EF Vs EF-S Lens Mount

[baldeagle51]

I have a Canon EOS Rebel GII 35mm Film SLR camera that has a 28-80mm lens and I want to find out if that lens will work on either an EOS Rebel T8i or an SL3.  I do not know enough about lens mounts, and I read that the GII 35mm camera uses EF lens mount but was not sure if there was more to consider and or if that else would be compatible. 

It appears that both the T8i and SL3 use the EF lens mount as well but it also says EF-S and I was hoping someone could help verify if I am correct.   

[AtticusLake]

Wow, that's an oldie!  Kudos for keeping that veteran going.

EF-S is a subset of EF -- it's close to the same physical lens mount, but covers a smaller part of the image plane, so it's designed for cameras with smaller sensors -- APS-C (or "crop") as opposed to full-frame.

Anyhow, according to the Canon website, the GII uses the EF lens mount.  Since it's a 35mm film camera, that's full-frame, so it's EF, not EF-S.  I'm pretty sure EF-S wasn't even invented then.  So your lens is presumably EF, not EF-S.  (It doesn't look like there is an EF-S 28-80).

Both the T8i and the SL 3 have APS-C sensors, and according to their web pages, take both EF and EF-S lenses.  The only issue is that EF covers more than the camera's sensor, so you're carrying around a little more glass than you actually need.  There shouldn't be any gotchas; however given that your lens is pretty old, I'd be wary that some features might not work as well as they should.

EF-S lenses will NOT work on EF cameras.  But that's not your situation.

If you want to know more about lens matching, here's an article I wrote: https://moonblink.info/MudLake/gear/lenses

[Waddizzle]

An EF Mount lens introduced for film cameras should be compatible with digial cameras.  But, there are a couple of caveats.

I cannot say I am familiar with either the camera or the lens.  I was shooting with Konica gear in the 1980s.  However, the EOS system that was introduced for SLR film cameras is the same EOS system that was used DSLR digital cameras.  The EOS EF mount lenses introduced for DSLRs were often referred to as digital lenses.  They were slightly different in one subtle way.  

Digital lenses included special coatings on internal lens elements to reduce reflections.

Unlike film, a digital image sensor could reflect significant amounts of light back up and into the lens body.  These reflections could cause flare, glare, and grey fogging in captured images.  Engineers developed special lens coatings to reduce the intensity of reflected light.

The film lenses should be electronically and mechanically compatible with digital cameras.  There are the subtle optical differences that I described.  The flare and glare issues become most acute with strong light sources, reflected sunlight, and strong backlit scenes.  Keep this in mind, because many or most shots will not have these types of shooting conditions. 

While not the same type of filtering, a CPL can help reduce the flares and fogging.  But many digital cameras use Phase Detect AF systems, which a CPL filter can negatively impact.  This means the images may look softer because of the CPL filter.

One further thing to note about filters are UV filters.  Almost every digital image sensor assembly contains a UV filter layer.  This means that UV filters are a moot accessory with digital cameras.  You do not need one.  You will not notice any difference if you take identical shots with and without a UV filter.  If anything, the shots with the UV filter might seem to be lower quality because of the light reduction they create on light reaching the image sensor.

[deebatman316 · Accepted solution]

The EF-S Mount was released in 2003 alongside the first Digital Rebel series camera. From there the mount would be found on ALL APS-C DSLRs. ALL of Canon's APS-C DSLRs are FULLY COMPATIBLE with EF lenses. EF-S lenses ARE COMPLETELY INCOMPATIBLE with Full Frame & APS-H DSLRs and EOS AF SLRs. The EF-S Mount is MECHANICALLY INCOMPATIBLE but ELECTRICALLY COMPATIBLE with the original EF Mount. EF-S Mount lenses sit further into the camera than EF lens would. The mirror would hit the rear lens element and cause serious damage on a Full Frame DSLR. ALL EOS Film SLRs Full Frame DSLRs ARE ICOMPATIBLE with EF-S lenses and won't mount. So even though EF-S came later on you can't accidentally mount the lens. The lens was designed NOT to be mounted to those cameras. Canon's APS-C DSLRs have 2 mounting indexes one at the 12 o'clock position and one at the 1 o'clock. EF lenses use the one at the 12 o'clock position and is a red circle. EF-S lenses use one on at the 1 o'clock position and is a white square.

  

EOS APS-C DSLR camera mounting indexes

[normadel]

Buried in the chart and its footnotes is an exception to the EOS xxD and EF-S rule.....The EOS 10D APS-C body was created before EF-S lenses existed. EF-S lenses DO NOT mount to an EOS 10D. It takes EF lenses ONLY.

[deebatman316]

Yes that's true don't forget about the EOS D30 & EOS D60 too. Which the EOS 10D replaced.