Canon FD 80-200 f/4 L

[trifox]

Irregular shooting again .. because the lens has still got its native mount

Just holding the lens with my hand and .. aargh -- it;s so hard ! ..

You can get blurry or dark corners very easily .. .

all shots wide open - I can not close the aperture at all

Focusing to infinity impossible, of course ..

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


tf

[Attila]

Stunning colors, great pictures!

[Schnauzer]

Great results. It must be fun trying to hold the camera and lense and focus.

[Rolf]

I think it was a good decision with the conversation !!!

[trifox]

Thanks for comments.

@ Rolf -- yes,

the lens is amazing ..

tf

[Rolf]

Hi Stan,

I know you are a CZ fan. Do you know the Vario-Sonnar 4/80-200mm ?

If yes, what do you think. Is the FD better or equal or ...... ?

[poilu]

no need of conversion with yours steady hands!

Rolf, the Canon is not cheap, with 1 fluorine & 1 UD it is better than the Zeiss

[Orio]

Looks like a super lens, #1 is the best photo for me.

[Attila]

[trifox]

Oh!

Thanks for your comments again

@ poilu -- I am thinking about the same -- why not try the lens in first and then get it converted

@ Rolf - CZ 80-200 f/4 is a great lens and it has unique character -- it's hard to say -- I would have to do some tests but I think they won't be relevant .

Canon FD 80-200 f/4 L has not been reissued anymore -- it's also unique .. and considering the fact that this lens won't be out again -- same as Vario-Sonnar 4/80-200.. sounds strange ..

Both these guys just exist but they have no successors ( )

tf

[tobbsman]

Super samples, simply stunning results.

love the colors of #1, #3

Cheers
Tobias

[madamasu]

Simply superb. Great lense, great photographer. Astonishing!

Thomas

[Spotmatic]

Never mind the lens. Superb photographer!

[wilson.c]

Great photos! I've got the same lens and will need to work on getting a lot more good shots out of it. At least I can't blame the lens now

[hinnerker]

[Rolf]

Wow Henry !

You must be a very well repairman. I sent my lens few month ago to the partner of Stan and he have had a lot of work and problems with my lens (in terms of very very small tolerances during calibration to get infinity etc)

For the conversion we decided to use a chinese adapter with AF confirm chip.

If you have this lens within your arsenal there is no need to buy a new EF 70-200 L.

Congrats !

[hinnerker]

Hi Rolf,

i do have both in my collection, the 4/80-200L and the successor EF 4/70-200L USM and in the next days i will start a comparison for our german DCC Forum between both lenses.

The conversion can be done easily, but to set up the apterture mechanic is a bit tricky. Also to get a 100% limited infinity (lens goes a little bit beyond infinity without spacer to correct) takes a bit of time...

But this doesnt bother me.. i have a perfect viewfinder and if i need the absolut exact infinity... i do use the LiveView Feature of my 5D MKII.

Converted, this is a phantstic lens for each system.

Grab this beauty for 70 Euro from a Pro - Seller, who didnt know what he is selling.

To place an EMF Chip on the simple Elox M42 Adapter is easy.. but i do not like the Chip, its not exactly enough for my needs..

Cheers
Henry

[Rolf]

Hi Henry,

70 € are too much !

I paid 40 € at my dealer - he didn´t know what he was selling - thought that this lens was the standard FD 70-210mm zoom not seeing the red line at the top. The sun hood was in the wrong direction at the lens and I bought it without unscrewing it or any other test - just right out of the window

Now I´m looking from time to time for the big brother 100-300mm L hoping to find another seller not knowing what he has in his hand.

What is DCC ? Digicamclub ?

[hinnerker]

[trifox]

This is very useful info for me, Henry.

Your samples are fantastic and show the capability of the lens!!!

Your conversion looks GREAT

The infinity GOES beyond with ORIGINAL FD camera AS WELL ..

So, if you mount this lens on FD camera with his original mount, you can not get 100 per cent infinity anyway

In other words - it's not worth of effort to tune the ACCURATE infinity. So, don't worry.

(Whereas, Contax 4/80-200 has the infinity ACCURATE on Contax camera system)

Henry -- well done.


Canon FD 80-200 f/4 L -- affordable APO zoom - this lens has not been re-issued anymore.

Optical performance is simply great -- yes, vignetting is visible when fully open but bokeh of this lens is AMAZING.
Colours are WARMER than Lanthar 90 f3.5 ....

.... this is example is strong light condition - f/4




@ Rolf -- I have got its 'BRO' Canon FD 100-300 f5.6 L -- it is also GREAT -- the bokeh is EVEN better

It's hard to say which one is better

Stan

[hinnerker]

Hi Stan,

this is not a parfocal working lens like the Angenieux Zoom lenses, so it has no fixed infinity.. its different and depending from focal lenght. So fine tuning this is not really an issue .. there you are right. IMHO the best way is to take the nearest focus distance at a given focal lenght to bring the lens in the correct working condition/distance..

On my copy, the nearest focus distance is 0.90 meter to the sensor plane at F=200mm and .96 meter at 80mm.

Infinity was reached @200mm at this point..




@F=80mm the point is earlier... near 6-7 meter...

In macro mode, the difference is much smaller in total.

So you can not find a correct infinity because this is not a fixed parfocal lens.

Cheers
Henry

[trifox]

Thanks Henry.

Robert was trying to get the best infinity perfomarmance at BOTH ends - which is - IMPOSSIBLE

this is ONLY one 'disadvantage' of this lens.

The 100-300 is even worse in this.

So

[Rolf]

This afternoon with Canon 1DsMkIII

[Mr Singer]

thankyou Henry for these wonderful shots!

I have the chance to pick one of these rare lenses up at the moment.

I am just wondering how it will go on my 7d. do i need a certain adapter to allow infinity focus of should the fd to eos be fine?

i also want to use it for filming with my 7d and GH1, but am just wondering if it will be fast enough?

[patrickh]

Stan

I do not know how you do it. Handheld in a very literal sense! Quite the demo for that lens too.


patrickh