Do I have to have a "L" series lens for a Canon 5d digital camera?

I have a chance to buy a canon 5d camera for a really inexpensive price. I already have several lenses but I don't have any "L" series lenses. I can't really afford those. Some people say the only way a 5d takes a good picture is if you have a really expensive lens.
I have a EF 50mm 1:1.4, EF-S 60mm 1:2.8, macro 0.5m/1.6, and a ef 80-200mm 1:4.5-5.6 II lens. Will these work well with a Canon 5d?

no, you can use any Canon EF lenses as long as they are not EF-S lenses. However it makes no sense if you have the 5D and using the non-USM EF 70-300 lens, for instance because the image quality will be suck anyway.

The Canon Eos 300D Digital Camera (Paperback)

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Furl
  • del.icio.us
  • Slashdot
  • Smarking
  • NewsVine
  • SphereIt
  • blinkbits
  • Reddit
  • Blue Dot
  • StumbleUpon
  • BlinkList
  • Spurl
  • Netscape

2 Responses to “Do I have to have a "L" series lens for a Canon 5d digital camera?”

  1. dodol says:

    no, you can use any Canon EF lenses as long as they are not EF-S lenses. However it makes no sense if you have the 5D and using the non-USM EF 70-300 lens, for instance because the image quality will be suck anyway.
    References :

  2. Pooky says:

    If I may show you what Canon 5D (with 24-70 mm f 2.8 L zoom) can do. It was shot in RAW and converted to JPG.

    http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=TUxseFVTTk1kMnZIRGc9PQ

    Here is a proofsheet of a bunch of photos (in PDF format). You can zoom in and look at each one. First photo was taken with Canon Digital Rebel with its kit lens.

    http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=TUxuRkJaMGtJMHZIRGc9PQ

    It's in Adobe Digital Negative format (converted from RAW). You can use Adobe Photoshop (current version) or Adobe Lightroom (now version 1.3) to open it.

    So I think you don't absolutely have to use an "L" lens for your camera.. but you need to use a good lens. A cheapo $100 lens will probably not do.

    Hope this helps a little.

    Addendum: I mounted my friend's 35-80 mm Canon (it was their least expensive zoom lens) on and took a few photos a year go. I didn't honestly think it was bad. Also, I tried my niece's 24-100 mm Canon zoom–and that too, was okay. It felt differently in my hand, but I did not think the results were so bad. The contrast was lower though with cheap lenses–that I noticed.

    Part II

    Your EF-S (I believe I read 60 mm Macro) won't work with 5D as it is for a cropped sensor. You can sell it on ebay (etc), and use the money to get the 50 mm Macro f 2.5. I had that lens (and later upgraded to 100 mm Macro 2.8). A bit noisy (when focusing) but it is extremely sharp (and flat object remined flat), or if you have more budget, you can get the 100 mm Macro. It focuses without a sound and has FTM (full time manual focus) which lets you touch up focus without going to the manual mode.
    References :

Leave a Reply