Canon FD-EOS Converters - The Mother Lode?

I saw this on eBay today, so I took a look.

http://cgi.ebay.com …ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcm​dZViewItem

I was almost ready to 'Back' out when I saw that the listing said there are Nine of them available. If it is true that would be the biggest bunch of them I've seen together since I started looking for them a couple years ago. The price is steep at $999 Canadian, but for those who are interested it could be quite an opportunity.

Have Fun,

A few issues here - mainly that this converter - the 'official' Canon one - only fits certain of the FD range - usually the high end wide maximum aperture tele lenses that pro shooters used, rather than the more ordinary FD lenses .
Secondly it acts a bit like a teleconverter so the focal length changes
Thirdly you lose some light
Fourthly you have to MF on a camera that was not designed for that - so might need to invest in a split focus screen eg Haoda/ others

These were brought out to sweeten the transfer to Eos for the pros who used FD mount gear at that time - and considering that in those days real men shot Nikon, everything else was for women and children - there were not so many doing the rounds. So from a historical point of view, this is an interesting find - but that's it for my money. The BIN price is ambitious to say the least, but he'll probably get it as there are plenty of collectors out there.

Unless you have some fast FD 'L' glass hidden away in your attic, these items belong in a museum IMO - I can't imagine dropping that much cash to get a lens stuck on my eos that cannot work as it was meant to. If you want to use these great old lenses, the best route is to get an FD body and shoot some film, the way God intended! Just my 2p

Steve,

Thanks for filling in some of the details. I'm not sure your slam of anyone not using Nippon Kogaku is accurate, as the predecessor to CPS used to regularly show up at many of the motorsport events I went to in the '70s, and their motor home was plenty busy with folks using their services.

This topic has been discussed several times, but to summarize:

The entry price for the converter is high, but with FD 300 f2.8L lenses going for way less than $1000, there is a savings there (A used EF 300 f2.8L goes for around $2500). Add an FD 400 f2.8L for $1200 or less and the savings is better yet ($3500 or so for a used EF). Both of those FD lenses have the same optical formulas as the initial EF version, and the TC factor of 1.26x does not impact the IQ - but it does take away one stop. Manual focus is required, but for exposure the FD lenses will work in either Av or P mode as well as M.

The FD lenses that work with the Canon converter regularly appear on eBay - that's where I got most of mine. While I wouldn't buy the converter just for the 200 f2.8, once you make the plunge you can add one to your inventory for around $100, and get a 250mm f3.5 with great IQ.

I guess its all in your perspective. I make them work for me.

Have Fun,

My comment about Nikon was seriously tongue in cheek - when I went AF in '94, the choice was Eos or Dynax - Nikon was just messing about with AF at that time. And whoa, they never really caught up till perhaps a month or so ago! The attitude then was that Nikon was for pro shooters, and everything else was for ****

I do take your point about the value in the MF lenses - I personally would prefer to use them on an MF system - my one attempt to use old MF lenses with adapters did not reall y work as I found focusing a real pain in the *ss - but as you say, if you make it work for you, then all power to you!

If you do get one of these I'd be pleased to read a write up,
regards,

PS - just looked at your gear list, boy you sure do have enough FD glass to get your money's worth from one of these! I'd still like to see a write upin the lens section, if you have time.

So it looks like there weren't 9 of them after all - the auction was ended after the first one was bought.

Have Fun,