Testing my new Canon FD 85mm f/1.2 SSC Aspherical

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

I bought this lens a few days ago, along with a few other nice pieces of glass. It's the one on the bottom left Cool

The only Canon FD body I have available at the moment is an AE-1 Program, not really one of my favorites, but it would have to do. I already had a roll of Fuji Superia 400 loaded in it, and when that was used up, I loaded a roll of Kodak Ektar. I had the negatives processed commercially at a lab I've used before that does a good job, then I scanned them on my Epson 4990 scanner. No pre- or post-processing was done, with the exception of some color adjustments in post. (The Ektar needed it, the Fuji did not) Then the images were reduced to 900x600 or thereabouts, and saved as jpgs with mild compression.

The first two photographs are Ektar 100, the last one Superia 400. For the Fuji, I was bouncing between 1/500 and 1/1000 using the camera's shutter-priority mode to keep the lens as wide open as possible. Camera didn't want to index at f/1.2 so I settled for f/1.4. With the Ektar, shutter speeds dropped to 1/125 to 1/250. All shots were taken hand-held. I could have used a tripod. The camera/lens/winder rig started getting heavy after a while.

Aw, what the heck. Here's another one. It demonstrates pretty clearly the shallow depth of field. Ektar film, exposure about the same as the above Ektar ones. I also didn't do any color correction on this image, so you may notice a sort of purplish-blueish cast to it.

I've quickly learned a few things about this lens:

1. Close-up shots of flowers are probably not the best choice of subjects because I couldn't get close enough.

2. Focusing accurately is a challenge like I've never had before. This is the first f/1.2 lens I've ever used, and it's quite a bit trickier to use than, say, a 50mmm f/1.4, which I'm quite used to using. The depth of field wide open is so shallow that I must make sure I do not sway forewards or backwards even slightly because that will seriously affect focus. And so will the slightest breeze that may cause the subject to move. Also, the AE-1P's focusing aid, a microprism ring with a split image center, does not seem to respond well to this fast of a lens. This AE-1P focusing screen was probably designed to work best for an f/stop range of 1.4-2. So I found myself using the plain ground glass of the screen for most of my focusing. At least, because of the shallow depth of field, the image tended to pop into focus, which was helpful.

3. It's heavy! For some shots I took (none shown), I had to get into awkward positions and trying to hold the rig steady, and trying not to weave about (because it affects focus) was not easy.

4. The first and third shots were taken against a background that probably wasn't even two feet away, call it 60cm. The bokeh look sort of busy with a background that has a fairly high level of detail. Can't say that I care for it all that much. In the second shot, the background ranges in distance from maybe three feet to twenty feet or so away. Big difference. The second shot is showing more of the creamy bokeh that this lens is known for.

Today, I loaded a roll of Kodacolro 200 into the AE-1P, and partly for grins, and partly out of curiousity, I mounted a Vivitar 2x Macro teleconverter between the 85mm and the camera. So the lens effectively became a 170mm f/2.4. Then I went out and took more pictures of flowers. This time I found bugs, so I was able to rack the Vivitar's focusing ring out all the way for some close-ups. But man was focus touchy! I'll see how things turn out tomorrow when I get the roll developed.

patrickh · Expire: 2011-11-18

Hah the biggest prob with very fast lenses on all cameras

patrickh

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Say Orio, could you explain a bit more what you mean by "focus shift"? I've heard of focus shift occurring when the taking aperture is different from the viewing aperture, but what about when the lens is wide open, or almost? Or are you referring to something altogether different?