Canon FD 20mm f3.5 macrophoto lens

I like to re-cycle old gear as much as possible. Macro gives a great opportunity to use old FD macro lenses on bellows or extension tubes. You get the advantage of the using some classic glass at a bargain price and you never have to worry about infinity focussing, so a glassless EOS/FD converter will do the trick.

I already have the FD 50mm, 100mm and 200mm macro lenses together with both FL and FD auto bellows. Now I am awaiting the arrival of a 20mm f3.5 Canon macrophoto lens. This was made specifically for use on bellows, and will give reproduction rations of between 2.2:1 and 10.7:1 using extensions between 5mm and 175mm.

This sounds like fun! The question is, does anybody have any experience or sample shots taken with either this lens or its companion the FD 35mm f2.8 macrophoto?

Details on the lens are here:
http://www.mir.com.my …ses/fdmacro/203​5macro.htm

hopefully you do not mind me adding a question here

interesting lenses, thank you for sharing, anyone knows if this lens performs as good as a microscope objective at 10x? Would IQ comparable to a MPE? Might be nice to complete the MPE between 5:1 and 10:1?

Although I do not own this lens (unfortunately, because it's a nice objective!), I can assure you that a fairly cheap microscope objective will outperform it at the magnification it was designed for (5x or 10x for example) . Having said that, the canon is far more versatile since,
a) it has a variable aperture,
b) probably a more comfortable working distance and
c) a more consistent performance on various magnifications.
I suspect the Canon will perform best at around 5x.

If given a choice I'd prefer the 35mm version for it's 6 element design as opposed to the 4 elements of the 20mm.

Still I'm envious.

First, I need to say that I bought the 2 lenses in the 80’s, may be before as I just got them when they came out.
I used them with film on a Minolta at that time, and they were since in a box. I just took them out of the box a month ago to do one set of stack for test.
So this is the second time they are used since and I am testing on how to do stacks. Since I am not a ‘stack’ specialist, anything can go wrong and defects may not be due to the Canon lens quality or lack of it.
This is made with the 20mm using my not finished studio setup. I posted one picture a week ago and Jax gave me some very useful info to correct some problems I have.
There are 2 tests. Nothing was done to the picture and they are as they came from the camera .
The 2 first pictures are made with the 20mm with a total lenth of 158mm between the ‘film’ plane and the tip of the lens. Aperture 5.6, 100ISA. Full ETTL on the MT24X
Stack of 52 pictures in demo ZS- the width you see is 4mm

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I do not know the mag. for this shots, so if someone can help?

Realjax,

Thank you for your input, since I already have the MPE, I think the 20mm would be more interesting for me (seems like the 35 mm will go up to 5:1 or so only).

Even with less IQ, I think this could be more suitable for me, as I prefer to fiddle on the field then with elaborate micro focussing rails and all the complicated set ups that I see on the microphotography forum.

LLBNY,

thanks for posting images, would certainly be interested to see some more in the future.

Do you recall how much you paid at the time for the 20mm? Just curious, just found a few on ebay and they are quite pricy, over 300$... not sure if it is worth that much, specially that i am not sure if I will like it or not. What do you guys think?

When you bought it, was there some kind of booklet or instruction manual that said how much mag vs. extension? Would be interesting to have.

If anyone else has any images or links, would be nice to see more samples.

Thank you everyone for your participation

Martin

I may have an invoice from that time, but where?. I really doubt that they cost at that time as much as what they want on Ebay (399 I believe), but I do not remember.

Somebody asked me if it is worth it, I must say it is worth it for me because I have them. Will I by them for over $600, i do not think I would..

Booklet: I do not have the booklet anymore, so I do not know.

Prices and instruction sheets

Thank you all for you brilliant input and especially for those stunning photos. I can't wait for my parcel to arrive!

From my 1986 price list, the macrophoto stuff was as follows:
20mm f3.5 $139.50
35mm f2.8 $168.50
There was no price given for the Macrophoto lens adaptor, which was supplied separately.

The instruction sheet for the lenses can be found at http://web.archive.org …nses/macrophoto​lenses.pdf

Martin G. wrote in post #11429723
When you bought it, was there some kind of booklet or instruction manual that said how much mag vs. extension? Would be interesting to have.

Martin, If I'm not mistaken there are some tables with just this info in the manual for the Canon Auto bellows. The FD version. That manual can also be found online as a pdf somewhere. If you can't find it just let me know. Keep in mind that those tables are based on 35mm camera's though. On crops it's a different story.

LLBNY wrote in post #11429466
[I do not know the mag. for this shots, so if someone can help?

for instance the 2mm wide shot on the 50d means about a 11x magnification.
sensor = 22.3mm, image = 2 mm -> 22.3/2 = 11.1

Thanks.
Actually I was looking for a formula where I could input the focal, the distance between the lens and the film plan. and the sensor size.
Anyone?

thank you everyone

Realjax, I found the manual and the charts, ( http://www.joe-chan.com/manuals ) but they do not include unfortunately the 20 mm in there, I will keep searching.

Martin

Martin, thanks for that, but save yourself the effort of looking further, because the tables are given in the instruction book for the lenses. The web address for that is given in my previous post, further up the page.

Even more useful instruction books are available from the links given here: http://web.archive.org …ww.canonfd.com/​choose.htm

Paul, excellent, thank you for that... all there and much helpful!

Tx PAul, Excellent and priceless info.

LLBNY wrote in post #11430444
Thanks.
Actually I was looking for a formula where I could input the focal, the distance between the lens and the film plan. and the sensor size.
Anyone?

Well I know of this one, but it's not as acurate as simply using a shot from a ruler

magnification = em + (ex / fl)

where
em = existing magnification ( in other words, with no extension whatsoever)
ex = total extension ( *not* same as distance between the lens and the film plan)
fl = focal length of lens.

Well I found a formula - with a lot more parameters!

At the end I made a small test with a small steel ruler i have, but I need to find one with smaller lines and better resolution. In any case my spreadsheet is ready.
Will see after my european vacations now.