17mm f/4 FD mount

Krzys · Sep 5, 2009

I just got this lens and it is absolutely amazing. It came with the hood which is absurdly large for obvious reasons.

I was wondering if a filter will cause vignetting on this lens and where to buy thin filters just in case. I would hate to damage the widely exposed glass.

I plan to use UV, Yellow and Orange filters.

Greg Campbell · Sep 5, 2009

You might try the guys over at: Dead Link Removed too.

I suspect you'll get some corner falloff at the wider apertures even w/o a filter. My 20mm does this to a small degree; it's not particularly troublesome.

Enjoy!

benjiboy · Sep 5, 2009

I got one recently ( A FD 17mm that is ) and when my wife picked up the camera and held it in the vertical format she looked through it she said " Wow, I can see the sky and my feet at the same time ! "
I agree with the previous post, and would try to avoid using filters on extreme wide angle lenses because they tend to vignette, which is why some of them have dial in ones built in like the Tamron SP 17 mm, and many fish eyes .

Krzys · Sep 5, 2009

Are there any super thin filters I can get? If I stop down to f/8 will I eliminate the natural vignetting of the naked lens/minimize filter vignetting - or do I have to stop down more?

I will do some tests when I have some spare time in the next few days. Just wondering about thin filter suppliers. So far I can only see that Hoya makes them and I cant find any measurements on the width..

David A. Goldfarb · Sep 5, 2009

New Heliopan filters come in thin rings, and B+W makes filters in slim rings for WA lenses.

Jeff Kubach · Sep 5, 2009

I also have a 17FD and I really love it. You can use thin filters, but if you have a darkroom you crop the vignetting.

Jeff

Krzys · Sep 5, 2009

If my viewfinder has say...94% converage, would the vignetting crop out of my composition?

Jeff Kubach · Sep 5, 2009

Krzys said:
If my viewfinder has say...94% converage, would the vignetting crop out of my composition?

I'm not sure, you can check the negatives. Like I said before if you have a enlarger in a darkroom you can crop it. Of course if you use slides then you would have a problem. You can use one filter, but two or more will cause vignetting.

Jeff

Krzys · Sep 5, 2009

I will be shooting B&W negs for enlarging. Does anyone know the width of a thin filter as opposed to a normal one. Funnily enough I cant mind much information on that dimension.

I put a smaller filter upto the rim and couldnt see any vignetting, though the viewfinder coverage is not 100% on my AE-1

David A. Goldfarb · Sep 5, 2009

To see if there is vignetting, open the back of the camera, set the shutter on B with the lens at maximum aperture, and look through the film gate and see if you can see the filter rim or the lens shade in the corners of the frame. If you can, then stop down and see if that eliminates the problem, and then you'll know the widest aperture you can use without vignetting. This is the kind of thing one does all the time with large format.

Normal filter rings are often 4-5mm, and slim rings are often 2-3mm.

darinwc · Sep 5, 2009

I have a warming filter allways on my 17mm nFD. I have never had any problems with vigineting due to the filter.
However, I have noticed considerable increase in flare when I use the filter. With a very wide angle lens like that, it is often impossible to keep bright areas of sun and sky from hitting the front of the lens. The lens itself is reasonably resistant to flare, but with the filter on it is noticeable even in the viewfinder.
So.. get a good filter like the hoya SMC, BW, or heliopan, and tryu a few frames with and without the filter.

Photo.net also has a good FD forum

cooltouch · Sep 5, 2009

Hey Krzys (or Jeff) --

How is the distortion with this lens? I have a Vivitar 17mm f/3.5 in FD. It's a pretty sharp lens, but it has quite noticeable barrel distortion. Couldn't afford the Canon at the time I bought the Viv. One thing I do like about the Vivitar is it has built-in "wings" that act as a hood in a small way.

Michael

Jeff Kubach · Sep 5, 2009

cooltouch said:
Hey Krzys (or Jeff) --

How is the distortion with this lens? I have a Vivitar 17mm f/3.5 in FD. It's a pretty sharp lens, but it has quite noticeable barrel distortion. Couldn't afford the Canon at the time I bought the Viv. One thing I do like about the Vivitar is it has built-in "wings" that act as a hood in a small way.

Michael

Yes there is distortion (of course there is distortion in my brain!) I also have a Fish eye FD lense which is even more so. This may sound strange but I kinda like the distortion.

Jeff

ic-racer · Sep 5, 2009

Stopping down has no effect on your angle of view (focusing, of course, does). If the filter is encroaching on the angle of view, it is always in the angle view, no matter what the aperture. At large apertures, of course, near objects are poorly defined, as the COCs are large, therefore you need to stop down all the way to check. Since your widest angle of view is at infinity, you should also focus at infinity to check the corners for vignetting.

Just as a related example, with an SLR you can hold any object (like a pencil or finger) right in front of the lens (where the filter would be), and as long as the aperture is wider than the object you can 'see through' the object.

Try it. Put a pencil in front of the lens and stop down until you can just no longer 'see through' the pencil. Then check the aperture size, it will approximate the width of the pencil.

2F/2F · Sep 5, 2009

Vignetting is a big problem with many filters, and you can often see it right in the viewfinder. I have never tried a slim filter. It might work.

If you screw filters all the way in, they can contact the high spot on the front glass. My copy came with a permanent mark in this area. Maybe slim filters would cure this problem as well. What I did was to permanently install a spring retaining ring from a cheap 72mm filter into the bottom of the threaded area on the lens. This keeps any filter from being able to screw all the way in.

Ic-racer...the person who mentioned vignetting being related to aperture was mentioning it in regards to the lens without any filter.

I have never noticed bad vignetting or barrel distortion with this lens. It just seems like it is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Not horrible, just not amazing.

darinwc · Sep 6, 2009

2F: Some people would disagree with you and say the 17mm FD is plenty sharp.
Do you shoot mainly handheld? What version of the lens do you have?

PeterAM · Sep 6, 2009

A few years ago I bought a 16mm Zenitar;price was right for the very limited use that I gave it. I had used it on one of my DSLR's and shot a roll of B&W with it on a 35mm body. Decided that it was fun on the film body and threw it in a drawer. This thread reminded me about it and gave me an idea for a project (on film) with it. Interestingly enough, this lens came with a couple of filters that mount on the back of the lens;something that I had not seen before. Does anybody know if rear mounted filters give the same result as front mounted filters? I think that I've seen some reference to this type of filter being used on certain large telephotos, presumably because the giant front filter that would be required?

Krzys · Sep 7, 2009

They wouldn't give the result I'm after! (Protection)

17mm f/4 FD mount

Krzys

Greg Campbell

benjiboy

Krzys

David A. Goldfarb

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Jeff Kubach

Krzys

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Krzys

David A. Goldfarb

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darinwc

cooltouch

Jeff Kubach

ic-racer

2F/2F

darinwc

PeterAM

Krzys

17mm f/4 FD mount

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