Lens fit and what the makers say about each pair

Three answers to “does it fit?”

• Fits and worksThe lens is made for the camera's mount. Autofocus, aperture control and the camera's lens corrections work. This is every lens on its own mount unless the maker publishes a condition. A manual-focus lens fits the same way; you focus it and set its aperture by hand.
• Fits, with a condition from the makerThe maker documents something that changes how the pair works: a firmware version needed for fast autofocus, a function that does not work. We quote the maker's words beside the pair.
• Does not fitA different mount. A Sony E lens does not fit a Canon RF camera, and no camera maker sells an autofocus adapter between two mirrorless mounts.

What makers publish about pairs

Sony publishes a page for every camera and lens pair. Of the 576 Sony pairs in our catalogue, Sony lists 215 as fully compatible; the rest carry one or more notes. The most common:

• Distortion correction is always on: 160 pairs
• No stabilisation with this pair: neither the lens nor the camera has it: 117 pairs
• Stabilisation off in the Standard SteadyShot setting: 78 pairs
• Fast autofocus needs lens firmware 02 or later: 48 pairs
• Aperture-ring display quirks: 28 pairs
• Update the camera to firmware 3.10 for correct lens names in files: 21 pairs
• Sony suggests a lower Auto ISO ceiling: 18 pairs
• Zoom-ring direction cannot be reassigned: 10 pairs

Most of these are settings, not limits: Sony keeps distortion correction always on for lenses designed to rely on it, and a lens and camera that are both unstabilised simply have no stabilisation. A few matter more. Six older Sony lenses (E 18-55, E 55-210, E 18-200 LE, E 24mm F1.8 ZA, E 30mm Macro and E 50mm F1.8) need lens firmware Ver. 02, which in Sony's release notes “provides the Fast Hybrid AF function”; without it the camera focuses by contrast detection only. The a6000 needs its own Ver. 3.10 for lenses released after March 2016, the update Sony describes as “for optimising the new lenses performance”.

Canon, Nikon and Fujifilm publish compatibility as exceptions rather than a page per pair. Nikon notes, for example, that the Z fc needs firmware C 1.40 to control the power zoom of the NIKKOR Z DX 12-28mm from the camera; that version, in Nikon's release notes, “added support for the power zoom feature available on some lenses”, so the camera drives the zoom of a power-zoom lens. Where a maker publishes nothing for a pair, the pair fits and works.

Lenses from Sigma, Tamron and others

Third-party lenses are made in a version for each mount, and that version fits and autofocuses like the maker's own. Their makers publish which cameras they have confirmed and issue lens firmware updates; check the lens maker's site after a camera firmware update.

Full-frame lenses on APS-C cameras

A full-frame lens on its own mount fits an APS-C body and works normally. Its image circle covers the smaller sensor with room to spare, and it frames 1.5 times tighter (1.6 on Canon) than its focal length, exactly like an APS-C lens of the same focal length. It is usually larger and heavier for the same view.

Adapters

The camera makers sell adapters from their own DSLR mounts: Canon EF to RF, Nikon F to Z, Sony A to E. These keep autofocus with most of the makers' own lenses. What each adapter keeps

Check one lens on one camera for the pair's own answer.

Facts from the makers' specification pages. How we check