for the FD/FL cameras. As a result, in order for the older lens to work on the newer camera an optical element is needed to "correct" the focus. In affordable adapters with those corrective lenses cheap optical elements make for poor image quality. Better optics in the adapters would increase the cost beyond what most of the old lenses are worth.

In fact, Canon briefly made an FD to EF adapter with higher quality optics. It is rare and very collectible now. If you can find one, expect to pay upwards of $1000 for it. If I recall correctly, that Canon adapter also acts like a 1.26X teleconverter,.

It's possible in some specific lenses to remove the old lens mount and install a new one (rather than just use an adapter). I don't know if the still do, but there used to be someone selling the replacement mounts. It takes some basic skills to swap the parts out. 

Many other legacy camera mounts are more easily adapted for use on EF cameras like the T7. For more info see: http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/manual_focus_EOS.html 

It is much easier to adapt FD mount lenses to mirrorless cameras like the Canon M-series (EF-M mount) or R--series (RF mount), rather than DSLRs like the T7.

Once adapted the old lens will be strictly manual... both focus and aperture control.

***********

Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7DII (x2), 7D(x2), EOS M5, some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR
 

[ebiggs1]

The bottom line from all this is 95% of the time it isn't worth it.