What's the difference between AF lenses and MF lenses?

Question

I want to buy a used 50mm 1.8 lens
I have a photography magazine with used lenses at the back

CANON AF USED
50 F1.8 MKII £69


CANON MF FD USED
50 F1.8 £20

Which one should I buy? What is te difference between AF and MF and why is there such a price difference? Is the AF lens better? An lastly, will they both fit my canon rebel t3i/ 600d?
Thanks!

Answer 1

The FD will not mount on your 600D.

You need Canon EF or EF-S AF lenses

Answer 2

The first lens is made for EF mount common on modern canon dslr's and slr's. It communicates with the body so you have control of focus and aperture via the body.



The second lens uses the FD mount that is from an older series of Canon slr's. You could buy an adapter and use it on a dslr if you'd like. Either way, the FD lens is completely manual in terms of aperture and focus.

Answer 3

MF lenses have to be manually focused. It's not that much of a problem if you get used to it especially if you are coming from film SLR's. Your problem though would be the FD mount which does not fit the Canon EOS system which uses EF mounts. You could use an adapter but that would just make things more complicated.

Answer 4

The MF lens (FD mount) won't fit your camera.



Canon brought in an entirely new lens mount when autofocus came in, rendering their entire range obsolete overnight.



The difference in price is because many people own Canon DSLRs and quite a lot of them want a 50mm lens that will fit.



Very few people want a lens designed in the 1970s that won't fit ANY modern DSLR.

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

Mflenses

Answer 7

Don't buy the "MF" or manual focus lens. You will go crazy manually focusing then removing your right hand to fire the shutter.