Which lenses fit your Canon DSLR?

Are you a new Canon photographer and confused over the difference between so-called APS-C and full-frame lenses? Perhaps you’re wondering which lenses are most suitable for your Canon DSLR?

Most Canon DSLRs fall into one of two categories. Full-frame cameras, like the EOS 5D, have an image sensor that’s the same size as a frame of 35mm photographic film, measuring 36x24mm. Cameras like the 1100D, 550D, 600D, 60D and 7D have a smaller APS-C image sensor, measuring 22.2×14.8mm.

The 1.6x crop factor of EOS cameras like the Canon 1100D narrow the angle of view

Canon EF lenses are designed for full-frame cameras but are compatible with all Canon DSLRs, Canon EF-S lenses are designed specifically for APS-C cameras and won’t work on full-framers.

For wide-angle and standard zoom lenses, you really need to buy an EF-S lens for your 1100D as the focal length multiplier, or crop factor, extends the effective focal length of any lens by 1.6x. An 18-55mm zoom lens has an ‘effective’ zoom range of 29-88mm on an APS-C body.

Full-frame lens

However, full-frame telephoto lenses are good for any APS-C body, as reasonably compact 70-300mm lenses give an impressive telephoto reach equivalent to 480mm.

Leading lens manufacturers product refs

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2012 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Photography Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.