Thursday, March 26, 2009

Can the filters from FILM SLR cameras be used for digital cameras?

I have many old but pristine filters for a 35mm slr camera. They range from ordinary haze filter, to very expensive special effects filters. Can these be used on the new digital SLR cameras ? I have yet to switch as I have too much $ tied up in lenses %26amp; so on that can not be used from old to new. I plan sometime soon to buy a really good digital SLR and will keep them if they will work. Also what kind of lens is best for shoot interior shots of rooms that shows the small rooms the best?


Thanks
Can the filters from FILM SLR cameras be used for digital cameras?
As long as they fit on the end of the lens, they should work fine.
Can the filters from FILM SLR cameras be used for digital cameras?
Yes they work exactly the same whether the image is recorded by chemical or digital means.
Reply:Yes to the first part, as long as the thread size is sI%26#039;milar.





For the second part, im assuming you want to photograph interiors. i would recommend a wide angle lens. Nothing like 12mm something around 17-20mm will take a good photograph without a lot of distortion. In all honesty though if you want the best, you need a tilt shift lens, as you can control the amount of distortion. Those run around $2000 for the decent ones.





But if you re not doing it professionally, get a wide angle and you%26#039;ll be just fine.
Reply:Generally speaking the answer is yes. The only thing is that on the smaller sensor DSLR you will need to use a circular polarizer instead.





As to whether the lenses you own will fit on a new DSLR camera. They should as long as the camera company has not changed the mount. You don%26#039;t say what kind of camera you have but basically all Nikon lenses from 1959 on will work.


For Canon all EOS mount lenses will work. The FD mount was discontinued in 1987 and all cameras made since then use the EOS mount.


Pretty much all Pentax lenses will fit on the current Pentax digital SLR%26#039;s.


All Minolta lenses will fit on the Sony cameras.


I%26#039;m not sure on Olympus but they will probably work as well. The only difference is that most of the DSLR%26#039;s use a sensor that is smaller than 35mm film so there is a crop factor that you need to add to the focal legth of your lens. For most this 1.5 or 1.6. So a 100mm lens would perform as a 150-160mm lens. This will depend on the camera company.





A good lens for shooting indoor rooms would be a wide angle. The exact focal length will depend on the size of the rooms so a wide angle zoom would be good to use.
Reply:With a DSLR the only filters you really need are a Haze/UV filter to protect the front element and a circular polarizer. The effects of colored filters (red, green, yellow, etc.) can be duplicated in Photoshop. Since you can set the white balance on a DSLR for different light sources (fluorescent, tungsten) you no longer need correction filters.





Now about film camera lenses and DSLR compatibility.





Pentax is still using the K-mount introduced in 1975 so any K-mount lens will mount to the Pentax K200D or K20D or their predecessors. There are limitations when using the older manual focus lenses but at least you can use them.





Canon changed their lens mount fron the FD to the EOS type when they introduced their auto focus EOS Rebel. So if you have a collection of Canon FD mount lenses they are of no use with a Canon DSLR. There may be an adapter but you%26#039;ll have to look for it.





Nikon kept their lens mount compatibility when they went to auto focus and then to the DSLR line.





Minolta changed their lens mount from the MC/MD bayonet mount in 1985 when they introduced the auto focus Maxxum 7000 with the A-mount. Since Sony bought the DSLR technology from Konica-Minolta they kept the A-mount. If you have a collection of Minolta A-mount lenses they will work on the Sony A100/200/300/350/700. If your lenses are MC/MD mount they are of no use unless you can find an adapter.





Since Olympus DSLR cameras use the 4/3 mount you will need the Olympus MF-1 OM (OM to 4/3 adapter) to use the older Olympus lenses on the Olympus DSLR cameras. This adapter only works with the following cameras: E-520,510, 500, 420, 410, 330, 300, E-3 %26amp; E-1.

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