Introduction

This guide was written to give you a good idea what to expect from Canon’s older FD lenses, many of which still perform very well on modern digital cameras.

All tests are performed with the 24MP full frame Sony a7/a7ii. Our ratings are always based on using the lenses with these cameras, the evaluation will be a different one on a smaller sensor. To learn more about using manual lenses on the Sony a7 check our beginners guide.

Most of these summaries are based on our own experience but we also decided to also include lenses we haven’t used ourselves to pool useful information we found on the net which we have summarized based on our experience with reviewing lenses. We would also be very happy if you shared your own experience with Canon FD lenses we don’t have any reliable information on yet. We are quite picky with the information we use though. That’s because 95% of the information we come across is unreliable: Everyone has different standards, Person A might rate the very same lens as a great performer while person B thinks it’s total junk. So we are mostly interested in full resolution images taken with a fullframe camera including information on the aperture used.

If you purchase the lens through one of the affiliate-links in this article we get a small compensation with no additional cost to you.

Wideangle lenses

 Canon (n)FD 4/17

Status: Used by Jannik for a short time in the past

• At f/4 the center is quite good but…
• … I’d recommend to stop down to f/11 for usable sharpness across the frame although it never gets tack sharp, partially because of the very strong lateral CA.
• Very low distortion (the biggest quality of this lens, especially in the film era), bad flare resistance and 6-bladed aperture.
• Medium size, and average price/performance ratio.
• The age of this legacy lenses shows clearly when it iscompared to modern options. Nevertheless, it is pretty usable if you give the files some love in the post processing (remove CA’s and sharpening).

360g + adapter | $200 | technical data | sample images |  user reviews

buy from ebay  (affiliate link)

Continue reading The Guide to Canon FD lenses on the Sony a7 series →