Legacy lenses on EOS R: Canon FD 85mm f/1.2 'L' lens review with samples
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- On rare occasions I get tempted to test out particularly interesting legacy lenses (I don't often have the time to cover many of them, though). This very bright portrait lens from 1980 still attracts high prices on eBay - how usable is it when adapted onto a Canon EOS R?
All pictures taken by me on a Canon EOS R camera.
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christopher frost doing old legacy lenses? oh yesss
Finally, review of vintage canon glasses. I've been waiting for years to see it from you. Thank you very much
I totally agree. Vintage lens lover here.
Yeaassssssssss Chris!
This is great stuff for sure. I'm definitely not Christopher but I've done a few small reviews about my vintage lenses if you guys want to check them out.
For a lens designed and manufactured 40 years ago, this is impressive!
Ι own this lens...along with the 50/1.2 and 24/1.4. They are built like a tank and they have a certain character that i find wonderful. Lenses are just like an artist's brush. Each has it's place and use. And with live view and zoom to focus point it's now easier than ever to get great results!
Those are my dream sets! Especially the 24 1.4
congratulations, you probably bought them for pocket change and now they're worth a bunch of money!
How you figured out a way to mention Margaret Thatcher in a 2020 lens review, is mind-boggling.
Great to see some vintage lens reviews from you! Hope to see more!
Omg my dream for you to review vintage lenses! I also have a 50mm f/1.2L FD
I have a variety of vintage lenses in Cardiff if you're ever in the area and want to borrow them for review 👍
For its time, nothing came close to the performance of this lens. On film, I don't believe there was a better 85mm. There are a few gems in the FD catalog that are worth playing with and adapting or shooting film again for enjoyment.
I highly doubt that optics haven't improved in past 50 years, especially in face of computer modelling.
@@666Tomato666 I heard that some people at Zeiss said that their theoretical optical formula from back in 1900 is pretty close to perfect, but considering the limiting factors in manufacturing and the advancement in coatings make todays lenses much better
Back when Canon made real brass and glass.
@@Paisteplayer09 except that fluoride glasses and other apochromatic and superachromatic lenses didn't exist in 1900
these lenses is why I love mirrorless cameras - when I first got my sony a7s I bought a lot of legacy/vintage lenses to play with - some good bargains out there!
I've got the 85mm 1.8. It's 'pretty good' at 1.8 and improves rapidly from there. A solid lens!
Awesome lens review as usual, Chris!
Would love to see some more lens tests on the new 32.5mp canon sensor. I’m curious how older lenses (17-55 2.8, 18-35 1.8, etc) perform on the new sensor.
Thanks for your awesome videos!
Legendary lens, I love adapting old Canon glass to my Sony full frame cameras. Feel more connected to the pictures if that makes sense.
I was having a look at these on eBay and wondering how they would hold up on a newer digital camera, awesome video!!!
I well remember using this lens in a tv studio in Nottingham back in the mid eighties on a drama series, mostly for b/w shots. As for the lens hood well that was a bit of a nightmare so used to leave it on all the time. I purchased the lens - second hand from London camera Exchange for £500 ! You bring back so many memories. Thank for a nice review, as always.
I've got a host of old lenses from my film SLR days. Didn't even dawn on me to look for adapters to fit these old lenses on my EOS R. I'm going to have to pick some of these adapters up! Would love to see how some of my favorite lenses from back in the day work out on my newest camera. Thanks for posting the video!
Please Chris, make more reviews of FD lenses! I would love an FD 500mm :) Thanks for the beautiful video! Regards from Uruguay.
I used to be a Canon guy in the SLR days. I had a Canon A-1 and Canon F1new along with a slew of FD lens. When the DSLR era came I kept on using my SLRs shooting film. I envied my Nikon friends who switched to Nikon DSLRs earlier considering these still accepted old Nikon SLR lens. Actually, a generation of us waited for a Canon DSLR that would accept FD lens. It did not happen. When the Nikon D90 rolled out, I switched to Nikon and never looked back.
Yeah Nikon is the best camera brand for using any lenses from 50s to nowadays! I can use my Nikon 85mm 1.4G on F5 , F4 and F3. And I can use 55mm 1.2 on D3.
Although now I switched to GFX 50s and Gfx 100 so I sold most of my Nikon glass and buying canon glass because of f/1.2 aperture (0.9 on Gfx medium format) . Unfortunately canon glass is better and canon was always a winner in camera department. I’m a Nikon fan boy but I know canon is just better in glass, pleasant skin tones , legendary glass with 1.2
The last comment there Chris.., could not been better stated.
