Stuck Canon FD Lens

I took delivery yesterday of a Canon New FD 50/1.8 from a seller on the auction site. I think the inner barrel may be slightly out of phase. The glass looks good, the aperture functions properly and focusing is OK. The problem? When I try to mount the lens, it won't lock into place. It's date code is W1013. Years ago I bought a New FD lens at a camera show for nearly nothing. The inner barrel was out of phase. In thst case I was able tobstraighten things out right away and then the lens worked properly. The lens I am looking at now will not lock into place and its release button will not pop out when it is mounted. Any suggestions? I have to say that even though I have many different Canon SLR lenses, going back to the R models, I think the regular FD lenses are better put together than the New FD ones. I say this even though many interesting lenses, especially zooms, were made only as New FDs.

Usually this happens when the outer collar has been turned against/across the locking pin, essentially leaving the lens in an invalid configuration while off of the camera. I sometimes have this when removing an FD lens from my T90; with a slightly unfortunate movement, it's possible to have the lens end up in this state. It's a matter of fidgeting a bit to turn the collar back in the angle it should be. Do you have an FD lens that's properly dismounted for reference? Hold it next to the affected lens and note if there's a difference in how the collar is rotated vs. the barrel.

Yes I have had the same experience as koraks. I think you can use a back cap to get things back into position.

loccdor said:

you can use a back cap to get things back into position

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Yes, that's right!

dynachrome said:

I have to say that even though I have many different Canon SLR lenses, going back to the R models, I think the regular FD lenses are better put together than the New FD ones. I say this even though many interesting lenses, especially zooms, were made only as New FDs.

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As somebody who not only uses FD lenses but also services them, I disagree.

The New FD lenses have a better helicoid materials combination, that makes those helicoids last practically forever without requiring service. While the "classic" FD lenses often suffer the common helicoid problems that also plague, say, manual focus Nikkors.

The 50/1.8 FDn is not a good example because it's a cost-reduced lens, but the premium FDn lenses have everything you would expect from a quality lens, like for example lots of ball bearings for the aperture cams. You can also see better build quality correlated with pricing, the 50/1.2 FDn is better built than the 50/1.4 FDn which in turn is far better built than the 50/1.8 FDn.

I've long concluded that Canon always intended the 50/1.8 to be a budget toss-away thing, even though its optical quality is very high once stopped down. Sad, when compared to Nikon, whose 50/1.8 AI is well made and not inferior to the f1.4 in any way; or the Pentax-M 50/1.7 which is also not inferior to the 50/1.4 versions in any way.