Forward compatibility with Canon

Ozone

This may be a silly question, I currently have a Canon 30d and will be upgrading to a 40d within a year (my wife doesn't know that, yet!). I dropped into the local camera shop tonight to look for little gadgets, and while talking to the owner, he said that some of the features of my L series glass (24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8 IS, and 100 to 400) will not be compatible with the 40d. He said that instead, the 40d will be more fully featured using EF-S glass.

I think that I have kept up with the trends of DSLR's (Canon especially) and I didn't want to tell this guy he was full of it, but on the off chance that I missed something I was wondering if anybody here might know whether this was a load of manure or if Canon is pulling a fast one here.

Thanks

Richard

Ozone wrote:

This may be a silly question, I currently have a Canon 30d and will be upgrading to a 40d within a year (my wife doesn't know that, yet!). I dropped into the local camera shop tonight to look for little gadgets, and while talking to the owner, he said that some of the features of my L series glass (24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8 IS, and 100 to 400) will not be compatible with the 40d. He said that instead, the 40d will be more fully featured using EF-S glass.

I think that I have kept up with the trends of DSLR's (Canon especially) and I didn't want to tell this guy he was full of it, but on the off chance that I missed something I was wondering if anybody here might know whether this was a load of manure or if Canon is pulling a fast one here.

Thanks

:bigbs

BikePilot

I'm pretty sure he was full of it, though I'm no expert. Now of course an EF-S on a full frame won't work out so well, but a L lens on a crop frame works just dandy.

Ozone

rsinmadrid wrote:

:bigbs

Thanks, RS. The owner is a long time film user, but I think he just hasn't kept up with the trends in digital, i.e. lenses, crop sensors, etc.

Thanks for setting my mind to ease. Have a happy new year!

Ozone

BikePilot wrote:

I'm pretty sure he was full of it, though I'm no expert. Now of course an EF-S on a full frame won't work out so well, but a L lens on a crop frame works just dandy.

I know that the EF-S glass won't work in full frames because the back of the lens protrudes too far for the mirror to swing up, but I couldn't figure out why a newer camera like the 40d would be engineered to work on the less expensive lenses but not the high dollar "L" series glass.

Thanks for your reply.

colourbox

Could have been an innocent mistake. There are so many product details for a dealer to remember. I'll bet he either got the Canon lens compatibility backwards (confusing EF-S lens incompatibility with full-frame bodies instead of the other way around) or confused Canon with Nikon issues (where some traditional Nikon lenses cannot use autofocus on some new Nikon digital bodies).

All I can say is that the 24-105L works on my Canon crop body with all functions working. Only issue is the narrower field of view of the crop sensor.

bauerman

It's always amazing to me how LITTLE local camera store staffers actually know about the products that they sell. There are some pretty bad decisions being made on a daily basis by less educated buyers based on this type of hogwash.

Another good example of why I use my local shop to browse new equipment and then buy online.

Ozone

Yeah, this guy doesn't have much in the way of digital stuff, but he does have a lot of older stuff including an old Canon 55mm f/1.2 that I was looking at. While I was in his store, some people came in and looked at the single digital he had, an XTi. Oh well.

z_28

You can sleep like a baby and upgrade to 40D anytime you want

BTW - 50/1.4 is nice too and got AF build-in already

Frog Lady

I have two of the lenses that you mentioned (the 70-200 and 100-400) and they both work great on my 40D (recently upgraded from a 20D). So, no worries about that - just worry about how you're going to tell the wife about the camera upgrade

C.

pathfinder

Canon EF lenses have worked on my 10D, and my 20D , and, currently, on my 40D.

I cannot think of a single EF "L" lens that will not work on the current 40D. Not always the best choice, due to size, weight, expense. Some of the EF-S lenses are very nice optically, and smaller, lighter, and less expensive.

EF-S lenses, however, ONLY fit on crop sensor Canon bodies ( 20D, 30D, 40D, xTi, Digital Rebel etc.)