User_4136860

In my opinion the best canon FD cameras are the F series ( the original F1, F1n, New F1 and EF )

<p>"A" below the shutter release button isn't for "automatic" it's for advance, and "S" is for self timer.</p>

<p>As far as I remember all the range of Canon FD lenses were coated to have a matching colour balance based on the FD 50mm f1.4 standard reference lens.</p>

<p>I have had one for about twenty years and the optical quality is very good but the build quality isn't it's rather plasticy, however this needs to be weighed against the fact that it's an extremely useful swiss army knife of a lens that's ideal as a walk around lens.</p>

<p>It depends on who is using them.</p>

<p>I have been using FDn lenses professionally for about thirty years I bought my DFDn 17mm f4 lens new and it's an excellent ultra wide angle lens but the problem of buying second hand after all these years is you have no way of knowing it's history, and it sounds to me as if some ham fisted amateur repairer has had it apart on his kitchen table and ruined the collimation, because any idiot can dismantle a lens, but to reassemble it correctly and ensure all the elements are parallel to each other and line up to the same central datum line requires the use of an optical bench, and a lazer beam shining through the lens elements to ensure they line up correctly which is a job for for a camera technician.</p>

<p>I have almost all the Canon FD range of cameras including the F1n, and New F1 and the EF has the smoothest wind on and shutter operation of all of them.</p>

<p>In my opinion the best "bang for your buck" in the Canon FD 50mm lens range is the 50mm f1.4.</p>

<p>A Mamiya 6X7 camera RB or RZ will blow any 35mm SLR out of the water for producing photo technical quality.</p>

<p>Rick, the " glossy piano black finish" is a common term that isn't just applied to piano's, but also other products like hi-fi speakers that are french polished to a deep black glossy finish. </p>

<p>I love the glossy piano black finish on My EF, and F1n, I also have an A1 that I've never liked.</p>

<p>Whatever Canon FD lens was used on it the X-Pro1 isn't a Canon FD camera.</p>

<p>A 50mm lens on medium format is a wide angle lens and far too short for portraiture unless you want your sitters to look like W.C.Fields , or Jimmy Durante, I suggest you consider getting a 150 mm f4 Zeiss Sonnar lens. </p>

<p>It looks to me like a 24 mm lens too.</p>

<p>A design fault with the New F1 and the Motor Drive FN is that if the camera battery fails while you are out shooting with the drive attached you can't remove it to shoot with the purely manual shutter speeds, and you can't replace the battery without exposing the film, I used to always carry a changing bag for that reason.</p>

<p>The camera is "fixable" but at a cost that would be uneconomical, it would probably be more than you paid for the camera.</p>

<p>Be careful Michael you could get yourself into whole load of trouble, professional models from reputable model agencies are not only expensive but the agencies are very selective who they hire them out to if you're not known to them, and if you use female fellow students on campus that's a minefield that could blow up in your face too either from the college authorities or the girls parents or both.</p>

<p>Before using a camera that hasn't been used for two years you should test it, you wouldn't drive a car that hadn't been on the road for two years.</p>

<p>I used to lug about on a daily basis for my job for more than twenty years two Canon F1N-N's with Motor Drive FN 's attached and several lenses, I need a a very good specific reason to carry one these days, I do occasionally shoot my grandchildren running about using one from time to time.</p>

<p>If I won big money to hell with buying photographic gear I'm happy with what I have, I would take my wife of fifty two years on a Caribbean cruise she has so richly earned. </p>

<p>Douglas just because you have never seen them doesn't make them "unique", in the days when the Canon A series was current they were quite common, they must have made the Action Case A by their tens of thousands and sold them worldwide.</p>