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Canon FL 55/1.2, I really wasnt expecting this


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That is to say, I wasn't expecting how capable this lens is. One came up locally for a decent price and I thought, what the heck. I tend to shoot fast normal lenses most of the time anyway (50 1.4's) so I figured I would go ahead and enter the world of 1.2's. I thought it would be a specialty lens I would pull out from time to time, maybe play with for a while and then pass along to someone else. I was expecting it to be pretty soft wide open, lots of bloom, maybe some chromatic aberration. I was pleasantly surprised to find this wasn't the case.

 

This lens has now replaced my FDn 50/1.4 as the lens that stays on my camera. Its just that good. The lens itself is just over one pound of metal and glass and with the battery grip on my a7 it feels right at home. I honestly wonder if the old FL version is this good then how great the FDn 50/1.2 L must be. Looks like I might have to start saving up for one of those.

 

For now however I will be shooting with the FL exclusively for a while to learn all the ins and outs of this lens. If you nail focus at 1.2 it is more then sharp enough. Stopping down of course things only get better. I'm going to have to compare this lens at 1.4 vs the FDn 50/1.4. Honestly, I believe the FL will be every bit as sharp if not sharper then the newer lens. It has the added benefit of being one of the cheapest 1.2 normal primes available, easily found for well under 200 bones.

 

So without further ado here are some of the images I have captured over the last month. Hope you enjoy. All images on a7.

 

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Portrait Painter, sstevenson, I am please you like the portraits of Maddie. Those came out exceptionally well and both of them are straitght out of camera jpegs. Portrait, I paid 160 for the lens in excellent condition. Considering this price is not terribly much more then what you would pay for a FDn 50/1.4 in great shape I consider it a bargain. Most other 1.2's will run you much, much more.

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jaclarkaus, thanks for the comment. I think (but I'm not sure) that the lens is basically a Planar design since most 50ish lenses used this design to one degree or another. But I do know a lot of my vintage lenses have some of this oval bokeh, especially my older Yashicas. Those go very oval and quite swirly as well. The bokeh from this FL is quite round in the middle but smooshes to ovals as it nears the edge.

 

wmd, I use an adapter that is made in Poland to pretty high specs. It also uses a unique one piece design with no need for the activation ring that comes on most of the FD/FL adapters. You can find it here.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canon-FD-FL-lens-mount-to-Sony-NEX-E-mount-A7II-FS7-camera-ciecio7-adapter-/261484584849?hash=item3ce1b21f91:m:mpAsLtIF_eWUE0CRgIThkAw

 

My copy is very nice and works as advertised. Oddly enough, my FL wont mount to it like all my other FD's will. But fortunately there is an Auto and Manual switch on the FL 55/1.2 that allows me to just keep it on manual and not worry about activating the pin on the back of the lens. So I just mount it to my adapter WITHOUT doing the little rotation trick you see in the demo video of the adapter. Works like a charm. The adapter I listed is a bit pricey and takes a while to get to the States but definitely worth it.​

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  • 1 month later...

I'm currently looking for one of these...from looking around it seems all the f1.2s are good in the center, which is all I want, really.

 

Since I'm interested in portraits (of course, wanting f1.2!) I very pleased to see your pix. For me, the one that works best is the bottom portrait. I think it's good if the eys and the mouth are sharp(ish), but you can only do that at certain angles. Up to now I've been using f2-f2.8, but I'm keen to learn how to make it work at f1.2.

 

I just spent a heap of money on the Fuji 56mm f1.2, but I'm not really liking the look too much... it's toooo good, sort of clinical, compared to these older lenses.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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