Canon manual focus lenses for EOS system

[Alice Morrison]

Been playing with a TS-E lens, which has whetted my appetite for manual focus lenses. Are all EOS lenses autofocus? Or can I, as with my old Nikon system, use older Canon manual focus lenses on the EOS cameras? If so, which lenses are good buys/bets?

Calling all Canon vintage lens experts!

[JohnC]

Canon FD lenses do not fit on EOS cameras.

There have been some adapters made over the years. But I haven't heard much good about them. With some adapters you lose infinity focus because the lens is pushed further out from the body (like using an extension tube). And FD lenses use mechanical linkage for aperture control, so you have to use stop-down metering and manually open/close the aperture.

John

[PJW]

I purchased a number of number of EF lenses recently for the 20D. While they are all autofocus, they all have a switch to turn off the autofocus. I generally use them in manual focus mode, as that's what I'm used to. The 10-22 EF-S, 16-35L, 24-70L, and 135 f:2L all work just dandy in manual focus for me.

It may be that Canon make a few inexpensive lenses that don't have manual focus ability. But all of their high quality lenses can be manually focused. If I'm not mistaken, any USM lens can be manually focused even when the autofocus system is switched on. So you can let the camera focus by pressing the shutter release half way, and then manually adjust focus yourself. I've tried this and it works on all of my lenses, all of which are USM. But while it does work, I find it faster to just focus manually and be done with it. The non USM lenses may not have this feature.