Special lens coating for digital.

[kingcrab]

Hi everyone. Just to introduce myself, I've been a long time canon user, 10 years now, but I have been shooting with film all this while. My first (and only) slr was an eos 650. Over the years I have accumulated a few lenses that I felt were special and reluctant to sell off. Recently I started my journey in to digital photography with a used 350d which I got from clubsnap!!! While looking at online reviews for a new standard lens for my 350d (which apparently has a magnifying factor of 1.6) I came across terms like DC, DG, DI, DI II. I know that DC means that it can only be used on cameras with a magnifying factor of 1.6 but DG is supposed to be able to work on film as well. The difference between DG and non DG is that DG has a special coating that reduce the internal reflection because the digital sensor is more reflective than film. This got me thinking, some of my favourite lenses like the 70-200mm 1/4L and 50mm 1/1.4 were bought when digital slrs were not even invented yet and so will not have the special coating to reduce internal reflection. How will these lenses perform on my 350d? The 70-200mm in particular is supposed to be a highly regarded lens and cost me a fair bit when I bought it. Should I sell off my lenses and buy newer with special coating ones? Also how do I know which lenses have that special coating? 3rd party lenses have DG to mean optimised for digital but canon lenses do not seem to have this designation (or is there any that I'm not aware of).

Someone please help me out.

[AhSeng]

Originally Posted by kingcrab Hi everyone. Just to introduce myself, I've been a long time canon user, 10 years now, but I have been shooting with film all this while. My first (and only) slr was an eos 650. Over the years I have accumulated a few lenses that I felt were special and reluctant to sell off. Recently I started my journey in to digital photography with a used 350d which I got from clubsnap!!! While looking at online reviews for a new standard lens for my 350d (which apparently has a magnifying factor of 1.6) I came across terms like DC, DG, DI, DI II. I know that DC means that it can only be used on cameras with a magnifying factor of 1.6 but DG is supposed to be able to work on film as well. The difference between DG and non DG is that DG has a special coating that reduce the internal reflection because the digital sensor is more reflective than film. This got me thinking, some of my favourite lenses like the 70-200mm 1/4L and 50mm 1/1.4 were bought when digital slrs were not even invented yet and so will not have the special coating to reduce internal reflection. How will these lenses perform on my 350d? The 70-200mm in particular is supposed to be a highly regarded lens and cost me a fair bit when I bought it. Should I sell off my lenses and buy newer with special coating ones? Also how do I know which lenses have that special coating? 3rd party lenses have DG to mean optimised for digital but canon lenses do not seem to have this designation (or is there any that I'm not aware of). Someone please help me out.

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Wow wow.. throwing out so many DC,DG,DI stuff.. lemme expalin a little.

DI and DI II - Designation referred by Tamron - http://www.tamron.com/lenses/prod/as..._cat_apr08.pdf

Di (Digitally Integrated Design) is a designation Tamron puts on lenses featuring optical systems designed to meet the performance characteristics of digital SLR cameras as well as film cameras.

Di-II is the designation Tamron puts on lenses designed for exclusive use on digital SLR cameras with APS-C size imagers* and which feature optical systems optimized to meet the performance characteristics of digital SLR cameras. Di-II lenses incorporate countermeasures against ghosting and flare through such advances as special coatings, and minimize peripheral light fall-off, which is noticeable in digital images.
Furthermore, Di-II lenses provide ideal focal lengths to cover the range desired by D-SLR shooters.

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DC & DG - by Sigma - http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses.asp

DG - The most suitable lenses for 35mm film single-lens reflex cameras, as well as for digital SLR cameras. Sigma's development of the DG (Digital) range of lenses has concentrated on the correction of distortion and aberrations. Magnification of chromatic aberration is particularly conspicuous with digital cameras. The optical designs and cutting-edge technology incorporated by Sigma eliminate flare and ghosting from te image sensor and create excellent color balance. Vignetting is minimized whilst marginal illumination is ensured. These high performance lenses are equally suited for digital and analogue cameras.

DC - These are special lenses designed so that the image circle matches the smaller size of the image sensor of most digital SLR cameras. Their specialized design gives these lenses the ideal properties for digital cameras, the compact and lightweight construction is an added bonus.

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Well.. if u are afraid the Canon cannot catch up with the lens technology of the thrid party manufacturers, then just changed to theirs. Frankly, Canon launched several new lens every year and each lens has it's characteristics. Some lens design requires the extra coating some don't. It has to do with the lens design rather than a blanket implementation of the same lens coating for every lens. I have a 12 year old 70-200 F2.8 that is still churning out beautiful images on a 5D... how old is your 70-200F4?

[GavinTing]

Originally Posted by kingcrab Hi everyone. Just to introduce myself, I've been a long time canon user, 10 years now, but I have been shooting with film all this while. My first (and only) slr was an eos 650. Over the years I have accumulated a few lenses that I felt were special and reluctant to sell off. Recently I started my journey in to digital photography with a used 350d which I got from clubsnap!!! While looking at online reviews for a new standard lens for my 350d (which apparently has a magnifying factor of 1.6) I came across terms like DC, DG, DI, DI II. I know that DC means that it can only be used on cameras with a magnifying factor of 1.6 but DG is supposed to be able to work on film as well. The difference between DG and non DG is that DG has a special coating that reduce the internal reflection because the digital sensor is more reflective than film. This got me thinking, some of my favourite lenses like the 70-200mm 1/4L and 50mm 1/1.4 were bought when digital slrs were not even invented yet and so will not have the special coating to reduce internal reflection. How will these lenses perform on my 350d? The 70-200mm in particular is supposed to be a highly regarded lens and cost me a fair bit when I bought it. Should I sell off my lenses and buy newer with special coating ones? Also how do I know which lenses have that special coating? 3rd party lenses have DG to mean optimised for digital but canon lenses do not seem to have this designation (or is there any that I'm not aware of). Someone please help me out.

"Optimised for digital" is the opinion of the 3rd party manufacturer by the way..