Great review as usual!
Thanks.
What a beautiful piece of glass! The way it renders is just lovely and it holds up surprisingly well to the punishment of modern sensors. I love fully manual lenses, it feels wonderful when you can slow down a little to get the shot.
Here’s to more vintage reviews!
I think some of the best lenses from that era are from Mamiya. I’ve accumulated quite a bit of Sekor C 645 lenses during covid… lol. They work well with Fuji’s GFX system. The 80mm and 120mm macro N are very sharp. Good enough in most cases for the 50MP sensor of my GFX camera. I use them to transfer film to digital.
It's crazy how lenses stand the test of time. When I first got in the full frame camera systems I remember I didn't have enough for the EF 70-200 F 2.8. So I bought the magic drain pipe. For those if you don't know it's a very old lens that's an 80 to 200 F 2.8. The lens itself is still very very good. And you can pick one up for about $400 these days. The one I got was in flawless condition!!! This is a lesson people how camera bodies come and go but lenses will last forever. Invest in your lenses!
And built like a tank. The mini-magic drainpipe (EF 28-80mm f2.8-4 L) is also superb (see Ken Rockwell's review).
Great review! I own this lens with EOS RP and it was my dream setting since I started my camera with Canon A-1!
I'm real excited about this review because I have it and I loooove it !! Made my best portraits with it... Watching now... :)
I _love_ these sorts of reviews. I just wish someone with your thoroughness did this with Nikon glass.
very good idea christopher. Many new film photographers like me welcome such tests.
I don't know why I am waiting this video, I have this lens, and also many others. love this lens
Back in the days real photographers were interested in how it performed not only on 1.2 but at 1.4!! 1.7 1.8 That is how you did use these kind of camera lenses like 1.2.
Your switch from 1.2 to 2.0 is leaving a black hole.
Testing these camera's more like they were ment to be used would be far more interesting.
Forget your routine of the '20's. 🙂
I can tell because I am a photographer like that a bit older :-) now and very seriously loving and adoring at that time these at that time very expansive lenses.
Hardly anybody had such a lens back in the days!
And analoge it did matter 1.2 or 1.8 or 1.4.
so be more exact please, I like your reviews further.
Friendly greetings, Onno Nugteren the Netherlands.
Amazing review! I'm waiting for 50 mm f1.2
“What would Margaret Thatcher have thought” 😂 Never expected to hear that in a lens review 👍🏻
You really found a beautiful version!
Ah, the sort of review I'd been hoping you'd do now and then. :)
I've been having a lot of fun with vintage lenses, myself, over the years. On the Canon side, I've got an '80s kit lens in the form of the FD 50mm f/1.8 ("Official 35mm Camera Of The 1984 Olympic Games" lens cap and all!) that I've been having fun with lately on my RP, and a recently acquired FL 55mm f/1.2 (1968-1971) will hopefully get some action soon.
Love your vids as always , so calming
I have tested both EF and FD 85mm f1.2 adapted to Hasselblad X2D, and the FD seems the sharper of the two, that is when you nail focus manually.
Hi Chris, thanks a lot for this review and that you've decided to review vintage lenses, too! As a precision adapter I recommend the Novoflex adapters. They are a bit expensive, but worth the money. Crafting, longevity and precision are top notch. There are many vintage Canon EF lenses, for example the Canon FD 3.5/35mm, the FDn 2.8/28mm for little money and they offer excellent image quality. And that's right, I'd like to use the Canon EF 1.2/85mm L USM Mk. II on my Canon RP with eye detection AF in order to take photos of my daughter. I agree with you, it is more convenient Best wishes, Ralf
Hi Chris, i am happy to see review of a vintage glass on your channel ! I personally shoot both lines of lenses - modern ones and vintage on a daily basis and do personally know people who shoot vintage lenses professionally. (one of those guys actually shoots extreme sports as kickboxing - where shooting slowly - that tends to be required with vintage - is not an option...) So here in Sony's world we are already very well established in this world... and if you would be able to pick up some more vintage legendary lenses, it would be extremely apreciated by very wide audience, that will be growing more and more, as it seems to be the fasion nowadays. The most popular one you have covered already - i call it the Hipster king - Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 but there are many others extremely interesting lenses. 2 lenses i would love to see the review of is 85mm Helios f/1.5 (!!!!) and one of the most legendary lenses and my dream unicorn of lenses - Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 75mm f/1.5 (Btw i was reading an article that Josef Koudelka was shooting the one by Carl Zeiss) .. let me (us) know if you are planning to dedicate some more videos to vintage glass, please :)
I can only cover them when I know they're going to be lenses of interest to lots of people (I'm on a budget here, gotta watch my bottom line!)
