Question for Anyone Using Canon FD 50mm 1.4 Lens

L

larrys

Well-known member
Just received a beautiful Canon lens from KEH.com. By the way, I HIGHLY recommend KEH, they were great to order from, the lens had a great price, and the lens came to me in perfect condition and is really like a new lens!

I put it on my new GH1 and the images were just stunning. I have grown to love manually focusing the Panasonic kit lens, 14-140 and the focus assist makes manual focusing very easy. I knew that the aperture would not work with the Canon lens, but I thought that the focus assist might. I was wrong.

So, focusing is a bit of a challenge, especially in bright light. Focusing on the LCD is harder than the Viewfinder, but both are tricky. I wondered if anyone has any advice?

Thanks!
 
"Aperture would not work with the Canon lens" ...not sure what you mean, but manual aperture control works beautifully on my Canon FD 1.4. My adapter has an option to open or lock the aperture control on the FD so it could be something with your adapter if you do not have aperture control on the lens.

Focus assist also works with manual lenses, you just need to trigger it manually. Push the left button on the Menu/Set controls on the back and the MF assist screen will pop up... you can move the box around if you want, otherwise hit the center button and MF assist engages for wherever the box is... do your fine focus, then hit record or push the shutter halfway and it goes back to normal view. It works really well with a little practice.

The FD 50mm 1.4 is really fast for bright light, so if you don't want to control exposure by stopping down to much then you should use ND filters. Also, when shooting video don't use high shutter speeds to bring down the exposure, it can cause unwanted shutter speed goofiness in your video; for stills its not an issue.
 
Hello Luxcollective, thanks for the response.

What I meant by "aperture would not work" is that I knew that all aperture control would be manually done on the lens. And, yes, this is working great.

Thanks so much for the info on the focus assist for this Canon, that's going to make a huge difference.

And yes, I always shoot with a shutter speed of 60 or 125 when I shoot 720/60. And yes, I have the Vari-ND and in my first shooting today with the canon, it was an incredible pleasure to have the Vari-ND and the manual aperture to have at my finger tips!

Thanks Again!
 
I figured you knew about aperture and shutter speed stuff, but now I have a quick question for you! ...are you finding any drawbacks with the Vari-ND (besides the cost)? I was thinking of picking up the Fader ND because its way cheaper but was wondering what your take is on the Vari-ND

Thanks!
 
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Hello Lux...

Drawbacks? No! This Vari-ND (yes, it was a big investment) was one of the BEST investments I made for this shooting package. The construction of this Singh-Ray product is just beautiful and the ability to continually adjust the vari-nd in conjunction with the aperture makes shooting in any condition a joy. The test footage I shot today with the canon lens, in very bright sunlight, looked gorgeous with the Vari-ND at the max setting. If you can swing the cost, you will just love having this filter on the front of your lens.

Oh, if you do get it, as was recommended to me, get the 77mm "thin ring mount" model.

PS: I tried the "focus assist" method you gave to me and WHEW, fantastic!! I had no idea that there was a manual way to engage the focus assist function. I appreciate so much you giving me that information. Now I am not worried about getting critical focus with this lens.
 
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luxcollective said:
I figured you knew about aperture and shutter speed stuff, but now I have a quick question for you! ...are you finding any drawbacks with the Vari-ND (besides the cost)? I was thinking of picking up the Fader ND because its way cheaper but was wondering what your take is on the Vari-ND

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I've seen the Fader ND and the Singh Ray favorably compared many places. And have yet to see a compelling argument for spending the extra money on the Vari-ND.
 
I am starting to expand my lens selection for the gh1... what adapter do I need to use a canon fd 50mm and are all canon fd 50mms the same or are there differences. I see a wide price fluctuation on ebay.
 
larrys said:
Just received a beautiful Canon lens from KEH.com. By the way, I HIGHLY recommend KEH, they were great to order from, the lens had a great price, and the lens came to me in perfect condition and is really like a new lens!

I put it on my new GH1 and the images were just stunning. I have grown to love manually focusing the Panasonic kit lens, 14-140 and the focus assist makes manual focusing very easy. I knew that the aperture would not work with the Canon lens, but I thought that the focus assist might. I was wrong.

So, focusing is a bit of a challenge, especially in bright light. Focusing on the LCD is harder than the Viewfinder, but both are tricky. I wondered if anyone has any advice?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have the 50mm 1.4... my focus assist works perfectly on all my lenses.

Press the button to the left of menu/set. It will bring up a square on the lcd with 4 arrows. Then press the menu/set button and the image will zoom to a macro view, allowing you to focus at that point. Then press the menu/set button once again after you have focussed.

I love this feature and use it constantly.
 
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Blackout said:
I am starting to expand my lens selection for the gh1... what adapter do I need to use a canon fd 50mm and are all canon fd 50mms the same or are there differences. I see a wide price fluctuation on ebay.
Click to expand...

I'm no expert but my understanding is that there are 3 variations of the 50mm. A 1.2, 1.4 and 1.8, with the 1.4 being superior to the more pedestrian 1.8. I have no experience of the 1.2.

They come in several variations, with the silver ringed ones having 2 coating options, S.C. and S.S.C., the later being better. The new FD have the S.S.C. coating standard. I have had my lenses professionally cleaned and returned to spec and they are indeed quite beautiful - but the cleaning is up to you since it is unlikely I will recoup the base cost of the cleaning if I decided to sell the lenses.

There is a ton of information here at DVX user concerning these lenses, and Googling brings up another huge amount of information. I would post a link, but one of the most detailed sites requested that links not be published due to their bandwidth concerns. But you will see it immediately.

I purchased the ciecio7 adapter on eBay although I no longer see him advertising. I bought it through the Polish website.
 
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