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Sup guys,
Been thinking of giving myself a challenge and was looking at picking up an old EOS film camera and getting some slide film. But before I do I need to know about lens compatibility, I know an ef-s lens is unlikely to work but what about the 50mm f/1.8 or even my 24-105L?
I have used the 50mm on both film and digital, and as far as I am aware all EF lenses should work fine. 
Both the lens you mention will fit fine. I have the 50mm f1.8 lens and it's very sharp with a useful focus length. The 24-105mm will cover a lot of bases - the only hesitation I have is that on some of the lighter EOS models (I have an EOS300 which is very light) it may be tad top-heavy - like a lens with a camera attached rather than the other way round.
Other lenses that I use with the EOS300 are a 24mm Sigma lens and the Sigma 105mm DG EX macro.
I would recommend the EOS 50E - a great film camera - similar in size to the 40/50D range. It has three metering modes, three focus modes and both shutter and aperture wheels. It shoots 3fps (I think) and has full Manual, AV, TV, DEP and P modes. A great camera (when released about 15 years ago it retailed at about £500) you can pick them up for £20- £30 on ebay now. It is compatible with all EF (but NOT EF-S) lenses.
NB - I've noticed that some sigma lenses designed for crop sensor cameras (10 - 20mm for example) will fit - but don't use them - the risk is the mirror will hit the rear of the lens when the shutter is activated and will damage the camera, the lens or both
My last 35mm camera was an EOS500N. I still have it (although I am unlikely ever to use it again). As others have remarked, you cannot use EF-S lenses with it but EF lenses are fine. I had some very good results from it. How much they cost on the second-hand market I have no idea, but mine when new (1998) was £364 from LCE and that included two lenses, a gadget bag and a (somewhat flimsy) tripod. Those were the days!
Quote: I still use my old EOS 100 body with my 24-105L lens and the results are excellent
This might seem a silly question, how do you change aperture. I would have thought if using an old film body then old lenses would be better.
Paul to my knowledge all canon EOS cameras take the EF mount lens, so many canon film cameras are happy with the recent lenses, the apertures moved to electronic camera body control prior to digital. The problem I am aware of is that the crop sensor lenses EF-S do not fit on the older film cameras.
Quote: I've noticed that some sigma lenses designed for crop sensor cameras (10 - 20mm for example) will fit - but don't use them - the risk is the mirror will hit the rear of the lens when the shutter is activated and will damage the camera, the lens or both
Sigma designed their digital only lenses to avoid the full frame mirror, while canon took the opportunity to move the rear element closer to the sensor, so it is only the EF-S lenses by canon that are at risk of this, hence the mount change.
Quote: I still use my old EOS 100 body with my 24-105L lens and the results are excellent
This might seem a silly question, how do you change aperture. I would have thought if using an old film body then old lenses would be better.
The EOS cameras are pretty much all electronic and are operated the same as a DSLR, although there was a manual one at one time. This was why they had to change away from the original Canon FD mount to the EF, whereas Nikon engineered their AF cameras to be able to use older Nikon lenses.
I realised that John, but too late to update my posting, I`d been thinking pre eos as you guessed.
Quote: This might seem a silly question, how do you change aperture
Its not so much a silly question as a strange one, if you've used the cameras. Eos is Eos, whether the body has digital works on the back or a place to put film, the lens connections and camera controls are pretty much the same. They were electronic from the outset. Going from an Eos film camera to an Eos DSLR is pretty straightforward. Older EF mount lenses for these cameras are likely to have slower AF motors and possibly not be as good optically, there's not usually any advantage in using them.
Last year I bought a used EOS 3 to complement my EOS 5 and A2 bodies. They're all great cameras. The 3 & 5 have ECF - Eye Controlled Focus - which I find fantastic, especially in the 3. It took a couple of attempts to calibrate ECF to my eye but now that it is done I can just look in the viewfinder at the subject I want to focus on and it quickly snaps into sharp focus. I shoot transparency exclusively, usually Kodak Elite Chrome and I never tire if projecting my well exposed slides up on my new glass screen. I shoot digital as well - on Olympus Four Thirds - but there is still something special about film and I intend to continue enjoy using it.
I've taken a different route. I can't be doing with auto everything film cameras, but I've just sold off almost all of my Canon FD gear on eBay and have started to buy into the Contax/Yashica system. The nice thing is that the lovely Zeiss and Yashica glass can be adapted to use with my Eos DSLRs with some interesting results. For example, I found the Zeiss 18mm to have great flare resistance and central sharpness while the Yashica 21mm is a very sharp lens, even at the edges, and better than some of the Canon EF wides I've used.
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