Canon EF and EF-S lenses

[Craig Ramsay]

I have a newbe question for all you Canon DSLR users out there -

 

I currently own a Canon 400D which I bought about 3 months ago. I know that the camera body takes EF-S lenses due to it having a smaller sensor than some of the higher end Canon DSLR's but I discovered yesterday that it will also accept EF lenses.

 

The camera that I bought comes standard with a 18-55mm lens which to be honest isn't very good. What I would like to do is replace it with the equivalent EF lens as I would like to upgrade to a full frame Canon DSLR in the future. What I am trying to figure out is would a 28-105mm EF lens give me the same zoom range as the 18-55mm EF-S lens?

[rogue3d]

I have a newbe question for all you Canon DSLR users out there -

 

I currently own a Canon 400D which I bought about 3 months ago. I know that the camera body takes EF-S lenses due to it having a smaller sensor than some of the higher end Canon DSLR's but I discovered yesterday that it will also accept EF lenses.

 

The camera that I bought comes standard with a 18-55mm lens which to be honest isn't very good. What I would like to do is replace it with the equivalent EF lens as I would like to upgrade to a full frame Canon DSLR in the future. What I am trying to figure out is would a 28-105mm EF lens give me the same zoom range as the 18-55mm EF-S lens?

 

I'm in the same boat as you, I picked up a 400D about 3 months ago as well. I just purchased a new fixed 30mm lens sigma 1.4. It's the best lens I ever used perfectly made for the 400D. As for your question I'm not up on the whole full frame discussion, I have read that there may be some vignetting when dealing with lenses and the censors. I'd recommend posting here:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33

 

pretty sure someone could answer you there, search first, I know I've seen similar posts on that forum in the past.

[NeonMojo]

The differences come from the 1.6x crop factor of the 400D due to the smaller sensor. EF lens were designed for film or "full frame" cameras which means that a 50mm EF lens on the 400D has the same field of view as an 80mm EF lens (50mm x 1.6) on a full frame camera. Although its not quite the same as using a 80mm lens since you are just cropping off the edges...the depth of field remains the same.

 

So from your example, the equivalent FOV of the 18-55mm EF-S stock lens is roughly 29-88mm EF lens on a full frame camera. To get the same FOV with an EF lens you need a 18-55mm EF lens on your 400D. You always use the 1.6 multiplier with both EF and EF-S lens when trying to find the full frame equivalent.

 

The 28-105mm EF lens you mentioned on the 400D would give you the same FOV as a 45-168mm EF lens on a full frame camera...Hope that helps

Edited May 15, 2008 by NeonMojo

[Craig Ramsay]

The differences come from the 1.6x crop factor of the 400D due to the smaller sensor. EF lens were designed for film or "full frame" cameras which means that a 50mm lens on a full frame camera = 80mm lens (50mm x 1.6) on the 400D. Although its not quite the same as using a 80mm lens since you are just cropping off the edges...the depth of field remains the same. The crop factor only really hurts when trying to shoot wide angle since a 17mm EF lens = roughly a 27mm on the 400D...

 

So from your example, the equivalent of the 18-55mm EF-S stock crap lens is roughly a 10-35mm EF lens.

 

The 28-105mm EF lens you mentioned is roughly a 45-168mm EF-S lens... Hope that helps

 

Well that has really confused me. I have a Canon 10-22mm EF-S lens so I thought the equivalent EF lens would be something like 16-35mm EF? Using your formula the full frame equivalent to my EF-S lens would be something like 6-14mm EF, I dont think you can even buy an EF lens wider than 14mm... please correct me if I am wrong?

[johnvid]

Hi Craig,

 

Ive seen this question on the Vray forum too... the answers you are recieving are only part of the picture....

 

Personally If I had the choice between an ef and an ef-s, I think I would always go for the EF lens..., because when you decide to o full frame you can. You by now should have the 1.6 zoom factor taken into account, an 18-55 ef-s and an 18-55 ef should have the same angle of view.

 

As for quality of the EF lenses I am not sure it is worth it all the time, I have the 400D, and also older canon 35mm Eos cameras, I still like film.

 

But dissapointed with the clarity of the images from the 400D, I thought about my future lens choices. I thought it might be worth shelling out for a really expensive ZOOM at some stage, but my experiments havent proved it would be worth it. My friend has a 17-80 (or 70) EF pro lens which he paid about 700 quid for, the test I did was to set the 2 lenses at about 18mm take 2 pictures and zoom in on some text in the image to see if the clarity was better, I was expecting a marked difference but didn't see it really.

 

So I dont think I would be spending 700 quid or more on a lens in the near future. I think the Sigma lenses are probably good enough for most things, I want an 8mm fisheye lens because I love the effect of the super wide distortion, within the spherical image, but would consider the alternative of the 8mm that doesnt have the circular effect.

 

I would like to get a 55mm with super wide f-stop as its a nice natural lens. (but with the 1.6x crop factor needing to be taken into account) A nice single lens that covers most of the range is say the 28-200. Only if your getting paid big bucks or earning a good living from photography would I recomend the real expensive super fast lenses.

 

Image stabilization is just more to go wrong, and not really needed on a wide angle lens, though it does allow you to get away with handheld shots in low light that might not be possible without wide fstops or high iso settings.

 

Then there is the alternative to all of this, which is to find some nice old glass lenses(without fungus) that feel better engineered and are cheaper made for other cameras and use them in manual mode (or af confirm) with a mount adapter such as OM to EF, there are loads of choices and you can grab as bargain, sometimes for less than 20 quid. or you could spend more on Ziess or Contax lenses, basically more choice.

 

Hope this helps john http://www.visual-image.co.uk

[NeonMojo]

Well that has really confused me.

 

I think I mistyped earlier which probably added to your confusion. I edited my post above trying to clarify but let me try again...

 

When trying to convert between lens keep in mind that the lens sizes are relative to a full frame camera. A 80mm EF lens on a full frame camera has the same field of view as a 50mm EF-S lens on the 400D.

 

I have a Canon 10-22mm EF-S lens so I thought the equivalent EF lens would be something like 16-35mm EF?

 

Thats correct if the 16-35mm EF lens is on a full frame camera. Putting the 16-35mm EF lens on your 400D would get "zoomed" up to 26-56mm.

[Craig Ramsay]

Thats correct if the 16-35mm EF lens is on a full frame camera. Putting the 16-35mm EF lens on your 400D would get "zoomed" up to 26-56mm.

 

Ah OK I think I understand that, it's because of the 400D's 1.6 crop factor right? The sensor doesn't see right to the edge of the EF lens?

[NeonMojo]

exactly