FD Lens - got it cheap but may be broken?

I just picked up a couple of FD lenses at an old antique place near here - a 135 f/3.5 and a 70-200 f/4. I didn't think to really check them out, just plunked down the $20 for the pair and ran..

Now I get home and don't see the aperture blades move when I rotate the ring, on either of them. This may be a clue as to why they were only $10 each ? ! ? !

If so, anyone like a couple of nice FD lenses? $9.99 each, plus shipping...

FD lenses use a lever in the back to actuate the aperture blades. They do not have a fully manual aperture, so the aperture blades will not move when you turn the aperture ring, only when the shutter is clicked.

I would imagine the stop down (DoF preview) button on your camera will stop them down as you look through the viewfinder. They normally sit wide open, regardless of aperture on the ring, until you take a shot. Otherwise you would be trying to manually focus with the lens stopped down, not an easy task at f/16 !

equach206 wrote in post #13766713
FD lenses use a lever in the back to actuate the aperture blades. They do not have a fully manual aperture, so the aperture blades will not move when you turn the aperture ring, only when the shutter is clicked.

This is true, but there is also a small locking pin that prevents opening the apertures manually (with the lever on the rear) when the lens is off a camera. Most lenses "park" the aperture at a middle f-stop when off the camera, f4 or f5.6 probably. When it's fitted to the bayonet, the pin, partially hidden under the bayonet locking flange, is pressed in to allow the aperture to move via the lever. Canon made a special "rear lens cap" to use when testing lenses, or perhaps if reversing the lens for macro work, in which case the special "cap" also acts as a neat little lens hood. But these special caps are very rare.... Mostly only camera repair shops bought and used them.

You can manully press the pin (you'll have to experiment a little, I don't have an FD lens handy to check and tell you exactly where it is) with a small, flat blade screwdriver or something similar, and then will be able to operate the aperture with the lever on the rear of the lens. (The aperture control ring where you manually set the desired aperture or can select A/auto, doesn't directly change the aperture. Instead, it limits how far the aperture is allowed to open when it's operated by the lever.)

So those lenses are likely just fine... operating the way they should. The typical FD and FD-n lens is very well made and durable. Not a lot to wear out or go wrong with them. Short of dropping one, burying it in the sand at the beach, or using it as a hammer, they should be good for about 100 years or a couple million miles, whichever comes first. The FD-n in particular were nice and small, too... It's fun to compare them with modern EF lenses, that seem to have grown much larger again over time. Many of the earlier SC and SSC lenses are quite good, too.

The Canon FD 70-210/4 is a quite good lens... one of the best zooms of its day. I haven't used the FD 135/3.5 (I have a 135/2.8 FDn.)

It's pretty impractical to use those FD lenses on a modern EOS/EF camera... You can get adapters but the ones with optics (that allow infinity focus) degrade image quality noticeably... The adapters without optics (that let you see the full potential of the lens' image quality) won't allow focus all the way to infinity. Maybe you should pick up an old FD mount camera too... Some of them are great, yet really cheap on the used market! (One of my personal favorites is the AE-1 Program... It's a very nice upgrade to the original AE-1, but not as complex to use as the even more upgrade A-1.)

More info on adapting them for use on modern EF cameras can be found at Bob Atkin's website:

Adapting various manufacturers' lenses to use on EOS cameras.

Adapting Canon FD lenses for use on EOS cameras, featuring one of the better adapters.

More info on Canon FD lenses and cameras:

A Malaysian site that has an exhaustive list of Canon cameras and lenses, just try to overlook the typos and minor translation errors.

FDreview.com

Downloadable manuals for many vintage cameras and lenses.

Lol, if you decide you want to get rid of them, I'll pay your asking price plus shipping.

Thanks guys - Maybe I'll have to scare up an adapter and see what goes. I have a couple old AE-1s that I could throw them on if they're really crappy on my 50D...I just figured for $20 I had almost nothing to lose.

Jim

If your going to use it, $10,000 dollars is cheap. If you are not going to use it, $20 dollars is expensive..