Canon FD 135mm f3.5 - vintage lens review

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By now, you probably know that

1: Canon FDs are some of my favorite vintage lenses and

2: 135mm is one of my favorite focal lengths

So when I saw this guy, in perfect conditions and for an honest price, I just had to buy it. Needless to say, I’m not disappointed.

Quick history refresher: the Canon FD mount was introduced in 1971 and updated to the nFD, or new FD, in 1976 and then replaced by the EF mount in 1987. Today’s lens is from the nFD era.

The Canon is made out of metal and hard plastic, it weights 300g, it is 87mm long when focused to infinity and 105mm when fully extended, with a 52mm front thread. It has a built-in sunhood, lined with an opaque material to avoid reflections.

The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f32 with half steps, plus auto.

The focusing ring is textured and it turns 230 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 1.3m.

Flange distance for the Canon FD mount is 42mm, easy to adapt to mirroless cameras. (Amazon affiliate link)

Sharpness is… well, honestly it’s good throughout the aperture range, even wide open at 3.5 both the center and the corners are very sharp.

There is a bit of chromatic aberration wide open, but it’s mostly barely noticeable.

Specular highlights are quite smooth, but they still have thin hard edges. Subject separation is good and backgrounds are soft without being rendered into a complete mush of colors.

Talking about colors, they match the rest of the Canon FD line, being neutral and a bit low in contrast.

Flares are well controlled even when shooting directly into a source of light and ghosting has not been a problem in my time testing the lens.

Once again, Canon FDs prove themselves to be good and reliable. And that’s it, I… don’t know what else to say.

Anyways, my kit is growing nicely, with the 28, 50, 135 and 300, and I am very pleased with that.

Next up I want to compare the Canon to my current favorite vintage 135mm lens, the Asahi Pentax-M, so stay tuned for that.





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