Canon FL 135mm f3.5 vintage lens review

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 In recent years, Canon FD lenses have regained popularity thanks to people on the internet praising them and eventually leading to prices rising like a cake in the oven.

What most people don’t know is that before FDs, specifically from 1964 to 71, Canon made FL lenses and they can be found for cheaper, but are they any good? Well, today we’re taking a look at the Canon FL 135mm f3.5

The lens is made of metal, it weights around 420g, it is 86 to 101mm long and it has an external diameter of 61mm, with a 47mm front thread.

The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f22  without half steps and near the mount there is an auto/manual selector.

The focusing is rubberized, it turns 220 degrees and minimum focusing distance is a 1.5m.

The Canon FL mount is the same as the FD, with a flange distance of 42mm.

The aperture ring is narrow, but having  a grippy texture and being on the front of the lens, just before the nose gets smaller, make it easy to operate.

The focusing ring on my copy is a bit stiff.

The breech lock is kind of annoying and you have to be careful when mounting the lens.

It is on the heavier side, but it is compact and well balanced.

Sharpness wide open is very good all over the frame and it only gets better by stopping down.

Chromatic aberration is present wide open in high contrast areas, along with minimum blooming but they are not distracting.

Colors are neutral, maybe a little bit cold and lacking in saturation but with good contrast.

Specular highlights have some onion rings and backgrounds can occasionally fell busy but are mostly quite soft.

 It doesn’t much focus breathing.

Flares are very well controlled and it rarely loses contrast when shooting towards a light.

If you’ve been around vintage lenses for a while, you’ll know that, for some reason, 135mm lenses are always at least decent and this one is good, probably better than it should be for its age.

Sure, it is a slower 3.5, but I’ve found that to be a sweet spot for 135s where they are sharp, compact and still able to separate subject and background.

So should you get this instead of the FD? I don’t know yet, but I’m working on the comparison and I’ll let you know very soon.







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