Just got a 450D, have some questions and need a FD adapter.

Hi everyone.  So I just picked up a used 450D body only got a great deal which is good because I'm just getting started coming from film.  I have a Canon AE-1 program with just one lens (50mm 1.4f) that I would like to use (gonna do some shots of the sky).  Any recommendations for an adapter?  Also how well do they work?  And lastly (sorry this seems dumb) but I assume it will not auto focus right?

Last question I had was in regards to a good all around lens for the 450d.  I'll use this for some shots of the kids and whatever else I'm messing with.  I'm fine with looking into something used, is the kit lens any good?

Thanks!

I tried an FD to EOS adapter a few years ago. They don't work very well. The images were pretty bad- Soft and lacking detail. The one I tried had a glass element. I've heard there is one without the glass but I don't know if they work any better or not. A shame as I have several FD mount lens.

You don't want an FD adapter. It's physically impossible to properly mount an FD lens on an EOS camera, because the FD lens is designed to be mounted 42 mm from the film, while the EOS mount sticks out 44 mm from the film/sensor. You'd need an adapter that's -2 mm thick. Unless you're comfortable working in the fifth dimension, that's not going to happen.

There are two kinds of adapters out there for FD-to-EOS. Ones without glass are essentially macro extension tubes; the lens is unable to focus at infinity or, in fact, beyond a few feet. Ones with glass suck; you could save money by buying a $25 Holga lens for your camera. There's one exception, but it's not relevant: Canon once made a very nice adapter for some specific telephoto FD lenses, mostly L lenses, but you couldn't afford it even if you had the appropriate lenses.

Also, take into account that any adapter with glass will increase the focal length by around 1.25x, and thereby reduce the effective aperture. Your 50mm f/1.4 would become about 65mm f/1.8, and then you have to deal with the Field-of-View crop from the smaller sensor on the XSi/450D. You might as well buy the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, which goes for about $100 brand new.

Some of the new "mirrorless" cameras do have usable FD adapters available, because their lenses are designed to be mounted much closer to the sensor. There's still the "crop factor" to be dealt with, though.

And yes, of course the lens would be manual-focus only. On the XSi/450D, the viewfinder screen shows almost everything as being in focus whether it is or not, so that's a problem. Some of the "mirrorless" cameras have better manual-focus displays, such as 10x-zoom and focus-peaking.

The cost of a 50mm f1.8 EF lens is less than $100. You'll be better off with that than an adapter as stated by the other responders. However, I suggest you consider the new, low-cost 24mm EF-S Canon lens because it will give you a field of view closer to what you're used to with the 50mm lens on a film camera.

And no, the 50mm FD lens will never autofocus. There's no focus motor (and no diaphragm motor for auto exposure either).

Spaceisballer wrote:

Last question I had was in regards to a good all around lens for the 450d. I'll use this for some shots of the kids and whatever else I'm messing with. I'm fine with looking into something used, is the kit lens any good?

Thanks!

I would recommend three lenses:

1. If you want a zoom, the newest kit lens (EF-S 18-55mm STM) is quite good, if you are on a budget. Very silent and fast focusing, much better than the previous 18-55 kit lenses - NEW $250 (or ~$150 on eBay) - It is worth it to get the newest version of the kit lens. (the STM one)

2. The EF-S 24mm 2.8 STM - The BEST all-purpose prime for a crop camera (like the 450D), it stays attached to my SL1/100D. Very small too. $150.

3. The EF 40mm 2.8 STM (~$150) - Or the 50mm 1.8 II (~$100), both cheap and good for portraits.

Spaceisballer wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I went with the 50mm 1.8f mostly because of the price. I'll mess around with that for a while (since I never had a zoom with my film camera). Then I might nab a newer zoom lens.

Have fun with it! But as you'll notice the 50mm lens on your 450D is actually the equivalent to an 80mm lens on a film camera (1.6 crop factor). This is not a problem per se - many people use such a lens exclusively - but it does make indoor casual pictures a challenge sometimes.

If you want something wider, my other two recommendations would be suitable.

Yongnou is also working on a 'clone' of the EF 35mm f2.0 which is due out soon, it should be quite cheap: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/yongnuo-35mm-f-2-0-ef-mount-lens-announced-26747

That would be the closest thing to a 50mm on film.

The 450D is an AWSOME first foray into digital. While it doesn't have video, or quite the number of pixels as most newer cameras, it makes superb use of the pixels it does have to maximize your lenses. Here are a few samples I took a while ago.