There is almost no commonality between different camera makers regarding lens mount systems. Each manufacturer has developed their own system, and build camera bodies and lenses that only work with their own lens mount, with the Four Thirds System being a partial exception. This was different before 1970 when most of the manufacturers use either M42 or M39 lenses, most of which can still be used depending on the particular adapter you can find.
This does not necessarily mean that one is limited to only mounting, for example, Pentax lenses on a Pentax camera body. There are independent optics companies that make lenses for the various otherwise proprietary mount systems, thus providing alternative sources for lenses that are often of equal quality and/or less expensive than the camera maker's own lenses. Another possibility is the use of adaptors that allow mounting a lens for one system on a camera with a different lens mount. However, the use of an adaptor usually results in reduced functionality, typically requiring the manual setting of aperture and focus, or perhaps not being able to use any aperture other than "wide open".
M42
Used by Leica, Nikon, Pentax, Canon, Zenit.
M39
Used only by Leica and Contax.
Canon EF and EF-S lens mounts
Canon introduced the EF lens mount in 1987 as part of the EOS system. It broke with the most common technique for implementing autofocus at that time by not having a mechanical connection to a motor in the camera body, having instead only electrical connections and requiring a motor to be part of each autofocus lens.
The EF-S lens mount is a newer subset of the EF standard, introduced in 2003. EF-S lenses can only be used on Canon digital cameras that use the APS-C sensor, for example the 400D (EOS Digital Rebel XTi) and the 40D. Note that while an EF-S lens can not be mounted on a camera that uses the EF mount, EF lenses can be mounted on cameras designed for the EF-S standard.
As noted above under focal length, Canon makes DSLRs with various sensor sizes, and all using the EF or EF-S lens mounts. This leads to the interesting phenomenon of the same EF lens providing different angles of view depending on which camera it is mounted on.
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Third-party lenses compatible with Canon's EF and EF-S mounts are manufactured by Sigma, Tamron, Tokina and Zeiss. The manufacturers of these lenses have reverse engineered the electronics of the EF lens mount. The use of these lenses is not supported by Canon. However, many users find these lenses to be cheaper (with the exception of Zeiss), and sometimes superior alternatives to Canon lenses.
Four Thirds System
The Four Thirds System was created by Olympus and Kodak in 2001, and is designed exclusively for digital cameras. It is the only lens mounting system that is not completely proprietary; it is a semi-open standard that may be licensed by third parties. Currently Olympus, Leica (in cooperation with Panasonic), and Sigma are making lenses under Four Thirds System consortium licensing.
The Four Thirds System sensor size (17.3 mm x 13 mm) is the smallest currently being used in DSLR cameras. This leads to both advantages (theoretically smaller, lighter and cheaper lenses and camera bodies) and disadvantages (slightly lower image quality, especially in low-light situations).
There are currently over 35 lenses available for Four Thirds System cameras. A complete list can be found on Andrzej Wrotniak's web site.
Micro Four Thirds
Micro Four Thirds is a variant on the standard Four Thirds system, developed by Olympus and Panasonic. While these cameras are technically not DSLRs, they use the same image sensors, are similar in operation, and use similar interchangeable lenses. The Micro Four Thirds lens mount is a slightly modified version of the standard Four Thirds mount, and a number of lenses have been built for it. Because the lack of a mirror, optical viewfinder, and a shorter flange-focal distance these lenses can be more compact than those for standard Four Thirds.
Standard Four Thirds lenses can be used on a Micro Four Thirds camera with full electronic communication using an adapter, but those that do not support contrast-detect autofocus will only autofocus slowly, if at all. Micro Four Thirds lenses can not be used on a standard Four Thirds camera.
Minolta AF lens mount
Konica Minolta sold the rights to their Minolta AF lens mount to Sony in 2006. See below under Sony α mount system.
In North America, Minolta began using the name 'Maxxum' for the SLR autofocus cameras, lenses and flashes while in Europe they were called 'Dynax', and in Asia the 'Alpha' branding was used, though they were otherwise identical in appearance and function - all of the equipment is 100% interchangeable regardless which of the names it carries.
Most Minolta Maxxum/Dynax compatible lenses, whether built by Minolta or one of the aftermarket lens manufacturers, are focused externally by a shaft connecting the autofocus computer and motor inside the camera body that mechanically connects to the internal focusing gears inside of the lens body. A couple of later Minolta lenses do have a built-in ultrasonic focus motor (SSM lenses), like other SLR and DSLR systems (i.e. Canon and Nikon) where the AF computer is inside the camera body and there is a digital interface connecting body to an electric motor and the focusing gears built into the lens body creating a "drive-by-wire" focusing system.
This shaft driven autofocus design has several benefits such as allowing for smaller and lighter lenses and also keeps the cost of lenses down because there are no internal focusing motors or digital interfaces built into the lens. Keeping the autofocus motors inside the camera body and as far away from the lens glass as possible, reduces vibration, an additional benefit.
This shaft-driven autofocus system has been extremely successful and continues to this day with Sony's current breed of state-of-the-art digital SLR cameras, the A-100, A-200, A-300, A-350 and A-700. However, Sony has also released more SSM lenses under the Sony and Zeiss brands.
