3 decades of Backwards compatibility. It's a wonder, isn't it?

[Dartz]

I own a Canon EOS650 - a film camera built in 1987, that uses an electronic communication protocol between itself and its lens. It was the very first of its type - the promogenitor for all modern Canon cameras.

I bought a brand-new lens made by Canon - a 24-70mm F4 - with ultrasonic focusing and image stabilisation. This lens was designed in 2013 - long after Canon had stopped making film cameras - and comes with a 2020 manufacturing serial number - one of the first built this year.

I did this with both of them:




*Everything* works.

33 year of near pefect backwards compatibility is a thing to behold. When it would've been so easy to flip a bit somewhere in the lens's microcontroller so it wouldn't work on something this old - it was never done. And while I doubt any engineer at Canon ever had it in their mind that someone would buy a brand new lens for a 3-decade old camera, it's still amusing that it works.

Of course, the camera itself is running into its own limitations - it struggles a little because the focus sensor hardware wasn't as good. 

But the lens will probably work for another 2 decades - right up until 2D goes out of fashion and everything goes holographic.

As for why I did something this dumb? Someone bought be a voucher for Christmas and it was one of the few ways I could spend it.