Canon Lenses

EF lenses will fit on any canon eos film or digital camera and work. Thats full frame 1.3 crop sensor and 1.6 crop sensor in digital bodies.
The EFS lenses will only work with Canon 1.6 crop sensors cameras. If you try them on any other you will damage the lens and the body the reason is the rear element is moved further backwards into the camera body and is optomised for the 1.6 crop bodies
Hope this helps
Regards
Richard
 
EF is the standard autofocus mount for all Canon EOS bodies; 35mm film, full-frame digital APS-H 1.3x crop digital (i.e. the 1D series) and APS-C 1.6x crop digital bodies. They feature a red dot on the lens barrel to indicate where they should be aligned before mounting on the camera.

EF-s is the line of lenses designed for use only on APS-C digital bodies (500D, 60D, 7D, etc). They cast a smaller image circle and are usually lighter and smaller than their EF counterparts. They feature a white square on the lens barrel to indicate where they should be aligned before mounting on the camera and will not mount on full frame bodies.
 
Ok Thanks everyone that has explained a lot to me as i am new to DSLR.
 
caddie152 said:
Ok Thanks everyone that has explained a lot to me as i am new to DSLR.
Click to expand...

But nobody has explained why.

The reason is that it is optically quite difficult to design a lens that will cover a large image area. So, given that crop format cameras have a sensor which is under half the size of full frame, if the lens only has to operate over that smaller area, the designers can do quite a bit more with it.

A good example is the EF 17-40L f/4 and the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS. Because the EF-S lens only has to cover a much smaller sensor, it has 35% more focal length, and a maximum aperture that is 100% larger in light gathering area, ie f/2.8 vs f/4. It also has IS. Or the designers could make an EF-S lens smaller and lighter, or cheaper, or sharper, or whatever other mix of benefits they wanted to incorporate.

These are very big advantages, but the optical upsides quickly run out at longer focal lengths, which is why neither Canon nor Nikon makes EF-S or DX lenses that start at longer than 55-60mm.
 
... another "benefit" of ef-s lenses is that they are made from high quality plastics.

there are some real gems out there optically, but the build quality from those which i have used ranges from pretty middle of the road to toy, tbh.
 
Last edited:
cuthbert said:
... another "benefit" of ef-s lenses is that they are made from high quality plastics.

there are some real gems out there optically, but the build quality from those which i have used ranges from pretty middle of the road to toy, tbh.
Click to expand...

That's price, same as EF. Nifty-50 1.8 is EF and the nastiest bit of plastic you could hope to acquire.
 
cuthbert said:
... another "benefit" of ef-s lenses is that they are made from high quality plastics.

there are some real gems out there optically, but the build quality from those which i have used ranges from pretty middle of the road to toy, tbh.
Click to expand...

All bar one of my lenses are EF-S and I've never had an issue with the build quality - all very solid indeed. In fact the only lens I have a build quality issue with is my one EF lens!

EF lenses have absolutely no build quality advantages over EF-S lenses, unless they have L stamped on them!
 
Last edited:
odd jim said:
EF lenses have absolutely no build quality advantages over EF-S lenses, unless they have L stamped on them!
Click to expand...

Depends on the lens you're talking about. The EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 Mk1 that came with the 300D was, er, not a fabulous piece of construction.

In general, though, I think your point stands.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top