Nikon F-mount
The Nikon F-mount was introduced by Nikon in 1959, and is thus one of the most venerable lens mounts still in existence. Another factor that makes the Nikon F-mount popular is that several other camera manufacturers, for example Fujifilm, have adopted it. F-mount photographic lenses are currently made by Nikon, Zeiss, Voigtländer, Schneider, Sigma, Tokina, Tamron, Hartblei, Kiev-Arsenal, Lensbaby, Vivitar, and others, and over 400 lenses are compatible with the system.
Most Nikon F-mount lenses cover the standard 36×24 mm area of 135 film, while "DX" designated lenses cover the 24×16 mm area of the Nikon DX format sensors, commonly referred to as APS-C format. "DX" lenses produce vignetting when used on film cameras or full frame digital cameras such as the Nikon D3. The D3 and D700 have a DX-compatible mode that reduces the resolution from 12.2 megapixels to 5.1 MP that avoids vignetting.This feature has been included on all of Nikon's subsequent full-frame DSLRs (D3S, D3X, D4 and D800). On cameras with higher megapixel counts, the number available in DX mode is proportionately larger. For example, the DX mode of the 36.3-MP D800 has 15.4 MP.
There are basically three types of F mount Nikon lens:
- MF = Manual focus lenses
- AF & AF-D = Auto focus by camera body driven focus motor, the D version provides distance information
- AF-I & AF-S = Auto focus by integrated/ultrasonic motor in lens, see also List of Nikon compatible lenses with integrated autofocus-motor
Industrial F-mount lenses have varying, often small, film/sensor coverage. Older F-mount lenses designed for film cameras will work on modern SLR or DSLR cameras with some limitations, typically not providing autofocus or automatic aperture setting. Entry level Nikon DSLRs such as Nikon D40,D40X, D60, D3000, D3100, D5000 and D5100 do not have an integrated focus motor, so they will not autofocus with AF & AF-D lenses. Similarly, some AF-I & AF-S lenses will not work on some older Nikon AF film SLR's.
Nikon 1 mount
The Nikon 1 mount was announced on 21 September 2011 together with the Nikon 1 series high-speed mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras.
Pentax K mount
The Pentax K mount (or just "PK mount") was created by Pentax in 1975, and has been used by all Pentax 35 mm and digital SLRs since. The mount has been developed over the years, resulting in a large number of designations such as KF mount, KA mount, KAF mount, KAF2 mount and KA2 mount, plus a couple of more recent versions that are not completely backward-compatible and are thus referred to as "crippled" versions. ("Crippled" in this context does not imply any lack of modern functionality, just a lack of compatibility with past lenses.) For more information see the Pentax K mountarticle or Bojidar Dimitrov's web site.
A number of other manufacturers have produced K-mount lenses, and several other manufacturers (such as Konica and Ricoh) have made K-mount cameras. In 2005 Pentax and Samsung entered into a cooperation resulting in the Samsung GX line of DSLRs, based largely on Pentax technology including the Pentax K mount.
Sigma SA mount
Sigma Corporation, better known for manufacturing lenses for other cameras, has made some film SLR and DSLR cameras themselves. These cameras use the Sigma SA mount, for which Sigma makes a line of lenses.
The Sigma DSLR cameras that use the SA mount are the Sigma SD9, Sigma SD10 and Sigma SD14. These cameras are noteworthy for their use of the Foveon X3 sensor, an image sensor that works on quite different principles from the sensors used in all other digital cameras.
Sony α mount system
The Sony α mount system is based on the Minolta AF lens mount, which was introduced with the Minolta Maxxum 7000 camera in 1985, along with 11 AF-mount lenses. Minolta (and laterKonica Minolta) followed up by producing a large number of AF-mount lenses over the years up until 2006.
Sony acquired Konica Minolta's camera technologies in 2006, and chose the "α" (alpha) brand name, already in use by Minolta in Asia, for their new "Sony α" digital SLR system. The Minolta AF lens mount was retained from the old cameras and is now officially known as the "Sony α mount system".[14]
Sony has produced several new lenses for the Sony α mount, and the current list of Minolta and Sony α mount lenses has over 60 entries. Some of the newest α mount lenses are designated "DT" for Digital Technology; these are for digital cameras with APS-C sensors, and will result in vignetting if used on a film SLR.
Third party lenses for the AF lens mount are made by Zeiss, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina and Vivitar.
Mount compatibility across camera generations
The Nikon F-mount lens systems and the Pentax K-mount systems are the only 35 mm SLR camera systems (apart from the Leica M-mount rangefinder system) that allow a photographer to use a mechanical SLR camera body, a fully automatic SLR camera body, and a DSLR camera body, all utilizing the same lenses. The only aspects of these manufacturers' lenses that have changed are the addition of electronic contacts, autofocus abilities and, in some cases, the elimination of the external aperture ring for electronic control (i.e., Nikon's 'G-type' auto-Nikkors, which cannot be used on a mechanical SLR camera body).
Canon, Minolta (Sony), Olympus, and other manufacturers have changed lens mounts. Much older Canon film cameras used the FD lens mount, which was discontinued in 1987 in favor of the EF lens mount. Olympus discontinued the OM lens mount for the OM series cameras in favor of the Four Thirds System lens mount. However, due to the size of the Four Thirds mount it is possible to fit legacy SLR lenses from any manufacturer using an adapter, albeit with manual aperture and focus control. Minolta (Sony after 2006) phased out its bayonet-mount MC and MD Rokkor lenses for a modified bayonet mount (supporting autofocus) in 1985.
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