Can I Interchange Lenses From My 35MM Rebel to a New Digital Rebel?

The gold contacts are the same on all EF Canon lenses, so you can use them on both film and digital cameras.

When upgrading from a film to a digital Canon Rebel SLR camera body, it's important to take stock of your lenses and determine which body will be able to use the lenses you already own. Luckily, Canon has made it relatively easy to use most of its lenses on its camera bodies.

History

In 1987, Canon introduced the Canon EF lens mount, the first lens mount in the industry to go entirely electronic, permitting "highly accurate real-time data transfer between the camera body and the lens," according to the Canon Camera Museum. Although Canon has made a number of improvements on its lenses since then, this mount, including its gold contacts, has remained the same. This allows Canon camera consumers to use their lenses from their film cameras with digital bodies as well.

Considerations

While you can use Canon EF lenses, lenses from Canon film camera bodies, on newer digital cameras, you will lose about one third of the frame on all sides. The digital sensor "is smaller than that of actual (35mm film) film cameras (22.2mm wide versus 36mm wide)," explains kwc.org.

Warnings

While Canon EF lenses (those used for a Canon Rebel film camera) can be used on the newer Canon Digital Rebel cameras, EF-S lenses cannot be used on film cameras. If you plan on purchasing lenses to be used on both kinds of camera body, purchase EF lenses only.

References

• Canon: Canon Camera Story
• KWC.org: EF versus EF-S

Resources

• Canon: EOS Rebel T2i EF-S 18-55mm IS Kit Official statement on third party lenses