Canon 7D With Older FD Mount Lenses

[Albert Solan]

yes, I’d like to hear about this too.
I’ve seen those lenses selling cheap on the web and I’m curious about them being used with a Canon DSLR.

[Jim Biffle]

Albert,

I shot some stuff last week and the initial results were promising. However, I need to reshoot in a more controlled environment for consistancy with lighting. I shot outdoors around sunset to really test the low light capabilities of the lenses but the sun set faster than I thought so the results aren’t consistant. Also, I needed to clean the lenses better. Once I reshoot I will post it if you or anyone else is interested.

Thanks,

Jim

[Albert Solan]

Sure Jim,
that’d be great.
Thanks.

Albert

[Jim Biffle]

Albert,

Here are a couple of links to the results. There are two versions. One with a color grade and one without. Let me know what you think. I definitely need to invest in some lens hoods and other things if I’m going to use these but I think they have potential.

Enjoy,

Jim

No Color Correction:

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With Color Grade:

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[Albert Solan]

Hi Jim,
sorry for taking a while to reply, I’ve been busy as hell.
thanks for sharing your videos of the FD lenses in use.
You’re right, I think they have potential. I’m not sure if my eye is fooling me or not but it looks like the focus is a bit sharper with the EF lenses, but nevertheless the FDs do a great job.

The color correction definitely makes both look nice.
I’ll consider getting one of those FDs to have a try.

Thank you Jim,
have a nice day.

Albert

[Jim Biffle]

Albert,

No worries on getting back to me. I understand the busy thing. You’re right on the sharpness of the EF lens. I’m not sure if it’s the glass itself, the age or whatever but the newer lens is definitely sharper. In the next couple of weeks I plan to do some more tests outside now that I have a fader ND filter and see how they react to that.

One issue I’m having with the Canon FD in particular is when I open it up to 1.4 the color is so bright that I can’t really get anything in focus. I’ve never used a lens that fast so I don’t know if it was something I was doing wrong or something in the lens. It seems that both the Canon FD and the Focal FD work best at 2.8.

One word of caution Albert. The Canon FD lens has a tight focus ring when going from close up to about halfway to infinity (90 degree rotation). Then it loosens up and even turns smoothly in the other direction for the full rotation. Probably just age but it has wrecked havoc on my follow focus setup. So just know that the focus ring might be tight. A very small amount of gun oil and setting it in the car on a sunny day for about two hours seemed to help but it still gets tight on the same spot. Just not as tight.

Hope this info can be of good use to you.

Jim

[Albert Solan]

Thank you Jim, I’ll bear in mind what you say if I decide to get an FD to play with.

I’d like to see more footage shot with it for sure, maybe you can go outside and shot some people, landscapes, towns, buildings and such things. Don’t forget to stop by at some nice pub, rehydrate your self with a cold bear and hit the road again :O)

Regards,

Albert

[Jim Biffle]

Albert,

Funny you shold mention people, buildings, landscapes etc. I was in San Antonio, TX this weekend and got lots of good stuff from the Riverwalk. I should have something put together this week and posted. The rehydration idea was a good one since it was hot down there and wearing a vest full of gear got tiring after a while. I’ll let you know when it’s online. I’m excited to dig into it because I was using a fader ND so I could run an f-stop of 2-2.8 and not have the shots completely blown out. Also, I got to experience the “incognito” effect of a DSLR. Even though I had a loupe attached to the back and a large lens hood on the front people mostly thought I was taking stills. More to come.

Jim

[Micah Mcdowell]

Nice look you’ve got going there in your sample videos.
Just one note… you can’t focus to infinity (distant objects) with the FD lenses and your adapter, correct? They may work great for close-up/macro photography like your samples, but for most other purposes, you can’t utilize FD lenses on Canon EOS cameras. Keep that in mind before you get too heavily invested in them.

[Jim Biffle]

Micah,

Thanks for the compliment! I thought the car would be an interesting subject. To answer your question about the adapter. It has two thin peices of glass that allow for more than macro work. I can remove them to do macro shots but I have a macro ring set so I don’t even bother with the glass in the adapter. They can focus fairly far but there still seems to be a certain distance that is slightly out of focus or it’s just me. I should have some more test video posted in the next couple of days. I’ll let you and Albert know. I have noticed the chromatic aberration is worse on these older lenses in some situations. Once I get the money I will invest in some newer lenses but cash is tight right now. In the meantime these FD lenses will have to work and they do have a unique look.

Have a good one,

Jim