Can a Canon T70 be converted to digital, and can I still use FD lenses?
Asked 11/25/2016
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I have a Canon T70 film SLR and a collection of Canon FD-mount lenses. Is there any practical way to convert the T70 itself to digital, such as with a digital back or internal conversion? If not, what are the realistic options for continuing to use my FD lenses on a digital camera?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
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Theoretically Possible? Yes.
Back in 2001 there was a company that introduced an idea too far ahead of its time: to create digital modules that would fit inside conventional 35mm film cameras. But the technology to do it in such a small package was not available and it never got into production.
Doable from a practical standpoint? Not unless you have resources similar to what was available to Kodak Laboratories in the 1980s and 1990s.
Some of the earliest digital cameras not tied down to a stationary lab, personal computer, or installed in a NASA space probe were built around the bodies of then-current film cameras. In 1991, Kodak released the first professional digital camera system (DCS) aimed at photojournalists. It was a Nikon F-3 film camera equipped by Kodak with a 1.3 megapixel sensor. It required a constant wired connection to a hard disk system used to store the image data.
1995 saw the debut of Canon's first Digital EOS cameras the EOS DCS 3 and EOS DCS 5. With a 1.3 Megapixel CCD sensor and a price tag of 12,000 euro the EOS DCS 3, based on a modified EOS 1N film camera attached to a Kodak NC2000e digital camera back, gave photographic agencies the ability to produce transmission-ready images straight out of the camera. A digital module small enough to be attached directly to the base of the camera allowed it to be free of any umbilical cords connecting it to a separate unit.
Fully compatible with the entire range of EF lenses, the EOS DCS 3 was developed in collaboration with Kodak who produced the major electronic components.
Your Canon T70 is a pre-EOS era film camera that uses the FD lens mount system and no commercially available digital cameras have ever been produced by Canon or Kodak for that mount. Likewise, no digital backs and accompanying modules, such as were made for the Nikon F-3 and Canon EOS 1N film cameras, have ever been developed for an FD mount camera. So if you convert your T70 to digital you would need to build the digital parts yourself, just as Canon and Kodak did for the EOS 1N back in the 1990s.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
9y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
No—there is no practical digital conversion or digital back available for the Canon T70. While concepts and early prototypes have existed historically, turning a 35mm film SLR like the T70 into a digital camera is not a realistic option for normal users.
If your goal is to keep using Canon FD lenses, the practical route is a mirrorless digital camera plus an FD adapter. Mirrorless bodies work well because their short flange distance makes adapting older manual-focus lenses much easier.
A full-frame mirrorless body keeps the field of view closest to what you had on film. An APS-C body applies a crop factor, making lenses behave like a longer focal length. Depending on the camera system, crop can be around 1.5x or higher.
You should expect manual focus and usually manual aperture control with adapted FD lenses.
If you want to keep shooting with the T70 itself, another option is simply to continue using film and scan the negatives or slides afterward.
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