Preface
Film or digital, no matter the camera, if the lens is no good none of those other things will matter. There will be no spoilers as I will like all of these lenses. This lens was a byproduct of my odd obsession with the Canon T70. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps a mild obsession with oddballs. But the T70 is quite the capable oddball.
Anyhoo. The lens.
Asking Price
This lens can be found from $45 to $90 fairly easily. I in no way claim to be an expert on FD Canon lens provenance so one version may perform better than another.
Value
This lens is an excellent value considering its f/1.4 aperture and performance/build (more on that below). Unlike the significant price spread between some same mount 50mm film SLR lenses, like the Contax Zeiss CY f/1.7 and f/1.4, the small price difference between this lens and slower f/1.8 (a fine lens) makes the f/1.4 an easy pick. For adapting to mirrorless the mount does not matter of course. While there are other similarly priced used film era 50mm f/1.4 manual focus lens options one could easily spend much more. New manual focus SLR/DSLR and Mirrorless lenses with this same 50mm f/1.4 spec are even more of course.
Why I Bought It
Because T70. Anything more than that is gravy. And there is more.
Image Quality
As mentioned I have had the FD f/1.8 which I used with the Canon AE-1 Program.
Nice lens. This one is better.
- Flare
- Have not witnessed any flare with this lens.
- Sharpness
- This lens is so sharp that it surprised me. It is one of the best lenses I have tried wide open. Impressive for an inexpensive f/1.4 lens.
- Colors
- Has no big name Zeiss like brand puffery but it puts in a very impressive performance nonetheless.
- Bokeh
- Another surprise. Very nice bokeh. See samples.
Samples With Film (Canon T70)
With Digital
Conclusion
Seriously, I wish I knew how well this lens performed before. Would have still purchased other lenses, but this one would have definitely been added sooner. A great value. While I like the Zeiss lenses I have reviewed a bit better this is still a fine performer. I recommend it for film, but it does very well with digital.
Eric L. Woods 