@@christopherfrost sure of course :) thanks for the reply :) i think they are on increase of popularity and now Canon and Nikon will join in with their own ''native vintage lenses'' so let's see what the future brings :)
More of this please Chris. Quite a fan of vintage Pentax glass myself, ok they can't autofocus but they are quite often better than the modern lenses.
I actually find it a lot easier to focus on vintage glass rather than more recent glass (at least the ones i tried so far) because i can very accurately set the focus, rathger than having a step motor in the lens, digitized focus distance where you can never be sure at which distance the lens is focusing or simply having to rely on autofocus for that matter.
Also I like DSLRs a lot better because of the heavy shutter, rather than the "smartphony" click you get when shooting on a dslm. On a DSLR you actually have the feeling of having taken a picture. But then again, I also enjoy shooting film a lot more, so who am I to judge ;-)
there's still a mechanical shutter in mirrorless cameras, you know that. right?
@@Callsign_Jaeger Yeah, of course, but it just doesn't feel right without the mirror smacking the body of the camera ;-)
I recently bought an even older 1.2 ... the FL 55mm f/1.2. It's perfect wide open. It has none of the contrast or color shift issues you found. I wonder if your example of the 85mm isn't faulty in some way. I just don't think that what you experienced is up to Canon's standards.
I'm so impressed with that closeup performance, better than some lenses from 2019, looking on you RF 24-70mm.
More vintage lens reviews, thank you very much. :-)
I'm loving using manual lenses on my rp, the aperture ring and manual focus free up loads of buttons (the camera has one two few buttons when using AF I reckon). With a manual lens I get abundance of controls, and focusing is dead easy on a mirrorless camera. It used to be a pain to use a manual lens on my SLR, now its a piece of cake. I like buying them too because they seem durable relative to electronic lenses, and ought to work on just about any mirrorless camera, plus they're often cheap, so I think I a good investment, and their usability will probably only improve. This one's a bit more than I'd probably spend on an old manual lens, but the pictures you've taken with it show that its obviously pretty great.
One of the reason I swear by my Sony a9 is its capability to autofocus manual vintage lenses with the LMEA7 adapter. I am glad I bought the adapter almost 3 years ago.
It works with fd lenses?
Got a solid FD collection for use with both my canon A1 and Nikon Z6.
My favourite I own being the 35mm chrome nose version with thoriated back element
I can tell one more awesome fact about this lens: It covers the sensor in my Hasselblad X1D with a little soft vignette at 1.2-2. But otherwise fantastic results.
so it might worth adapting to fujifilm gfx as well.
discomycete yes it must be the same result, maybe even more versatile, as the shutter is more suited to adapted lenses
I have this lens adapted for EF, which Ken Rockwell said couldn't be done.
About the corners - those lenses have problems with the mount. If it is lose they can tilt a little and you lose sharpness over the frame. Mine was tilted from the lens mount and the adapter to Sony. If it fits tight and the lens groups are aligned - the sharpness is impressive.
Although you see vignetting in your test, I found that it covers the sensor in my medium format Hasselblad X1D.
*new Christopher frost video*
opens up a bottle of wine
Nice review and some pretty shots, as per usual. As for getting more and more redundant every day..well, firstly I'm sure that was most keenly felt when the fd mount was replaced with the auto focus eos mount. Good eye AF is great as it takes focusing out of the equation of portraits, slightly more so than face AF or just AF; to manual focus enthusiasts eye AF isn't making anything redundant though : )
It's a painful truth, that's for sure
Would love to see more vintage/legacy lenses such as the Canon FD 50mm F1.4, FD 24mm F2.8, FD 14mm F2.8L, Super Takumar 50mm F1.4 M42 or the Canon EF 20-35mm F2.8.
You should roundup all of the nifty fifties from all of the old slr systems, and review them en mass. Would really help for those who are just getting into film.
Impressive image quality for its age!!!
Great revue as usual! As an old Minolta-user I was also angry about A-mount making my MF C- and D-Lenses useless, especially when I bought my first DSLR in the early 2000s. Thanks to mirrorless technology we´re now able to use our old treasures again, providing that we kept them. ;) Perhaps the red color cast is be caused by aged coating?
