Philip Bloom says...Canon FD Lenses are soft...what's the story?

TimurCivan said:
God i feel so stupid for selling all my FD Glass...

i had the most beautiful set... hand picked over 30 years handed down from my pops... i figured i'd never be able to adapt them to anything again.

I had,

16mm Zenit fisheye F2.8 ( a REALLY good one too... i bought and sold three of them till i found a good one)
17mm FD SSC F4
20mm FD SSC F2.8
24mm FD SSC F2.0
35mm FDSSC F2.0
55mm FD SSC F1.2
85mm Lseries FD F1.2 ( best lens i've ever owned)
135mm FD SSC F2.0
200mm FD SSC F2.8

All SSC lenses.. the pre cursor to L series. I think it stood for "Super Spectra Coating" or something like that...

MMmmmm. Regret... so much regret.

I did however get $2000 for the set. Which is a great price for 30 year old still glass.
Click to expand...
Have a look at ebay and you may find some of them for cheap prices.

I was in a similar situation regarding the Olympus OM lenses I used to own some 30 years back, and I managed to buy a set of OM lenses like the one I had when I was 20. They came for two figure prices each, in mint condition. (And the small OM lenses are the perfect fit for the tiny GH2.)
 
yea but mine were hand selected out of groups of the same lenses for color and sharpness. I had the best of the best.... it'lln ever be the same...
 
My 55 FL 1.2 is super soft wide open. Kinda cool though. Sharpens up nice when stopped down a bit.

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I've tested the Canon FD lenses versus the kit 14-140mm lens on the GH13 in landscape shots from my patio and the kit lens kills all the Canons (FD28mm 2.8, FD 50mm 1.4, 50mm and 100mm EOS lenses) in terms of resolution AND contrast. This totally shocked me but it's true. The only advantage the FD lenses have is their speed which makes them more useful than the kit lens for indoor shots, low light shots, etc. But make no mistake, the kit lens, despite being a zoom lens, leaves the Canon prime lenses for dust.
 
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TimurCivan said:
God i feel so stupid for selling all my FD Glass...

i had the most beautiful set... hand picked over 30 years handed down from my pops... i figured i'd never be able to adapt them to anything again.

I had,

16mm Zenit fisheye F2.8 ( a REALLY good one too... i bought and sold three of them till i found a good one)
17mm FD SSC F4
20mm FD SSC F2.8
24mm FD SSC F2.0
35mm FDSSC F2.0
55mm FD SSC F1.2
85mm Lseries FD F1.2 ( best lens i've ever owned)
135mm FD SSC F2.0
200mm FD SSC F2.8

All SSC lenses.. the pre cursor to L series. I think it stood for "Super Spectra Coating" or something like that...

MMmmmm. Regret... so much regret.

I did however get $2000 for the set. Which is a great price for 30 year old still glass.
Click to expand...

I have also sold my Canon FD set of glass, similar fine lenses, and replaced it with M42 and OM glass.
Since I haven't got a gh1 or gh2 (yet) I don't feel any regrets, as apparently my current set of lenses is more flexible .
Who knows if my next camera will be a Canon full frame or a GH2...
 
Roderz said:
I've tested the Canon FD lenses versus the kit 14-140mm lens on the GH13 in landscape shots from my patio and the kit lens kills all the Canons (FD28m 2.8, FD 50m 1.4, 50m and 100m EOS lenses) in terms of resolution AND contrast. This totally shocked me but it's true. The only advantage the FD lenses have is their speed which makes them more useful than the kit lens for indoor shots, low light shots, etc. But make no mistake, the kit lens, despite being a zoom lens, leaves the Canon prime lenses for dust.
Click to expand...

I don't find this shocking at all - it's old glass after all. No one in his right mind would use FD lenses for resolution and contrast, au contraire. For your line of work Panny lenses might work better, but for cinematic shorts, most people tend to prefer FD lenses.
 
Fotograf said:
I owned that 17mm f4 Canon FD lens some 20 years ago, and contrary to all the other Canon FD lenses I owned (which were very sharp at least stopped down) this one would never be really sharp. Maybe I had just got a bad sample, but I would be cautiousP
regarding that lens.
Click to expand...

Heard it was a rebadged Vivitar.
 
Roderz said:
I've tested the Canon FD lenses versus the kit 14-140mm lens on the GH13 in landscape shots from my patio and the kit lens kills all the Canons (FD28m 2.8, FD 50m 1.4, 50m and 100m EOS lenses) in terms of resolution AND contrast. This totally shocked me but it's true. The only advantage the FD lenses have is their speed which makes them more useful than the kit lens for indoor shots, low light shots, etc. But make no mistake, the kit lens, despite being a zoom lens, leaves the Canon prime lenses for dust.
Click to expand...
It must be said that 14-140 lens is recognized by the camera and some correction is done on the image, perhaps also sharpening ?
 
My FD 50mm 1.4 is the worst lens I own in most respects. Horrible CA make it unusable in many situations at any aperture outdoors, and it's soft all around.

But I have a FD 50mm 3.5 Macro that is one of the sharpest lenses I own. Very nice when you don't need the light-bucket of a 1.4.

Have a whole whack of Olympus OM stuff too, they are fantastic all around. So small and light, easy focusing, very sharp. Unfortunately most of them are not that fast.
 
dasbin said:
My FD 50mm 1.4 is the worst lens I own in most respects. Horrible CA make it unusable in many situations at any aperture outdoors, and it's soft all around.
Click to expand...

My FD 50mm 1.4 is absolutely fantastic. There is very little that it cannot deal with, and delivers wonderful color and sharpness.

Now granted, when I got mine I sent it in to a respected lens technician who reset the aperture, cleaned the lens, etc. And it resultingly cost considerably more than the price of the lens itself.

But I would do it again in a heartbeat if I knew the lens would give back to me the amazing images.
 
Canon FD's will be sharp enough for ya hotdog! :smile:
(apologies for the "hotdog" remark, i just watched the film BLACK RAIN :smile: )
 
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