I have a new (to me) camera

[41magsnub]

Finally found my Dad's good camera in my Mom's basement.  A Canon EOS 620 from 1988 in extremely good condition with the super fancy (for the time) date/time back.  It has both lenses it came with, a EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 telephoto lens and a EF 50mm f/1.8.

My understanding is both of these lenses are fully compatible with all the Canon modern DSLR's, correct?  It is supposed to be the first of the EF cameras that all use the same mounts.

Here is my question, would it be worth it to get a DSLR camera body and use these?  I know precisely nothing about photography, other than I don't feel like going retro and using film.

[RoadKingLarry]

Depends and maybe.

I think that you are right about the older lenses being compatible with current Canon EOS cameras, "fully" is subject to interpretation. Canon has basically 2 versions of DSLR sensors, crop (APS-C) and full frame, the crop sensor cameras have a sensor roughly just a bit under half the size of a full frame sensor which is sized off the area of traditional 35mm film. FF lenses (EF line) like you have from a 35mm camera would
work with a crop sensor camera but would give you a 1.6X factor to the focal length of your lenses so your 50mm lens would in effect be an 80mm lens, same factor for the zoom range. If you aren't looking to spend any serious money it might be worthwhile to hit your local pawnshops or local camera shop looking for a 2nd hand DSLR or consider one of the lower priced crop bodies like the T3 or T5. Picking up one of the combo deals would give you a crop compatible (EF-S) lens for wide angle shooting.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Canon-18-MP-9126B003/35255311

[Brad Johnson]

Canon digital bodies are (supposedly) fully backwards with all EF-mount lenses. You'll lose autofocus but everything else should work.

Brad

[RoadKingLarry]

The ESO 620 was auto focus so it might work with the newer EOS bodies, probably just not very well. But manual focus isn't a big deal to us old farts that started that way. I have a couple of old FD lenses and an adapter that I use with my 70D. Totally manual mode, focus and aperture, sadly only one of them is worth a crap, a Vivitar 28mm wide angle/Close focus that even with the adapter I can focus at about 8" from the subject.
 

[lupinus]

The basic short answer is yes. As to how well will be the longer answer.

You'll most likely be using manual focus and the quality may or may not be there, particularly if any moisture managed to get in.


Sent from my iPhone. Freaking autocorrect.

[41magsnub]

I think the lenses are in perfect condition, no signs of moisture in them.  I like the idea of manual focus better than autofocus because on my other cameras I'm always fighting with it to get it to focus on the right thing.  If I do some bird hunting pictures I won't have a stable platform for autofocus to settle down so having that manual control would be helpful.

I'll do some pawn shop hunting.  Thanks guys.