Use your autofocus SLR lenses on a digital camera.
If you're a Canon Rebel film camera user who bought lenses, a flash unit and other accessories to complete your camera bag, you'll delight in knowing some of your photography equipment will work on a new digital single-lens reflex, or SLR, camera. If the lenses you used on the Canon Rebel film camera had autofocus capabilities, they will fit on several Canon digital cameras, including cameras in the Digital Rebel series.
Lens Compatibility
To ensure lens compatibility, choose a Canon-brand digital camera. Canon EF-series lenses used on your Canon Rebel film camera will work on any of Canon's Digital SLR cameras, including the EOS and Rebel series. If you used non-Canon brand lenses on your film camera, the lenses still have a Canon-style mount to make them fit the film camera. This mount feature makes the lenses exclusively compatible with Canon cameras.
Image Magnification
When attaching a lens designed for use with a film camera to a digital camera body, image magnification may occur. Digital SLR cameras utilize a complementary metal oxide semiconductor image-capturing sensor. Not all CMOS sensors mirror the ratio of a 35mm film negative. When putting a lens designed for film onto a camera body with the smaller CMOS sensor type, the edges of the images get cropped off, making the image appear closer than if it were captured with a film camera body.
Film Lens Benefits
Some photographers consider the unintentional magnification caused by a film-based lens attached to a digital camera beneficial. Most camera users like to zoom, so the extra magnification makes the photos appear closer. If you shoot sports or other routine activities from the same vantage point each time, you will notice a slight increase in closeness of your photos when using the film-based lenses on the digital camera. For example, shooting football with a 200mm lens designed for a film camera -- attached to a digital camera body -- creates photos that appear shot with a 300mm film-based lens.
Digital Lenses
As you grow with your new digital camera, you may choose to purchase lenses marketed for digital cameras. Although your film-based lenses work, why should you consider the newer digital lenses? Generally digital lenses weigh less than film-based lenses. Since the image sensor in a digital camera dwarfs the film plane in a film camera, a digital lens requires less heavy glass elements. The weight difference becomes noticeable when handling a long telephoto lens for a long period of time.
Tags: film camera, digital camera, camera body, Canon Rebel, Canon Rebel film