Source for Canon FD mount lens reviews (both genuine Canon lenses and aftermarket)?

Can anyone give me two or three websites that contain reviews of

Canon FD mount lenses? I would like to look at reviews of both

genuine Canon lenses and other aftermarket/second party lenses. I

caught the Canon FD bug and am slowly building a system and would

like a couple of convenient places to get info on lenses--especially

lens tests. Thanks!

Here's one for Canon FD's. http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/index.htm

Unfortunately the FD system pre-dates the internet by about 10 years and although you will find plenty of product info at the above site and the Canon Camera Museum at canon.com, there is not alot about lens tests. Try Popular Photography to see if they maintain a database of their 20-30 year old reviews. There are also alot of personal reviews right here on photo.net that I believe to be quite useful and valid. This is certainly one bug that will not cost you as much as it used to, and you will be able to quickly build a very nice system comparable, optically, to anything made today. Good luck!

Aaron,

 

Try these:

 

http://web.mit.edu/dennis/www/canon/fd-lens-info.html

 

http://members.aol.com/canonfdlenstests/default.htm

 

Cheers

 

Andy

Aaron,

 

I echo the statement that you will find a lot of good information in the archives of this forum. You won't find a lot of technicalities like line-pairs-per-millimeter-here, but you will find a great deal of practical field information by experienced shooters, including likes and dislikes and other items that never make the lens tests.

I have never looked at a Canon lens test. I bought by the reputation of the company on faith I guess. Canon never,with maybe single exception,produced a poor lens. (They made v. good, and better lenses.) And my user tests over 20+ years reinforced my choices. The better L lenses were labeled with a red ring and cost twice as much but were never twice as good you know. I never got hooked on the old Vivitar Series 1 FD models,but they were reported as 'good' also. On these archives you will find individual favorite lenses, including the 100mm f2.8, the 35-105mm 3.5, the 135mm f 2.0 and a bunch of others like the 85mm 1.8. and the 200mm f.2.8 internal focus tele and all the macro flat field low distortion moderate f stop lenses. If you want a supersharp -to-die-for wide open lens at a relatively hefty used price there is the heavy weight 85mm 1.2 L.,and the ever popular 24mm L. They, meaning whole range of optics outperform the capabilities of most emulsions for anything you want to do. The old chrome barrel lenses are no better or worse than the newer quasi bayonet style. Those with some plastic in the construction seem to hold up as well as the solid metal models. Check out the pub Canon Lens Works to look at the glass element and other specs,data data data which correlates with price/ performance ratio depending on your job for the lens if I make my point.. That is no answer,mostly a philosophy of life. Be well,buy low,sell high...GS

Aaron,

 

Take a look at www.photodo.com - many different lenses have been tested and listed there (lab tests - not user reviews). In the Canon section, there are several FD (manual focus) lenses as well as many new EOS lenses. You can then pop over to the Tamron, Tokina, Vivitar, etc., sections and see if there are similar lenses tested. The bottom line is this: nothing except Nikkor comes close to the Canon lenses for 35mm.

Also, Erwin Puts has an intelligent comparison of Canon FD 50mm lenses at

<http://www.imx.nl/photosite/japan/CanonFD/FD50.html>.