Someone else has posted an interesting explanation for it below :-)
I actually use manual focus lenses a lot on my d810 without using live view, but I have installed a magnifying eyepiece and a split prism focus screen, those help a bunch when manually focusing.
Please review old pentax lenses adapted to mirrorless, i heard they are popular and a great bang for the buck, love all your videos
I think MILCs and vintage lenses are a match made in heaven. And if the lens was from a rangefinder, so much the better. I am shooting my 50-year-old Leitz f1.4/50 Summilux on a Canon EOS RP. Since the RP is WYSIWYG, I shoot in Manual Mode but with the ISO set to Auto. I can adjust the f-stop by rotating the lens aperture ring, and the results are shown immediately on the EVF. Bliss!
Sorry I use my Canon FD Lenses with the ( ZYWKKOR FD-EOS made in Japan ) it works great to adapt to my camera Canon EOS 600D/T3i and Canon EOS 800D/T7i the lens I use and have are Canon FD 50mm F1.8 S.C. // Canon FD 100mm F2.8 S.S.C. // Canon FD 200mm F2.8 S.S.C. // Conon Zoom FD 100-300mm F5.6 Macro // Last one is a Sigma 18mm F3.5 For Canon FD Hope this help you I'm a big fan of your videos keep up the great work. Dan from Canada.
I will be buying a FD Lens for my Canon F1
OMG you need to start testing the super multi coated takumars pleaaaaase
Really interesting!
This would be a nice series!
EOS R used for around $1100 in 2020 or Fujifilm X-T4. If you had to do one or the other and want to shoot 4K but also take great stills.
I've used that lens on the first Sony a7. It was great
Surprisingly good optical performance!
The only drawback is that with the influx of mirrorless that can take almost any lens it's getting harder to get a good deal, and the price on this lens kinda ruins it compared to the more modern versions. I don't think manual focus is that big of a deterrent, eye tracking etc is overhyped, photography isn't about technology.
FD 24mm f1.4l? Or maybe the dream lens 50mm f0.95 ltm?
I have this Canon 85mm 1.2L but It can't focus past 35feet I found it for $40 but inside that range it's great, I also have the Canon 55mm 1.2 ssc aspherical.
What is the crop factor with an FD Lens when adapted to the EOS R? I'm for a solution as close to a Full Frame Digital camera with FD lenses as possible. Thanks, love to hear your thoughts before I buy.
Manual Focus is great I actually have the EOS R and I prefer to use manual focus mainly the Zeiss Milvus but was looking into the FD lenses
I like the fd system, I own an FD 35-105mm F3.5 macro it has an odd max aperture but is very fun to use and handle. If you step it down to higher apertures it's quite sharp. =]
What the Lens Doctor says about it: This lens came from a time when Canon were experimenting with aspherical glass built into plastic moulds, there were 3 lenses that were introduced with aspherical glass this being one of them. The lens on digital is brutally sharp with inky black colour and contract. This lens will not disappoint even the stringent scrutinising photographer.
There’s a lot of misinformation about SC versus SSC; both are multi coatings, it was really just a marketing thing in the 70’s as it was a cheap way to up-sale people and there was a big “coating” war between lens makers.
When you're done review fd L lenses maybe you can review the Zeiss contax lenses :D
this lens works pretty well
Wow, that's impressive for lens that old!
Maybe you could test some of the old Minolta lenses? The 58mm F1.2 is pretty nice. Works great on my EOS R :-)
Thanks for the review! Just a question: Why did you choose to show the lower left corner in the image quality test? The upper right looks much worse in the overview of the chart.
Hi ! I got this lens ! It’s gorgeous !! Is it normal I don’t see much difference between 1.2 and 1.4? It does brighten up just a tiny tiny bit in the center but it’s hard to see. Only when focus peeking I can see a brightening in the center . Thanks for help. 85mm 1.2FD is better than EF 85mm 1.2 . Why ? Because it’s all mechanical. Your EF lens might fail (motor) and you are done. Imagine in 30-50 years , EF lenses will not hold up well. Better get fully mechanical lenses so your kids will use it and their kids too
Just what I needed Chris, I bought the Fotodiox adapters for the R bodies andI am trying to decide which prime telephoto lens to buy either the New FD 300mm f/4 L or the FD 400mm f4.5 S S C both mint. I want to use them for deep space astrophotography what do think?
