Monday, February 20, 2012

Mailbox: Canon FD 20mm 2.8

CANON FD 20MM F2.8

I really needed a wide angle lens to cover the wide end of my Canon FD lens collection.An obvious choice was the Canon FD 20mm 2.8 because it is generally considered a very good lens and it's fairly fast. But I had my mind set on the Tokina RMC 17mm f3.5.  (more on that one soon!)
Little did I know that I was going to run into my former brother in law who -as it turned out after many years- is really big on prime lenses and has been building an impressive collection over the last 3 to 4 years. I visited him in his home and was delighted to see that the whole house seemed to 'breathe lenses'. The computerscreen showed the familar eBay-page with a big lens on it, there were lenses standing in every corner and cupboard and the livingroom table was turned into a little showcase of special interest lenses. It goes beyond the scope of this entry to delve into the various exquisite pieces of glass he showed me, but you can imagine there were some real rare beauties to be admired.

LIKE MOST LENSES FROM THE CANON FD SERIES: A VERY SOLID LENS

 The talk turned to Canon FD lenses and my brother in law disappeared into a closet and returned with 2 copies of the Canon FD 20mm 2.8. One of them looked like new and the other used, but very good. He had bought the 'like new' one for a very good price and said I could have the other for a good price. How could I resist? So... welcome to the family, Canon FD 20mm f2.8.
First thing I noticed with a big, wideangle piece of glass like this: you need a lens hood to resist flare and low contrast images. I can't wait to go into town to do some testing with this lens and compare it to my other prime 20mm: the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 20mm f4!

FD 20MM INCLUDING THE FD TO MICRO 43 ADAPTER FOR USE ON GH2

2 comments:

  1. Hey jeroen
    Blog is a little quiet nowadays. Are you busy or is there not much going on?????

    grz soundmanneal.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Neal,

      I've been in Austria for the last 3 days, skiing. I took my HD Hero out on the slopes today. Shot some great footage of my son snowboarding, hovering around him, lo, hi, chasing and tracing him. And when I came back to the hotel I discovered there was no card in the camera... :-(

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