Is there an adapter for Canon AE-1 lenses on Canon 550D?

Question

Is there a way to use my old Canon AE-1 lenses on my new EOS-550D?

Answer

Short answer: yes, but you won't like the results.

Longer answer: those old lenses sure are fun :) ... but you still won't like the results. Here are some details:

There are adapters, and you can by cheap glassless ones (that won't allow infinity focus -- they basically act like extension tubes) or adapters with glass to allow infinity focus but that have varying quality (depending on how much you are willing to pay -- Canon even made an extremely expensive official adapter, I've heard, decades ago to help pro photographers with the switch from FD to EOS).

Unfortunately, your quality will really suffer. When I got my 30D I bought a couple FD lenses (my crown jewel was a 135/2.8, beautifully small and responsive and light-weight) but in order to use them with my adapter I had to stop them down 2-3 stops in order to get good pictures without CA. I still loved using that 135, and in the right light I could still get a decent picture every once in a while at f/2.8, but for all practical purposes it was a 135/8 and it's hard to get excited about a 135/8 and want to take it out for pictures.

With the 135 and the glassless adapter, the maximum focus distance was about 6 feet. With a 100-300 at 300mm, the maximum focus distance was, oh let's say I was 15 feet from a house and I could just barely focus on something at the top of a two-story house so what's that, 25 feet? Somewhere around here there's also a question where I both calculated and experimentally determined the maximum focus distance of a 50mm lens with a glassless adapter (it wasn't pretty).

If I were you, I certainly wouldn't throw out your lenses: I'd spend a few dollars on a glassless adapter and consider spending a few more on an adapter with glass to allow infinity focus. You can use the glassless adapter to turn your wider-aperture lenses into macro lenses (I use one with a 35-70 f/3.5-4.5, but the smallish aperture makes focusing difficult and I'd like to get an f/2 or wider lens for that purpose), and the adapter-with-glass to run some experiments. But I'm sure that you'll get better pictures with a cheap all-plastic slow consumer modern lens (especially one with modern coatings, which also play a big part in image quality) that doesn't require an adapter than with your expensive-at-the-time fast lenses with an adapter.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news... and if you can prove me wrong, I'd love to hear it!

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