Marco Aries

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 . ...

There is plenty of good, great, even amazing vintage lenses out there, but very few of them are zooms. In fact, a good chunk of them are just too big, too heavy and produce soft images, but not all of them. For example, the Sigma 35-70 that I’ve reviewed in 2020 is small, lightweight and sharp. Many of you have suggested me to check out Vivitar and Canon FD zooms, so when I had the chance to buy this guy, I didn’t turn it down. The Canon 100-300mm is made out of metal, it weights around 800g, it is 21cm long when focused to infinity and 22.3cm when fully extended, with a 58mm front thread. The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f5.6 to f32 with half steps. When focusing, both the external barrel and the front element turn 210 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 2 meters. Flange distance for canon FD lenses is 42mm, so they can be easily adapted to mirrorless cameras.  (affiliate link) Sharpness wide open is good across the frame and that shou...

  Canon FD lenses have gained a lot of popularity in the last few years, amongst professionals and enthusiasts alike. Yet, there are some lenses from this line that everyone seems to forget about and end up being left behind, like today’s subject: the Canon FD 300mm f5.6. I believe I made it quite clear in past reviews of Canon FD lenses that I like them and by now you all know that I prefer longer focal lengths, so when I saw this lens in good conditions and at a fair price, I had to buy it. LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK. The Canon 300mm is made out of hard plastic and metal, it weights around 580g, it is 20cm long with a 58mm front thread. Focusing happens internally, so it doesn’t get any longer, except when you extend the metal sunhood, bringing it to 26cm. The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f5.6 to f32 The focusing ring is textured, wide, smooth and it turns 320 degrees. minimum focusing distance is a little less than 3 meters. Flange dist...

  Since 2018, when I borrowed the Canon FD 100mm2.8 and the 24mm 2.8 from a friend of mine, I have been looking for some FDs of my own. In the late spring of 2019 I was at a local flea market and I stumbled upon a canon FTb QL with an FD 28mm f2.8 lens on it. It looked and seemed to work fine, so I bought it for 35 euros, which is a fairly decent price for lens and camera.  The body was apparently mechanically sound, I did clean it up, removing old dust and grime, and I wanted to eventually load a roll of film in it, but the light meter needed to be fixed and I ended up selling it to a collector.  Anyway, it wasn’t the camera I was after, but the lens because, again, if you remember, if you've already watched the older reviews, I’ve come to really like Canon FD lenses, as they are compact, lightweight, well-built and produce really good images.  As all Canon nFDs, the body of the lens is made of hard plastic and it weights more or less 160 grams. As I said, very ...

 The Canon FD 24mm f2.8 was the other lens I borrowed from a friend in 2018, along with the 100mm 2.8, when I was first getting into vintage lenses. Yes, I know, I was a little spoiled.  Anyway, I've never been much into wider focal lengths, you know, 21, 24, 28mm and such, even if I'm often around there when using zoom lenses. I don't know, maybe it's because I shoot portraits a lot, so I tend to gravitate towards longer lenses.  Using this lens made me realize that wider lenses are not bad at all, especially opening up to that f2.8 and getting smoother backgrounds and isolating the subject, while incorporating more of the surroundings.  Even if everyone is constantly talking about Canon FDs, I was still a little bit surprised because the quality you get from this lens it's really something, especially if you consider the difference in price between a lens like this and a modern one with the same specs.  As most vintage lenses, it is a little bit soft wide open...

 Canon FD lenses have grown in popularity in the last few years because they're cheap, easy to find, reliable and with cheap adapters you can mount them to modern digital cameras. Mirrorless like Sony's or Canon's EOS R and RF will work best and will be easier to adapt, but you can use Canon FD lenses on your DSLRs too, although you might need a different adapter with a focal reducer, due to the incompatible flange distance. Personally, I'm not a fan of focal reducers, as they cad degrade or alter the quality of the image produced by the lens.  Anyway, these Canon FD lenses are completely manual and have no electronic, and this one specifically is part of the so-called nFD, or new FD, series, introduced in 1979.  Everyone seems to love them so, back in 2017 when I was getting into vintage lenses, I was eager to try them. Luckily, a friend of mine owned two of them and he was kind enough to let me borrow them for a few weeks.  Right off the bat this lens sounds p...

Back in 2018 I borrowed two lenses from a friend: the Canon FD 24mm f2.8 and 100mm f2.8 to try and review here on the channel and we can say that they helped igniting my love for vintage lenses. In 2019 I got the 28mm f2.8 that I've already shown you and later the same year this 50mm f1.8 and I've been holding on to it since then because it never felt the right moment to review it, for some reason, but i guess the time has come. Let's take a closer look. Canon FD lenses are pretty small and the 50mm is no different being only 37mm long and 180 grams of weight, thanks to the mostly hard plastic body. The iris has five rounded blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f1.8 to f22. Pressing the little button on the side and turning the aperture ring past 22 puts the lens into auto exposure mode, but it only works on film cameras. The focusing ring turns a little bit less than 180 degrees and minimum focusing distance is, well, not really impressive at 60 centimeters....