50mm fd lens for 500d

RosyJazz wrote:

Lemming51 wrote:

RosyJazz wrote:

My bud has a nikon d90 and she uses her 50mm lens all of the time. I LOVE the results she gets. I am really interested in getting a 50mm fd lens (with an adapter of course) for my 500d. I just dont understand how it works properly. I know I need to meter it myself and such...what else????

FD lenses are designed to be mounted closer to the film/sensor than is possible on EOS bodies. Adapters will (1) have optical lens elements to maintain infinity focus but degrade the image and also act as 1.26x teleconverter with corresponding loss of maximum aperture, or (2) simple ring without optical lens elements but the lens won't be able to focus to any distance. Similar with old Minolta MC/MD and Konica AR lenses.

Better to search for manual focus lenses of Nikon, Pentax M42 screw-mount or K, Olympus OM, Contax/Yashica, Leica R... These are designed to mount farther from the film/sensor, so can be mounted to EOS with simple ring that will not degrade the image.

Ok, what "ring" an I looking for?

Do not want an FD lens for your camera! It is designed with a shorter distance of mount to sensor/film in mind than the Canon camera you have (EOS) has.

This means it will NOT work well at all, you will NOT be able to focus to infinity at all. Or, you will need an adapter with optics, which will turn the lens into a rather less sharp 65mm lens.

So, NOT what you are after.

Instead, buy a different lens.

1. Canon EF 50mm f1.8. Very affordable, offers AF + automatic aperture + ease of use
2. Nikkor F-mount manual focus or AF (not AF-S) lens with F-mount to EOS adapter.
3. Minolta OM mount manual focus lens with OM mount to EOS adapter.
4. Pentax K mount manual focus lens with K mount to EOS adapter.
5. M42 screw mount with M42 to EOS adapter.
6. Or C/Y mount with C/Y to EOS adapter.
7. Or Leica R mount with R mount to EOS adapter.

You can also get a more expensive EOS mount 50mm: Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM, Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM, Canon EF 50mm f2.5 macro, Sigma 50mm f1.4 HSM, Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art, Zeiss 50mm f2, Zeiss 50mm f1.4.

You can convert (most) FD lenses to EOS mount, but the price of the conversion makes little sense in your case. So, avoid FD lenses.

How it works with a lens with an adapter, like my Nikkor with adapter with focus confirmation ring:

Put the adapter ring on the F-mount. Put the adapted lens on the camera. Set the aperture ring on the lens to wide open. Manual focus, while pressing the shutter half way if you want focus confirmation. With an adapter with focus confirmation ring, the camera will beep and show the AF point lighting up and show the green dot on the view finder when it thinks the subject is in focus. Close the aperture ring to the stop you want to take the photo with. The camera will now take a metering with the aperture closed, and press the shutter button fully.

To focus another scene, open up the aperture with the lens' aperture ring again.