Canon 500d lens compatability

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yeoboy

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Bruce
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Bought my 500d s/h from someone who said his lenses did not work on it, Now I can see Canon lens are EF or EF-S, Does the 500d need EF-S lens, They seem more recent.
 
I would not necessarily look at what lenses are most recent, a lot of the L lenses which are classed as Canons finest have been around for quite some time and are (to my knowledge) all EF lenses and quite hapily sit on a 500D
 
All canon EF or EF-S lenses will work on the 500D camera body. Canon FD lenses, lenses manufactured before canon switched to the EF system require an adapter to convert to the EF system, the adapters are mainly 3rd party offerings , but there are issues.

Older 3rd party lenses (sigma) designed before digital will not work on the digital bodies (my 2 sigma lenses that worked on my Canon 500N 35mm film camera, wouldn't work when I bought my 20D), unless they were rechipped (wasn't worth it).

It sounds like the guy you bought the body off was using older lenses that were probably not chipped to work with a digital body.
 
Thanks for the reply, I am looking at getting an L series telephoto lens and the outlay will be significant, So, Need to ensure I know what lens are appropriate.
 
yeoboy said:
Thanks for the reply, I am looking at getting an L series telephoto lens and the outlay will be significant, So, Need to ensure I know what lens are appropriate.
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Take you body along to a camera shop and try a few out. (it shouldn't be a problem) And don't just stick to canon, check out the other manufacturers as well, sigma and tamron have some good lenses as well. At least it will confirm if you camera body works
 
I don't know which L you are looking at but I run a 500D with a 100-400L and love it :D
 
Have been using the 500 with the kit 18-55 IS and am really pleased with it, I feel I could use a 70-200 to bring a new dimension,Dont want the glass to limit the quality to much so am imagining I might need L spec.
 
It is possible that older other equipement manufacturer lenses, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina etc etc didn't work. At the end of the day Canon own the EF / EF-S spec. OEM reverse engineer this spec. Canon add a new feature to a new camera - it breaks the other lenses.

I would not worry about any Canon EF or EF-S lenses working on the 500D. They will.
 
yeoboy said:
Thanks for the reply, I am looking at getting an L series telephoto lens and the outlay will be significant, So, Need to ensure I know what lens are appropriate.
Click to expand...

As said, any L will be compatible, as will all EF-S's.

Also, all the popular L's and the better EF-S's hold there value extremely well. You'll be able to recoup much of your outlay should you decide to sell later.
 
I read somewhere (maybe on here?) about someone with a 7D that didn't work with a 3rd party lens, it worked for a while then packed up, giving an error code. Lens worked on another body, different lenses worked on his body. He ended up having a couple of copies and eventually they all did the same.
I think the answer came from the fact that some of the 3rd parties reverse engineer the mount/interface and don't always get it 100%.
Odd though, as other owners were chipping in saying they had the same lens & body and their setup was fine.

I wonder if this is what the original owner of the camera was talking about.

However if the OP is looking at canon glass there should be no problem :)
 
I put an old 28-200 Sigma (EOS fit) last night , It allowed the first pic but came up with an error code, When camera is switched offand on it you can take one pic until the proccess is repeated.
 
You may need to contact Sigma to get the lens re-chipped (contact the Sigma service centre), a quick Google suggests that older Sigma lenses (e.g. the 28-200) can have communication issues with newer Canon bodies as the communication protocols between the body and the lens have subtly changed over the years. Whilst Canon ensure backwards compatibility for their own lenses they don't have to take into account third party offerings.

Newer Sigma lenses shouldn't be a problem, and the Sigma EX lenses are very good.
 
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