Finally put together my ideal FD set!

cowpunk52

cowpunk52

Veteran
Took me about a year and a half, going through lens after lens, but I finally have put together my ideal Canon FD lens set for cinema use. All the lenses have pristine glass, perfect mechanics, nail infinity focus with my Novoflex & Ciecio7 adapters - and they're color matched!

I would say, not counting the lenses that I bought then sold because they weren't up to standard, that the entire set cost me $1400. Not half bad, if you ask me.

FD Lens Set.jpg

I've got a feature film coming up in June that I'm going to use these on - very excited! And a corporate video next week.
 
Very cool. I see you have both a 28mm f/2 and a 35mm f/2. They seem very close in angle of view. Do you find the small difference useful?
 
I do find them to compliment each other well. Even though the numbers aren't too far off, the angle of view between the lenses is significant. And it's also the difference, for me, between hand-holding or not. I find that 28mm is the longest focal length I can use completely hand-held and get acceptable footage, while 35mm is just too long.

Before the 28mm f2, I had a 24mm f2 - but I sold it because the color was slightly off and there was a bit of play in the focus barrel. Also, and I'm not sure why, I absolutely hated the viewing angle. But I've always hated the "standard" 50mm angle of view - it's always been the most bland focal length I've ever used - I always want it to be a little longer, or a little wider. It's just a matter of personal taste, really, but having the 20/2.8 and the 28/2 fits my shooting style much better.
 
Nice!
I have the same 35-100mm, 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, 135mm and a 200mm f2.8, looking for this 20mm you have, and lost a 15mm fish eye.

Cheers
 
xenogears said:
Nice!
I have the same 35-100mm, 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, 135mm and a 200mm f2.8, looking for this 20mm you have, and lost a 15mm fish eye.

Cheers
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KEH has a few of the 20mm f/2.8 - EX condition is about $200. It's a great lens! How useful do you find the 200 f/2.8?
 
cowpunk52 said:
KEH has a few of the 20mm f/2.8 - EX condition is about $200. It's a great lens! How useful do you find the 200 f/2.8?
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Well, the 200mm i used mainly for animals photography but now i have the olympus 50-200 as replacement, i have this FDs from my dad days, he was a photographer journalist for 45 years and give me those lenses, i used the FDs mainly for own work, but for me the most lovely is the 85mm, the bokeh is gorgeous and the lens itself is really sharp.
 
I have just bought a 35mm f2 Chrome nose (Mk1 - thorium).

Waiting on a Ciecio7 adapter!!!

Also waiting on, just purchased:

nFD 24mm f2,
nFD 50mm f1.4,
nFD 85mm f1.8

I will try and find a reasonably priced nFD 135mm f2 at some point and call it a day on the FDs I think. That's all of the really fast and sharp primes covered, pretty much.

For wides I'm considering getting a Tokina 11-16mm, probably later when it comes in m43 (sometime in 2011 I hope). How do people think this lens will cut with the FDs?
 
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