Compatible?

[verikos]

Hi there, just wanted to ask you guys for some advice. The following set of lenses were passed down to me after my father-in-law passed away about 10 years ago (yes, it's taken me this long!). Before spending hundreds of euros on a new DSLR I am hoping that I can put all these lenses to good use, and will only need to buy the body.

Canon FD 28mm 1:2.8
Canon FD 50mm 1:1.4
Canon Zoom Lens 80-200mm 1:4
Sigma Ultra-wide 18mm 1:2.8
Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm 1:2.8-3.5
Vivtar 2x Macro focusing teleconverter MC
Kenko 2x CFE Teleplus MC7

I have a few questions:
1) Are they all compatible with all types of DSLR? (All lenses were origianlly used with a Canon A-1/Canon AE-1)- they all have a little red dot that you line up and turn to lock into place!) Sorry, I'm sure there's a proper name for this type of mechanism!

2) I have an idea about the first five lenses, a mixture of prime, wide angle and telephoto lenses. But not sure about the last two. They look as if they go between another lens and the body.

3)Would I need to buy any other lenses to complete the set?

Looking forward to your comments. Thanks again.

[dkippen]

Denise - did a bit of research on another forum and this is what I found:

Tried a couple of other FD lenses on my Canon DSLR. In all cases I observed severe and visible loss of optical quality when using a regular FD/EOS converter with lens element. Since then I gave up on using older FD lenses with the exception of macro work where I don't need infinity focus (then I use a FD/EOS converter without lens element)

Canon FD lenses are difficult to convert to EOS mount, reason being is flange to film plane focal distance. There are adapters that contain a glass element that degrades the image and multiplies focal length to allow the FD lenses to focus to infinity, adapters without the glass only allow close up work.

Adapters are available. Ones that allow proper (infinity) focusing include an optical element. They are basically like a TC. The genuine Canon one goes for about $1000 and only works with select Canon teles. There are also "glass-less" adapters that basically act as extension tubes, dramatically restricting focus distance to only a couple feet or so..

Hope this helps.

[verikos]

Thanks Debbie, really appreciate it. I didn't understand a lot of the technical jargon :-O but I think I get the gist! It looks like I'm going to have to practice my techniques and wait until I feel confident enough to use an SLR (less film wastage!). Once I'm at this stage I'll have a variety of lenses to work with. (Thirty years of out date - never mind!) And there I was feeling quite optimistic this afternoon sorting through the old camera case. :-( BTW, do you know if the Vivitar lenses have the same problem?