Playing With Lenses: Wide open: Canon Lens FD 50mm 1:1.8 S.C. (II)

Thursday, 13 February 2020

Wide open: Canon Lens FD 50mm 1:1.8 S.C. (II)

Cost: $23.99 (average cost around $30)

This lens was first introduced when Canon released the F-1 camera body. Over the years, 4 versions of this lens was released, with this copy being the last version. This version is recognizable from the previous versions by a blank front, a lighter weight and a change from 6 aperture blades to only 5. The lesser weight was achieved by replacing some of the metal by plastic, and it shows. It's by far not as expensive looking as the 35mm FL lens I reviewed last week, but at least the aperture ring is in the right place.

Also the working is less smooth and feels more like plastic. I guess this is the age when manufacturers started changing to cheaper and lighter designs, resulting in less aesthetics of the lens itself.

In this copy, the aperture is broken, so I did all my samples wide open. That means the samples are likely not as sharp as they could be, especially closer to the edges. However, as the common statements on the internet seems to be that this lens was rather not sharp at the edge, it might just be the lens and not the wide aperture. In the middle its fairly sharp, but not a sharpness monster.

Colors are really nice, sometimes really giving that "look" of a classic lens.

S.C. stands for spectral coating. Earlier versions did not mention S.C but might actually still have had the coating. It was only after Pentax started doing marketing around their coating, that other manufacturers followed putting the designation on their lenses.

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 35mm
Maximum Aperture: F1.8
Minimum Aperture: F16
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: Canon FD
Optics: 6 elements, 4 groups
Blades: 5
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 60cm
Filter Size: 55mm
Weight: 198g
Length: 40-47mm
Production: 1976 - discontinued
Serial Number: 1591574
Made in: Japan

More information on Canon Inc.

Samples: