This Canon FD Glass is Pretty Good.

[Speedfreak]

Canon FD is excellent. The older breech-lock lenses are "heavy duty", the new FD type lenses are super compact and fit well with mirrorless digital.

I have used all sorts of lenses in the last years. Comparing FD to Nikon I simply fail to see why Nikon was considered "pro" back then while Canon FD (or Minolta) was not.

I also remember Leica guru Erwin Puts stating on his website, that if there would not have been Leica he would have chosen Canon as a system. The FD series had the edge in optics back then, according to him.

[Uncle Bill]

Originally Posted by raid

Nikon was viewed as being a better system than the Canon FD system, and the prices usually were higher for Nikkor lenses. I chose the FD instead.

I kept all my FD lenses and cameras.

Agreed mostly and while I'm a Nikon guy, I do think FD glass is on par and in some cases better than some Nikkor glass.

[raid]

I heard of some pros having custom adaptions for the Canon 500/4.5L into Nikon mount, so the optics were certainly on par with the Nikkor lenses. I uased to have a few Nikon and a few Canon lenses and cameras, and when the Canon AF system came out, and Canon deserted the FD mount, I did the switch from Nikon to Canon since prices for excellent FD optics fell dramatically. The Nikon cameras seemed to be preferred. The F2 and then F3 were widely seen as pro cameras, whereas the F1n and F1N were maybe seen as less pro ... I don't know.

[DominikDUK]

Nikons were considered pro because of the cameras not because of the lenses. I am mostly a Nikon guy and recently bought a FT-Ql for next to nothing. The out of focus rendering of the Canon's is smoother and mostly better than Nikon's sharpness is about equal.

FD lenses were often converted for motion picture camera use. Panavision uses FD elements for some of their tele lenses. This shows how good these lenses are.

Dominik

[OlliL]

Bought a Nex-3 and got an FD adapter with it.
Back to the 50mm F1.4 S.S.C Bokeh balls.


Bok-crazy von oliverleschke auf Flickr

[filmfan]

Looking back on all the cameras and lenses I have owned, I think the Canon FD 35mm f/2 lens was one of the absolute best lenses I have used.

[nikon_sam]

I was recently given a Canon A-1 with a third party lens....the lens was a bit hazy so I started looking for another one...I was able to find an FD 50mm 1.4 SSC lens for about $50
I haven't used it enough to form an opinion as yet but I do like what I see through the viewfinder...I was thinking of getting a wide angle lens for it but have decided to wait until I've used the camera a bit longer...
I don't want to complicate this camera with a bunch of lenses so it's the 50mm for now...next lens would most likely be a 24mm...

Interesting that this thread was started a year ago today...