No idea I'm afraid - they could be sharp, they could be useless
Yessss finally, I was waiting for you to do a review of the Canon FD L lens on the full frame Canon EOS R. I own pretty much all of the FD L lenses but was waiting to see how a EOS R will react to them before buying one. Now I will buy one! Can you use focus peaking to focus them like on the EOS M3???? Thank you for all your reviews. Denis
I think you can use focus peaking on any lens (I /think/)
@@christopherfrost Thank you for your quick respond. I have a big collection of FD lenses and i wanted to purchase a EOS R to use them but i was not sure how the sensor will render the image of My FD lenses. Now i am curious to see the difference between my FD 85mm f/1.2L and my Samyang XP 85mm f/1.2 on the EOS R That i purchased after watching you review of it.
@@denispelletier4381 I can essentially guarantee you the Samyang lens will be far, far superior
@@christopherfrost Now I have to save my money to buy an EOS R body. And i am waiting to see the review of the FD50mm f/1.2 L
@@christopherfrostNow i have to save my money to buy an EOS R and i am waiting to see your review of the FD 50mm f/1.2L
I am sorry, that youtube has not a "super" icon - you will get it on near to all of your videos! :-) Super review, thank you! (Y)
Your ‘built in model’ pictures are especially nice here Chris! :-) Would be nice to see how the lens (or similar) fairs on the M6 Mkii Presumably the adapter could sit on the M / EF adapter?
or you could just buy an fd/ef-m adapter for 10 bucks
@@yesthisisdonut Good idea, didn't know they existed. I already have the EF-S / EF - EF-M adapter though :-) I am guessing using another adapter would add a bit of vignetting though!
Now, that's a lens. Wow.
A lot of Canon FD shooters were pissed that their equipment was rendered obsolete overnight, but I think Canon made the right choice. The EOS system as a clean-sheet design meant that there's very little confusion about what works with what cameras. Either you can use all EF lenses, or you can use all EF and EFS lenses. This stands in stark contrast to both Pentax K-mount and Nikon F-mount, where the photographer has to consult charts to see if a particular lens is compatible or not, especially when it comes to lenses with internal motors versus those relying on camming action from the camera body.
Agreed
Is this one the Aspherical version?
how much do I have to donate to your patreon for you to start reviewing m43 (panasonic and olympus) lenses ??
You would have to build a time machine. That's what's holding me up from doing M4/3 - time! If ever the channel becomes my main source of income then yes, I will :-)
Please review the rf 85 1.2 DS and compare to non DS
I will eventually, yes
Are you sure that adapter doesn't degrade the image ? I'm not convinced it doesn't. The lens elements are not where canon designed them to be (with a film camera) with an adapter inbetween.
FD-RX7?
Was hoping you could do a review of the nikkor 20mm f/1.8 now that you've got a nikon body.
That'd be great. Thanks.
Eventually, yes, I will
@@christopherfrost Awesome! Thanks, Chris!
Will you please test the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 L? I would love to see how it handles your chart!
I'm waiting to be able to hire the version with the apodisation element too, so I can test them together :-)
Christopher Frost Photography thank you for replying :) I’m excited already!!
Can you check the FD 500 f/4.5 L as well?
How does the aperture work. Do you manually select them?
Hi guys, does someone know if it's possible to have the Electronic stabilisation with vintage lenses ?
If your camera has it then it should work
any way to find how much this lens cost when it was first released?
Does the EF version of the lens have any way to use autofocus if adapted to a Sony E-mount camera? Or would we still be manually focusing?
You can get a EF to E adapter. metabones or sigma.
Interesting lens with good utility, but I think it’s fair to say that a price of $700 is completely unreasonable. With all these compromises, it shouldn’t be worth more than $250 imo.
Rarity and collectors. This was not a common lens back in the day. And any vintage 85mm did not go to f1.2.
may I ask what converter you use. I use this lens with the 5d/eos1ds, film and foto, and a glas converter, 'fotodiox pro fd-eos' which has quite a lot of Artefacts, its actually only sharp in the center.
now I would love to use it with eos r too.
This convertor has no glass at all
thanks I found it, it is displayed on your video 😋
Any more vintage lenses reviews in the future Christopher?
At least one more
Why do old lenses like this look so much nicer than newer ones? I wish newer lenses had colored numbers on the aperture rings. Not that it’s actually important ofc.
hey, can u please review a canon ef 70-200 f2.8 L is iii? how it compares to others?
He rarely reviewed super heavy lens like the 70-200. But I think he did twice for the f/4 version.
The Mk.III is the same as Mk.II in everything, except that the Mk.III will be flare resistance, and easier to clean due to added coatings.
And a whiter paint if you care about it...
I need an fd to efs adapter