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canon Fl 55 1.2
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PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 3:15 pm    Post subject: canon Fl 55 1.2 Reply with quote
Hey guys,
Today I had some sweet mail. My newly bought Canon FL 55mm 1.2! The glas is in mint condition, it got some usage traces at the barrel, but who cares Wink.
It was converted to EOS, and it hits the mirror at 10meters, but there are no problems in Liveview.

I will try to upload some pictures the next days.

The only thing I was wondering about is the age of the lens. Does anybody know how to read the serial number? I would just love how much older than me the lens is Very Happy

Thanks in advance,
timo


PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 8:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Was launched in July 1968 and replaced the FL 58/1.2.
http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/lens/fl/data/19-85/fl_55_12.html
For FD lenses I believe the letter in the Serial Number is as follows:
L = 1971, M = 1972, N = 1973....... I'm not sure if it holds true for FL lenses.
Edit:
More info here:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80910
Quote:
I don't know if this information has appeared here before, but I'm sharing it anyway.

Beside the rear lens element of many (but not all) Canon lenses is a date code in the form of "UR0902". This code is also present on other Canon products including bodies.

The first letter, "U", indicates that the lens was made in Canon's Utsunomiya, Japan factory. Prior to 1986, this letter is moved to the last position of the date code.

U = Utsunomiya, Japan
F = Fukushima, Japan
O = Oita, Japan

The second letter, "R", is a year code that indicates the year of manufacture. Canon increments this letter each year starting with A in 1986 and prior to that, A in 1960 without the leading factory code. Here is a table to make things simple:

A = 1986, 1960
B = 1987, 1961
C = 1988, 1962
D = 1989, 1963
E = 1990, 1964
F = 1991, 1965
G = 1992, 1966
H = 1993, 1967
I = 1994, 1968
J = 1995, 1969
K = 1996, 1970
L = 1997, 1971
M = 1998, 1972
N = 1999, 1973
O = 2000, 1974
P = 2001, 1975
Q = 2002, 1976
R = 2003, 1977
S = 2004, 1978
T = 2005, 1979
U = 2006, 1980
V = 2007, 1981
W = 2008, 1982
X = 2009, 1983
Y = 2010, 1984
Z = 2011, 1985

The first 2 numbers "09" is the month the lens was manufactured. 02 is February. 11 is November. Leading zero of the month code is sometimes omitted. The last 2 numbers "02" are a Canon internal code that is occasionally omitted and are meaningless regarding production date.


PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 6:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hey, thanks for the reply. Very useful links you posted there, but the strange thing is, that there are no letters in the serial number up Front the lens. Only numbers, 5 to be exact. I also checked the old Mount, as the number seems to be on there quite often in the newer lenses. Nothing in there either....
Got an idea?
Cheers,
Timo


PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Mine has 27346 as a serial number, not letters at all...
Mysterious....


PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nothing near the mount?


PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 1:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have this lens. My serial number is 10094. Possibly a very early version? Would be interesting to find more about it.


PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2014 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
This Canon date code is separate from the serial number. I'm not aware of it on older lenses but it's definately there for EF/EF-S mount lenses. It's usually printed in white on the mount itself.


PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 12:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Mine is serial number 45889, also cannot find any letters or other codes on it.


PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 9:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Same here, checked like everywhere, even on the old Fl Mount, but the only serial number is on the name ring, and it has the number 27346, so I guess it is like in the middle of the production time (?).
I saw that these lenses where in production for only three years, so I don´t think there should be tons of them right?

Cheers Timo


PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I've never looked for them on FL lenses because they are all built like tanks.


PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 1:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Lightshow wrote:
I've never looked for them on FL lenses because they are all built like tanks.

Yeah, thats a point, I just love the buildquality and the focusring!


PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2015 5:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I thought I'd resurrect this old thread because of a current question regarding the age of this optic. It would seem that Canon did not use the dating system they used on FD and later lenses.

Anyway, my FL 55mm f/1.2 's serial number is 16017.

I think it's a pretty safe assumption that the serial numbers began at 10001. Which would mean there are 6, 016 FL 55/1.2s that are older than mine.


PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2015 7:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
mine SN:10851

only letters on the body I can find are A and M

Laughing


PostPosted: Sun May 24, 2015 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
cooltouch wrote:
I thought I'd resurrect this old thread because of a current question regarding the age of this optic. It would seem that Canon did not use the dating system they used on FD and later lenses.

Anyway, my FL 55mm f/1.2 's serial number is 16017.

I think it's a pretty safe assumption that the serial numbers began at 10001. Which would mean there are 6, 016 FL 55/1.2s that are older than mine.

The SN could start at 10001, or at 16001, or somewhere between, early production numbers may be tested to destruction and never released


PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2015 4:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, I thought of this, but they still would have had serial numbers. And I know the numbers didn't start at 16001 because I've seen ones with numbers lower than that.


PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2015 11:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
This is really one of the great sleepers of all time, Cheapest Superspeed 50 and one of the best.

I paid 125USD for mine. It's Great Smile


DSC04505-2 by unoh7, on Flickr

My serial is 45908. Copy is heavily brassed but has perfect glass, so somebody got alot of use from it Smile


PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 2:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
A few years ago I had the opportunity to test my FL 55/1.2 against an early FD "chrome nose" 55/1.2. I must have shot a couple dozen photos, where I'd take one pic with one lens, then trade them and take another pic of the same subject. I examined the results closely -- counted pixels, even -- and I could see no detectable difference between the two optics.

So I came to the conclusion that, other than the mount, there were no significant differences between the two lenses and that, undoubtedly, they have the same optical formula. I figured that the FD lens probably had newer coatings, but the images didn't show any difference in contrast or flare, so if the coatings were different, there still wasn't much practical difference between the two.

The later 55mm f/1.2 SSC may have better coatings than the earlier FD or the FL, but still there is no real difference between the FD and FL 55mm f/1.2s -- except of course the FD 55mm f/1.2 Aspherical, which is a totally different lens formula.


PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 4:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
uhoh7 wrote:
...Copy is heavily brassed but has perfect glass, so somebody got alot of use from it Smile


A sign of much love Wink
OK, some love and use their lens and handel them very very carefully. But others use it like their tools (hammer. pliers) and so they get some brassing - I like those lenses.

It seems I have another lens to bid more than I did up to now. Pricing is OK, and image quality and especially bokeh is good for my thinking.
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