Old lenses with 7D

amiga500

amiga500

Active member
Hi,
i currently own a DVX100b, and im planning to buy a 7D next month.
Im a newbie to DSLR cameras, im trying to read as much info as possible about it.

I never owned a DSLR camera before, however i have a lot of old lenses from my old SLR cameras.
I have a bunch of FD mount lenses, is it possible them to use with the 7D with an adapter?

I also have a canon EF mount automatic lens, will this work?

What kind of mount should i buy?

:dankk2:
 
amiga500 said:
I have a bunch of FD mount lenses, is it possible them to use with the 7D with an adapter?
Click to expand...

I was going to reply to this yesterday, but wasn't able to. In the mean time, my own FD adapter arrived and I've been taking a look at it.

Yes, you can mount FD lenses on the 7D. An adapter with an optical element will allow the focus on the lenses to work as normal (with perhaps a bit of focus past infinity). An adapter without an element will turn your lens into a macro lens - capable of extremely close focus.

I had always been skeptical of the FD adapters since I don't like to put any more glass between my lens and my camera than absolutely necessary. I was partially right - the images I'm getting so far are definitely softer than with my older Nikons. I don't know if this is because the specific FD lenses I have are softer or if it is the adapter. I'd bet on the adapter, though.

The softness is not, however, a big issue in my experience. If you are shooting for 720p flash-compressed web video, I doubt many people would notice the difference.

amiga500 said:
I also have a canon EF mount automatic lens, will this work?
Click to expand...

The Canon EOS 7D takes the EF mount natively - there is no need to buy an adapter. Just line up the red dots and twist :beer:

amiga500 said:
What kind of mount should i buy?
Click to expand...

I'd say this is, in part, dependent on your budget.

If you have nothing to spend, get an FD mount for $35 to use your current collection.

If you have a couple grand to throw around, I recommend looking into older Nikon mount lenses. There is some great glass out there.

If you have more than a couple grand, look into buying Zeiss ZF (Nikon) mounts. Excellent excellent lenses.

If you are absolutely loaded, go get yourself a PL mod and some Cooke S4s or RPPs.
 
So glad to hear I can use them.
I will search for an adapter on ebay then, i saw some HOYA one, 35 bucks.
I will get the 7D with a couple of new lenses, but im curious about using the old FD lenses, just for experiment with them.

I am posting the lenses I have so anybody can tell me if I can get some interesting results with them.
Maybe they re a bunch of crap...

Here:
CANON Zoom EF 38-76mm 1:4.5-5.6
CANON FD 50mm 1:1.8
SAKAR FD Zoom 35-75mm 1:3.5-4.8
STAR-D FD Zoom 80-200mm 1:4.5
qv7Hx.jpg
 
My PERSONAL opinion, keep the 50mm prime, Ebay the rest. Zooms of that age are not generally great, and those were not great zooms when new. What new lenses were you thinking of buying?
 
PerroneFord said:
What new lenses were you thinking of buying?
Click to expand...

I'm planning to get the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, I read that is good lens for $99, and the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens.

I'm no expert about glass, so im trying to read as much as possible before buy.
Im looking at lenses that cost around $200, any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.
 
amiga500 said:
I'm planning to get the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, I read that is good lens for $99, and the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens.

I'm no expert about glass, so im trying to read as much as possible before buy.
Im looking at lenses that cost around $200, any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

There is very little I can recommend to you in the price range you've listed. And honestly it seems rather unfortunate that you are going to hobble such a fine camera with such poor glass.
 
PerroneFord said:
There is very little I can recommend to you in the price range you've listed. And honestly it seems rather unfortunate that you are going to hobble such a fine camera with such poor glass.
Click to expand...

Ok, enlight me then!
I have a month to think about it, i can raise the amount of cash for the glass.
Please remember im a noob at these kind of cameras, however i had video cameras since i was 10yo.
 
Buy older nikon glass on ebay. You can get some nice primes in the $75-200 range. Including the nikon 50mm 1.4 that I just won for $75, can't beat that price to value ratio. I prefer primes anyways so it's working out nicely for me.
 
The EF 50mm 1.8 is a good buy. The Tamron 17-50 is a good buy too, on ebay you can pick one up for about $250 - 300. If you can afford it I would get the VC version for about $200 more. There is cheaper Nikon glass that you can use with an adapter but the good part about the Nikons is that the adapter doesn't use glass so the image stays as sharp as the lens is. Those are the cheaper options I would recommend. I sold all my FD's when I got my 7D.
 
the canon 50mm 1.8 is good for stills and decent for handheld video. but the focus ring is tiny, won't accept a gear for a folow focus, and has an extremely short throw. sharp fast lens though. if you are doing a lot of video, probably worth it to spring for the 1.4 which has a real focus ring, is made of metal, and is slightly faster.
 
For a walk around video lens you need a constant aperture zoom with stabilization. The Tamron 17-50mm VC is highly praised by many.

Once you have that you can add Nikon or other fast primes to your collection at reasonable cost.

Image stabilization is critical for video IMHO. I have lots of nice Canon primes - 24mm 1.4L, 50mm 1.2L, 85mm 1.2L and the excellent 16-35mm 2.8L zoom. And a Tokina 11-16mm 2.8.

My next lens purchase will be the Tamron 17-50mm, just for the VC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top