Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
While the memories of shooting with my first lens ever, a Pentax 50mm, I thought I'd shoot the same location with my Canon 50mm /1.8 S.C. and see how it performs.
The Canon 50mm 1.8 for FD mount is a great vintage lens.
Sharp, good contrast, good colours, and easy to focus. The only knock against this lens is the reduced minimum focus distance.
It is very sharp when focused up close, but on distant objects, it doesn't seem to ever achieve proper sharpness and gets pretty bloomy.
The bokeh has a nice soap bubble effect on out-of-focus highlights. My Pentax smc 50mm/2 and Nikon 50/1.8.D both have more of an uneven crescent outline surrounding half of the highlight. I think having the ring go all the way around the bokeh ball evenly is a much nicer look.
I didn't get my Canon FD-mount camera until the digital photography revolution was well underway, so I didn't put any film though that camera to see how this lens performs on the medium it was designed for.
On F-mount bodies, adapting FD lenses was awful, as the adapters were not only expensive, but required an additional optic that reduced overall image quality of the lens.
On a Z mount, the adapter is just a metal tube, much simpler, much cheaper, and much better optical quality.
I am very happy with the performance of this lens.
_________________________________________
kyleclements.com
While the memories of shooting with my first lens ever, a Pentax 50mm, I thought I'd shoot the same location with my Canon 50mm /1.8 S.C. and see how it performs.
The Canon 50mm 1.8 for FD mount is a great vintage lens.
Sharp, good contrast, good colours, and easy to focus. The only knock against this lens is the reduced minimum focus distance.
It is very sharp when focused up close, but on distant objects, it doesn't seem to ever achieve proper sharpness and gets pretty bloomy.
The bokeh has a nice soap bubble effect on out-of-focus highlights. My Pentax smc 50mm/2 and Nikon 50/1.8.D both have more of an uneven crescent outline surrounding half of the highlight. I think having the ring go all the way around the bokeh ball evenly is a much nicer look.
I didn't get my Canon FD-mount camera until the digital photography revolution was well underway, so I didn't put any film though that camera to see how this lens performs on the medium it was designed for.
On F-mount bodies, adapting FD lenses was awful, as the adapters were not only expensive, but required an additional optic that reduced overall image quality of the lens.
On a Z mount, the adapter is just a metal tube, much simpler, much cheaper, and much better optical quality.
I am very happy with the performance of this lens.
_________________________________________
kyleclements.com
