Canon FD lens mount

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The Canon FD lens mount is a physical standard for connecting a photographic lens to a single-lens reflex camera body. The standard was developed by Canon of Japan and was introduced in March 1971 with the Canon F-1. It was the primary Canon SLR lens mounting system until 1987 when the cameras from the Canon EOS series were first produced. The last camera in the FD system was the Canon T60, from 1990. The FD mount replaced Canon's earlier FL mount; FD-mount cameras could use FL lenses in stop-down metering mode.

There is no definitive meaning agreed upon for 'FD', and Canon has never said what it stands for.

While the capabilities of FD-system camera bodies increased dramatically, the capabilities of the lens mount remained unchanged, apart from the unique autofocus system electrical contacts used by the T80 and its AC lenses. However, lenses in the FD mount evolved over the years. Initially, all the lenses had silvered metal locking rings at the base and only that ring turned to lock the lens to the mount. In 1976 the New FD lenses were introduced. In these, the whole lens barrel rotated to perform the locking action, and the lens barrel was all black; Canon's Super Spectra Coating was now standard on all lenses except for the 50 mm f/1.8, and the lens markings no longer specified it. In conjunction with the introduction of the "New FD" lens mount, Canon changed from specific designations of its high performance lenses, previously suffixed with "Flourite" or "Aspherical" and started naming all of its high performance lenses with the single letter "L" (probably for "Luxury) suffix. In addition to Calcium Flourite and aspherical lens elements, Canon's L lenses featured other innovative high performance designs to make (expensive) lenses with very high optical quality.

The massive popularity of this system combined with its current obsolescence makes it readily available for reasonable prices on the used market.

Contents

[edit] Super Spectra Coating

With the introduction of FD lenses, Canon developed two new lens coatings, Spectra coating (SC) and Super Spectra Coating (SSC). Contrary to popular belief Spectra Coating was NOT a single coating. Both were multi-coatings. This was right at the start of the global multi-coating vs. single-coating debate and marketing hype that swept over the camera and lens industry.

In 1973, two years after the FD mount was introduced Canon started advertising the use of Super Spectra Coating (SSC) on its lenses and marked them with "SSC" on the lens. Prior to this only two lenses used SSC coating, the 55mm F1.2 and 55mm F1.2 AL (aspherical). Lenses now had either SC or SSC on their barrels as appropriate. At the same time Canon did away with the chrome front lens barrels.

In 1978, the "New FD" mount was introduced and SSC became standard (except for the New FD 50mm F1.8) and the marking was removed.

[edit] FD lens mount

Canon New FD lens rear.
Canon New FD lens rear.

The FD lens mount is a breech-lock mount. The advantage of this type of mount is that the contact surfaces between the body and lens do not rotate against each other when the lens is mounted. This prevents any abrasion, which could conceivably reduce the very precise lens-to-film distance. The disadvantages include slower lens changes; later FD lenses mounted more like bayonet-mount lenses in that the photographer twisted the lens body to mount and unmount, even though the actual mount surfaces stayed fixed. Canon chose a bayonet-style mount for its new EOS system's EF lenses.

The major new feature of the FD mount was support for full aperture metering and auto-exposure. This allows the camera body to determine the aperture setting and tell the lens what value to use. The camera body already controls the shutter speed, so this allows for completely automatic exposure control.

The FD mount has no support for the lens-body communication, whether electrical or mechanical, required for autofocus, which was a primary reason for its retirement; Canon could have adapted its mount to support auto-focus, as did other manufacturers, but instead the company chose a clean break with the past and an electrical only interface.

Canon did however manufacture a single lens containing a lens-integral autofocus system — the FD 35-70 mm f/4 AF. The autofocus was triggered by a button on the side of the lens, and involved no communication with the body. It was reasonably accurate with still subjects, but was too slow to be a practical solution for moving subjects such as sports. A further development on the same lines was the AC derivative of the FD mount. This was designed to be used with the T80 camera. The design of the AC lenses was similar to the FD AF lens described above, but the controls were moved to the T80 body and operated the AF motor in the lens via electrical contacts on the mount. This too proved to be a dead-end development.

The flange focal distance of the FD mount is smaller than most other lens mounts, meaning that it is impossible to mount a FD lens with an adaptor onto most other cameras and maintain the same distance. Canon made an adaptor containing corrective optics allowing its larger, more expensive FD telephoto lenses to be used on EOS bodies. This adaptor functioned as a mild tele-converter, and could not be used on normal and wide-angle lenses. Canon produced this adaptor to ease the initial cost of conversion for those with expensive collections of long FD telephoto lenses.

[edit] FD cameras

[edit] New FD lenses

The New FD revision of the lenses got rid of the locking ring in favor of the whole lens barrel rotating to lock the lens, as with other manufacturers' lenses. The mount portion of the lens did not rotate, of course. Since Super Spectra Coating (S.S.C.) was now standard, the nomenclature was dropped from the lens' names and inscriptions. Only the New FD 50mm F1.8 retained the older Spectra Coating.

