Canon FL vs FD lenses

[joeyk49]

I picked up an older FL camera for my son to start learning on. I noticed that FL lenses are far and few between on Eb*y...and being a Minolta boy, I know little to nothing about Canons..

Can an FD lens be used on an FL body?? Any recommendations for a small tele or zoom (say, 35-70 ish)?

 

[Lee L]

http://www.vermontel.net/~wsalati/CasualCollector/CanonLenses.htm

has the scoop on lens styles and different bodies. FL lenses work on older bodies that require stop-down metering and with stop-down metering on full-aperture metering bodies. The more recent FD lenses are much more common used, and work both on full-aperture-metering bodies and in stopped-down mode on older, stopped-down-metering bodies.

My wife used a 35mm-70mm f:4 of about 1978 vintage. It was pretty sharp and rectilinear. I thought it blocked up in the shadows a little, but I was using a 50mm Summicron-R myself, so it was being compared to one of the best primes. It was certainly orders of magnitude better than a Nikkor 43-86 of slightly older vintage that I shot on a friend of mine's body. My wife switched to a CL and 40 Summicron in the early 80's so I don't know the newer Canon lenses, and that's the only zoom I've ever owned.

Lee

p.s. That 35-70 f:4 was only slightly larger than a 50mm normal lens.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The FD 35-105/3.5 constant aperture lens is one of the legendary ones, but demand makes it costly.

The Tamron SP 35-105/2.8 constant aperture lens, which I have, is a newer design and is really a fine zoom. It's sharp as a tack and has interchangeable mounts, so you can use it on your Minolta (and justify the price a little more). It does show some pincushion/barrel distortion at the extremes of the zoom range, but all tele-wide zooms show this. The constant aperture feature makes it great for non-TTL auto flash use or if you use a handheld meter. There are a couple of later versions of this lens with wider zoom ranges, but I think the 35-105 is the best choice, because as the zoom range increases, there are more compromises between sharpness and distortion (until you get to those pro cine/video lenses with a 10x zoom range that cost over $100,000).

 

[gnashings]

I've seen some great FL lenses while hunting for FD's - I am thinking of actually buying some to use on my AE-1 - I saw a 50mm 1.2 FL lens for about the same money as a FD1.8!!! And if you hunt for Canon lenses, you will see that even the 1.4 are pricy. Look around, I don't know about zooms - but I did see some really cool primes.

PS Is eBay a four letter word?

 

[joeyk49]

I haven't figured out if it s a word or an acronym...

 

[gnashings]

I was just wondering why you chose the eB*y spelling - didn't mean to be a smart a$$, hope you didn't take it that way! Cheers!

 

[joeyk49]

I was just wondering why you chose the eB*y spelling - didn't mean to be a smart a$$, hope you didn't take it that way! Cheers!

No offense taken...I think that I was trying to be the smart a$$...some here don't like the auction site because of a variety of problems. Others consider it something akin to Wal Mart, rather ubiquitous and hard to escape and something to be shunned in favor of the smaller local shops. I happen to be a fan, because I can pick up small or hard to find items that my local guy won't dream of carrying. Not to mention the fact that he leans heavily to the d*g*tal side too;almost no chemicals to choose from and carries the bare minimum of film (all Kodak).

So, my spelling was a little nudge to those that don't like the big guys but shop there anyway...

 

[gnashings]

I thought so - then I thought maybe I could be misunderstood

I BUY ALL MY PHOTO EQUIPMENT ON eABY or through classifieds and word of mouth. Those who snicker, can either give me a viable alternative that matches it for selection, value and convenienve - and I will gladly take it. Until then... well....

I can see the point of view of those who say support your local shop - I really, really do. Fact is, in the city where I live, there were two bona fide photography stores - and then Henry's (the Canadian big camera chain) moved in ( I am not counting 1 hour photo places at malls, etc).

Henry's is the biggest bunch of thieves I have every seen - they prey on students and only stock up on chems and dark room stuff twice a year when the local college starts its semester. They also have a bunch of really cool used cameras... except a really beat up AE1 body (only body!) is labelled $249.99... not even a body cap on it, sitting on an open shelf, dented and scratched, sqealing like a banshee, etc.

The other two stores bought some display cases and have wall to wall digital this and that. I would love to give them my business, but they just don't have anything I need, and again, the used cameras are a huge rip off aimed at students who need one now, and don't know any better.

So, before anyone gets on too much of a moral high horse because you or I use eBay, well, they can sit and spin - there is little choice where I live and the stores that I used to support turned their backs on me - I guess they would rather deal with Duracell than Ilford.

Besides, I am tired of that look they all give you, the one that says:
"Why MUST you be such a PAIN in the A$$, get a digital camera and stop asking me about this developer or that fixer because I don't know and could care less, and as you people keep dying, it will matter less and less, so go already!"

OK, a bit of a rant there... sorry.

How goes the FL lens hunt?

 

[joeyk49]

The hunt continues...

As I understand, I can use most FD lenses on the FL body (If I got that right?)

The FL is a starter camera for my son (Even though I've been playing with it lately.); so I'm not really in a rush. I just happened to noticed that there is a plethora of FDs out there and not many FLs.

I look at ebay as a great big garage sale. Sometimes you can reallly score and other times you come up empty. You just have to know what you want and what its worth...to you and to the seller.

 

[Nikki]

I personally LOVE EBAY! I picked up 80% of my FD/FL lenses there and for a song. Maybe I've just been really lucky. Now that I have tentatively stepped into "autofocus land" finding a deal by my super-cheapo standards is a lot harder but still I managed to score a pristine Elan 7e for $100 less than what I could buy it for locally or at online stores. But I can't bring myself to sell anything on it. Which is why I have FD lenses that I can't use so if you are interested...