How to Use 35mm Lenses on a Digital Camera

Standard 35-mm lenses and digital lenses used to have the same optics and lens mounts. You could mount a 35-mm lens for a Pentax film camera on a Pentax digital camera. But manufacturers began to experiment with focal lengths and discovered they could make much wider range lenses. Manufacturers now produce 18- to 200-mm zoom lenses, a range unheard of before digital cameras.

Things You'll Need

• 35-mm lenses Digital camera body of same mount

Instructions

How to Use 35mm Lenses on a Digital Camera

1. Mount your 35-mm lens with the correct lens mount. A Nikon lens won't fit a Canon or a Pentax, for example, without an adapter. The same is true for third-party lenses by companies such as Sigma and Tamron. Each is made with a camera-specific lens mount.

2. Mount a normal---50- to 55-mm---lens on your digital camera. Notice that on most digital cameras with a standard charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor, the view will appear to multiply. There usually is a 1.5x factor, meaning a 50-mm normal lens will appear as a 75 mm-portrait lens. Even your widest-angle lenses, such as 24-mm, will lose some wide-angle aspect because of this.

3. Try using the 50-mm lens in your backyard; get used to the magnification effect of the CCD. If you are used to a good wide-angle with your 24-mm lens, that will be cut to 36 mm, so you won't have the field of view you might expect. Try the lens on a normal scene, such as the view from your back porch.

4. Use the magnification effect. If you have a 50- to 200-mm zoom lens on your old film camera, you now have a 75- to 300-mm zoom to play with. It will give you farther reach for capturing a bird in a tree or picking out a face in a crowd without being noticed.

Tips & Warnings

• 35-mm film camera lenses tend to be heavier than their digital counterparts. If you are shooting with a long telephoto lens, try resting the camera on a tripod or other firm surface. This will help to steady the view.

References

• Digital SLR Cameras, Lenses and Film