[edit] Fish-eye

[edit] Wide-angle

  • 14 mm f/2.8L
  • 17 mm f/4
  • 20 mm f/2.8
  • 24 mm f/1.4L
  • 24 mm f/2
  • 24 mm f/2.8
  • 28 mm f/2
  • 28 mm f/2.8
  • 35 mm f/2
  • 35 mm f/2.8
  • TS 35 mm f/2.8 (Tilt/Shift lens)

[edit] Normal

  • 50 mm f/1.2L
  • 50 mm f/1.2
  • 50 mm f/1.4
  • 50 mm f/1.8 S.C. coating only
  • AC 50 mm f/1.8
  • Macro 50 mm f/3.5

[edit] Telephoto

[edit] Zoom

  • 20-35 mm f/3.5L
  • 24-35 mm f/3.5L
  • 28-50 mm f/3.5
  • 28-55 mm f/3.5-4.5
  • 28-85 mm f/4
  • 35-70 mm f/2.8-3.5
  • 35-70 mm f/3.5-4.5
  • 35-70 mm f/4
  • 35-70 mm f/4 AF
  • AC 35-70 mm f/3.5-4.5
  • 35-105 mm f/3.5-4.5
  • 35-105 mm f/3.5
  • 50-135 mm f/3.5
  • 50-300 mm f/4.5L
  • 70-150 mm f/4.5
  • 70-210 mm f/4
  • 75-200 mm f/4.5
  • AC 75-200 mm f/4.5
  • 80-200 mm f/4L
  • 80-200 mm f/4
  • 85-300 mm f/4.5
  • 100-200 mm f/5.6
  • 100-300 mm f/5.6L
  • 100-300 mm f/5.6
  • 150-600 mm f/5.6L

[1]

[edit] FD lenses

The original generation of FD lenses featured a silver locking ring at the base. Only that locking ring turns to lock the lens to the camera body; the lens body remains still.

[edit] Fisheye

  • 7.5 mm f/5.6
  • 7.5 mm f/5.6 S.S.C.
  • 15 mm f/2.8 S.S.C.

[edit] Wide-angle

  • 17 mm f/4
  • 17 mm f/4 S.S.C.
  • 20 mm f/2.8 S.S.C.
  • 24 mm f/1.4 S.S.C. Aspherical
  • 24 mm f/2.8
  • 24 mm f/2.8 S.S.C.
  • 28 mm f/2 S.S.C.
  • 28 mm f/2.8 S.C.
  • 28 mm f/3.5
  • 28 mm f/3.5 S.C.
  • 35 mm f/2 I
  • 35 mm f/2 II
  • 35 mm f/2 III
  • 35 mm f/2 S.S.C. I
  • 35 mm f/2 S.S.C. II
  • TS 35 mm f/2.8 S.S.C.
  • 35 mm f/3.5
  • 35 mm f/3.5 S.C. I
  • 35 mm f/3.5 S.C. II
  • 35 mm f/3.5 S.C. III

[edit] Normal

  • 50 mm f/1.4
  • 50 mm f/1.4 S.S.C. (I)
  • 50 mm f/1.4 S.S.C. (II)
  • 50 mm f/1.8 (I)
  • 50 mm f/1.8 (II)
  • 50 mm f/1.8 S.C. (I)
  • 50 mm f/1.8 S.C. (II)
  • Macro 50 mm f/3.5 S.S.C.
  • 55 mm f/1.2
  • 55 mm f/1.2 AL
  • 55 mm f/1.2 S.S.C.
  • 55 mm f/1.2 S.S.C. AL
  • 55 mm f/1.2 S.S.C. Aspherical

[edit] Telephoto

[edit] Zoom

  • 24-35 mm f/3.5 S.S.C. Aspherical
  • 28-50 mm f/3.5 S.S.C.
  • 35-70 mm f/2.8-3.5 S.S.C.
  • 80-200 mm f/4 S.S.C.
  • 85-300 mm f/4.5 S.S.C
  • 100-200 mm f/5.6
  • 100-200 mm f/5.6 S.S.C.

[2]

[edit] Macrophoto lenses

These lenses could only be used attached to a macro bellows; since they can't mount to a camera directly, they are not properly FD lenses, but are listed here because they are part of the whole system.

  • Macrophoto Lens 20 mm f/2.8
  • Macrophoto Lens 35 mm f/2.8

[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Canon Inc.. New FD Lenses. Canon Camera Museum.
  2. ^ Canon Inc.. FD lenses. Canon Camera Museum.
  3. ^ Canon Inc.. Special Lenses. Canon Camera Museum.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
FL		 Canon lens mounts
March 1971 – 1987		 Succeeded by
EF
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