Just curious. With everybody buying digital cameras, what is everybody doing with their old slr's? I have two good ones with a whole compliment of lens. What do I do with them?
Ray

I'd keep'em. My old Nikon's will take up space in the collection for as long as they last. Still like film better than digital, especially for long tele. Digital is sure convenient though. May have to invest in a good SLR digital someday.

Rick C.

I donated mine to the university photography dept. and got a nice tax write off. Then bought a digital SLR that would accept all my old lenses and have been very happy with the change
Good luck
Tom

I have a set of lens' for my Canon A1. Will they fit any of the Canon DSLR's? That would be nice. Does anybody know? It seems like the new lens' are larger in diameter.
Ray

My old Canon AE-1 Program SLR lenses would not fit on my Canon Digital Rebel. Sure wish they would have, I had a bunch of them

Howdy!

We have a Canon EOS with lenses. LW purchased a new Canon XTI digital. The EOS lenses would fit on the new camera but when trying to take a picture then would get a screen with a message stating error of some kind. When to a camera shop and asked about the error. Was advised that the lenses would work if sent back for up grade. The cost of the up grade was as much as a new lenses. So purchased a new lenses.

"Happy Trails"
chiefneon

Although we seem constitutionally incapable of getting rid of a camera, I think the idea of giving the cameras to a school is a great idea -- some high schools have photography programs and many students can't afford to buy a good camera to learn on. I'd also try e-Bay -- there are still lots of people out there who want to use film, might like a new camera and are looking for something they can get cheap. The next trick, of course, is finding film, but that's another issue.

We have both Nikon and Canon SLRs (both film and digital). The Canon lenses are not compatible film-to-digital (or, for that matter, from one film camera to another), but the Nikon lenses are completely interchangeable. In fact, I switch out between an old film SLR lens and a new digital lens on my Nikon and sometimes feel the old lens works better than the new one. The complete interchangeability of lenses made me a Nikon convert many years ago when I got tired of buying all new lenses every time I bought a new body.

Pardon me for bringing up an old thread, but the last couple posts here might be misleading to some Canon users. Canon digital SLRs will accept any Canon EF lens ever made (since 1987), and they'll work just as they did on your EOS film cameras.

The older, manual focus FD and FL, lenses will not properly fit any EOS film or digital camera. These lenses were made in the 60s (FLs) and 70s and early 80s (FDs). There have been adapters made so they can be used with EOS bodies, including the dSLRs, but for 99% of applications, it's not worth the effort.

Discounting one rather rare and very unwieldy auto-focus FD lens made towards the end of that series and one just-as-rare manual focus 80s version EOS body, if you have to manually focus your old Canon, the lenses will not work on digital SLRs. If your Canon SLR has auto-focus lenses, they will work on any and all of Canon's digital SLRs -- IF THEY ARE CANON BRAND LENSES. Third party (off-brand) lenses may or may not work properly. Some of them seem to work okay but will screw up in certain situations.

I had a nice Tamron lens (28-105 f2.8) that seemed to work fine when I got my first dSLR (D60), but I was complaining to Canon and to my dealer that the darned flash was erratic. After considerable finger pointing, cursing and testing, I discovered that if the flash was in e-ttl mode, the camera was in manual exposure mode, and I was using manual focus with that particular lens, the exposure would be way off. That was my main lens at the time, so it wasn't unusual to duplicate those conditions. When I discovered it I called Tamron and was informed they had new firmware for it. I sent it to them, they upgraded it, cleaned, lubed and adjusted it and had it back in my hands less than a week after I sent it off. Problem solved, no charge. Being a pro-grade lens it had a 6 or 7 year warranty. If your lens is out of warranty it might not be worth upgrading. Also, if your third party lens was made in the past six years, it's probably fine -- for now.


Unfortunately, if you had a Canon external flash for your EOS film camera, it MAY not work properly on any of the digitals. The earlier EOS film cameras used A-ttl flash metering, and that was changed to E-ttl metering toward the end of film camera updates. I think it was ushered in with the EOS-3 and Elan II models and finally the EOS-1V. The A-ttl "EZ" flashes don't work on the digital models. They require the later "EX" E-ttl flash units.

I bought a Canon AV1 when they first came out. I still prefer it when photographing serious stuff. This reminds me, I must take it in for servicing soon-too many years of dusty environments. I much prefer it to my wife's Fugi S5000 I bought for her when they first came out,it's so handy, but-the delay between pushing the button and the actual picture ruins many shots.

I still use my Canon AE1 Program. It's over 20 years old. Digital still cannot compare to film and I think it will be quite some time before it will. I use a Konica Minolta 35mm scanner to convert to digital format when needed.

I converted all of my film cameras to digital 4 years ago. I wouldn't go back unless someone gave me a large check to do it. Newer digital technology has made the medium as good or better than film with the exception of two areas of the exposure, the edges of the envelope, over and underexposure. Film still has a slight edge in theses areas but not for long. Almost every image that you view today is taken digitally, all sports is, almost all fashion is, and with the exception of client specific images all studio imaging is digital. Most stock agencies won't accept anything but digital images and then most request at least a ten, preferably twelve megapixel file. If scanned images are sent they must be at least 300 lines per inch, but again only a digital file will be accepted.

With the advent of camera raw files and either 12 or 14 bit analog to digital converters in most DSLR's, digital in most instances has more color depth and exposure latitude than most films available today. Images taken in a raw format are archival, forward compatible, and every facet of exposure is controllable and changeable. With the advent of "HDRI" high dynamic resolution imaging, color depth and low light imaging has reached levels that can not be obtained with film under any process.

I miss film but digital is an excellent photographic medium. The film is better argument is not viable in my experience, all 39 years of it. My photography has improved because of digital imaging, I shoot more and get better images consistently. I have "darkroom" capability that I didn't have when I stuck my hands in caustic chemicals and stunk up the house. Don't discount digital because you don't understand it, it will replace film sooner than you think.

I don't discount digital because I don't understand it! I have been developing film since I was a young teenager and that was quite some time ago. I personally still like film and can scan any image into a digital format as I said before. I agree that you can shoot more with digital because it costs nothing to develop. Even if I were selling images I think I would still stay with film. Just my preference though. And you know what they say, opinions are like a@#holes, we all have one and they are all a little different.

PS I can scan in at a max of 5400 dpi, just rough estimates makes that something like 27 megapixel on a 35mm film and I still am unable to scan to a quality that you can see individual grains on the film.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Filthy Beast,

I have all Nikon for the last 34 years. All the lenses are reusable from 1960s to now. The original F-Mount still the same.

I got my DSLR D70s two years ago. Still have two F2 film cameras with motor drives. I keep the film cameras just for old time sake. I excursively use my digital Nikon D70s with a 20-200mm zoom lens(30-300mm 35mm world), it has much more freedom than film even the absolute detail is not as good as film.

Depend on what kind of photography you engage in and that dictate what kind of camera you have. I can only say for myself.

I took over 10,000 pictures a year in RV full timing. I process all pictures I took in my digital dark room, namely Picasa and Photoshop. I look for a good composition of a picture rather fine detail. So a high power zoom lens and digital are the tools for me. In digital, I get instant feed back in the field and adjust my f-stop and shutter speed.

Here are some of my photos http://pley.smugmug.com/gallery/1294088/1/281515636_jnax7

NICE WORK,,,,Padraic!!!!

Mike