Canon FD 80-200 f/4 L

stevemark · Joined: 29 Apr 2011 Posts: 3754 Location: Switzerland

The lens has an excellent detail resolution and a "crystal clarity" in the f8 ... f11 range (using 24MP FF); no CAs are visible at all, and the corner performance is very good.

Wide open it cannot compete with lenses such as the Minolta AF 2.8/200 APO or the AF Nikkor 2.8/180mm, even though the primes are one stop faster.

The nFD 4/80-200mm L has a visible pincushion distortion at the longer end, which must be corrected by PP when shooting architectural work. Compared to today's AF 2.8/70-200mm zooms, it is much lighter, of course - sometimes that can be quite useful.

A nice lens, and a nice companion to the nFD 3.5/20-35mm L!

Stephan

stevemark · Joined: 29 Apr 2011 Posts: 3754 Location: Switzerland

Stopped down to f11 this lens provides images of extraodinary clarity. There are no CAs at all in the 100mm to 150mm range, and very little CAs at 80mm and 200mm. I have used the lens recently quite often to replace my heavy Sony G 2.8/70-200mm APO for the documentation of churches. At f11 its image quality is better than that of the Sony G 70-200mm, but not at f4!!

Here are a few samples taken today in Luzern / Switzerland. JPGs direktly out of cam, no PP apart from re-sizing and slight sharpening.

At 200mm / f11

Also 200mm, but f4

At 80mm / f11

At about 170mm / f8

Stephan

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

Very nice images from Luzern.

Worth to have a 2nd or 3th view on it. Congratulation.

Wink

stevemark · Joined: 29 Apr 2011 Posts: 3754 Location: Switzerland

Compared to the Sony AL 2.8/70-200mm G SSM, the Canon nFD 4/80-200mm has less CAs at f=200mm, and images look slightly "crisper" at f8 or f11. The vintage Canon 80-200 L has, however, more distortion.
At f=100mm, both lenses give incredibly clear and distortion-free results.

Stephan

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

Thanks for those images and comments for this lens.

I have the old FD 80-200/4 SSC version. Has anyone compared the two lenses for image quality? The original prices of the L and non L versions are about the same IIRC.