Canon AT-1 Lens Onto 350D Body ... ?
Discussion
Evening all! 
A friend has recently acquired herself a Canon 350D to replace her existing Canon AT-1. Her Canon AT-1 has a rather nice telescopic lens and she is wondering whether this lens can be used with the 350D by means of some sort of adapter ... Is such an adapter available or would she have to purchase a new telescopic lens that is compatible with the 350D?
Also, she is having problems with the flash gun on her 350D, in that the camera doesn't seem to want to focus in low level light. However without the flash gun the camera is able to focus via strobing of the pop-up flash and take a picture. Is there anything that she can do to help the camera focus whilst using the flash gun?
Cheers!
A friend has recently acquired herself a Canon 350D to replace her existing Canon AT-1. Her Canon AT-1 has a rather nice telescopic lens and she is wondering whether this lens can be used with the 350D by means of some sort of adapter ... Is such an adapter available or would she have to purchase a new telescopic lens that is compatible with the 350D?
Also, she is having problems with the flash gun on her 350D, in that the camera doesn't seem to want to focus in low level light. However without the flash gun the camera is able to focus via strobing of the pop-up flash and take a picture. Is there anything that she can do to help the camera focus whilst using the flash gun?
Cheers!
Yes you can use this lens, you will need an FD to EF lens mount adapter.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Canon-EOS-EF-to-FD-Lens-Moun...
As for the AF issue, there is not alot you can do. You could try turning on the AF assist light is the camera has one. Appart from this, i find keeping a torch handy for helping.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Canon-EOS-EF-to-FD-Lens-Moun...
As for the AF issue, there is not alot you can do. You could try turning on the AF assist light is the camera has one. Appart from this, i find keeping a torch handy for helping.
FD to EOS adapters are available as xrrr has mentioned.
Buy a good metal one, preferably with with 'focus confirm' options otherwise the entire lens operation will be manual and digital bodies offer no focusing screen aids like the split prism one could find back in the FD days.
Be aware that the lens will give a different result in terms of coverage on a 350D. The 350D sensor is smaller than the 35mm 'full frame' and so only uses a more central area of the light transmitted by the lens. This is know as the 'crop factor'. A 350D has a crop factor of 1.6 so a 100mm lens on a 350D gives the sort of results that a 160mm lens would on a 'full frame (or 35mm) body.
In addition to that the adapter will add around 15 to 20% since physically it adds some distance between the lens and the sensor. So in effect a 100mm lens will give the subject coverage of something like a 180mm lens on a film camera when used on a crop sensor at 1.6.
As I mentioned before, all settings will have to be manual - no big deal since she will be used to that. However this does mena that you have to stop the lens down before taking the shot whereas on an FD based body you set the aperture but typically view with the lens wide open. Stopping down can make the viewfinder very dark of course. Whether this is a problem depends on circumstances.
The crop factor has some benefits for old lenses - and some de-benefits.
On the plus side the image captured used the centre of the lens input so if the lens tends to be 'soft' or otherwise not so great at the edgesit will matter less or maybe not at all. On the other hande if it is general 'a bit soft' or has other undesirable attributes they may show up more since the image is, in effect, 'enlarged' on the smaller sensor compared to a film negative.
All of that said you can get some great results from older glass and the FD lenses are very cheap these days .....
Buy a good metal one, preferably with with 'focus confirm' options otherwise the entire lens operation will be manual and digital bodies offer no focusing screen aids like the split prism one could find back in the FD days.
Be aware that the lens will give a different result in terms of coverage on a 350D. The 350D sensor is smaller than the 35mm 'full frame' and so only uses a more central area of the light transmitted by the lens. This is know as the 'crop factor'. A 350D has a crop factor of 1.6 so a 100mm lens on a 350D gives the sort of results that a 160mm lens would on a 'full frame (or 35mm) body.
In addition to that the adapter will add around 15 to 20% since physically it adds some distance between the lens and the sensor. So in effect a 100mm lens will give the subject coverage of something like a 180mm lens on a film camera when used on a crop sensor at 1.6.
As I mentioned before, all settings will have to be manual - no big deal since she will be used to that. However this does mena that you have to stop the lens down before taking the shot whereas on an FD based body you set the aperture but typically view with the lens wide open. Stopping down can make the viewfinder very dark of course. Whether this is a problem depends on circumstances.
The crop factor has some benefits for old lenses - and some de-benefits.
On the plus side the image captured used the centre of the lens input so if the lens tends to be 'soft' or otherwise not so great at the edgesit will matter less or maybe not at all. On the other hande if it is general 'a bit soft' or has other undesirable attributes they may show up more since the image is, in effect, 'enlarged' on the smaller sensor compared to a film negative.
All of that said you can get some great results from older glass and the FD lenses are very cheap these days .....
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