[germar]

Thanks for the response, you all. I agree, there seems to be a huge surcharge for Canon FD lenses over the Takumars, and I really think it's unwarranted that such truly obsolete glass (unlike the taks)should command such a premium. I bet the Tak glass will outperform the Canon easily.

Anyway, the part is a Bower adapter, part sku GBCACU Canon FD Body to Universal lens adapter. Around 20 dollars from B&H. As I said, it is very nicely machined, well finished mating surfaces and the locking collar rotates smoothly. To anyone familiar with pre-FD canon lenses, this adapter has the same locking collar mechanism...you press the lens against the mating surface and rotate the collar, not the lens body.

Once you have the adapter on, it you can just screw on any M42 lens you would like.

There is a catch I discovered however:

I noted that the A-1's electronics would incorrectly set the lens maximum f-stop. No matter what lens I attached, it would always think the fastest stop was f5.6. I did some research on how Canon FD lenses worked and discovered the following:

The A-1 body has a small indicator pin just inside the lens mounting ring. This pin is pushed in a tiny distance when a FD lens is attached, and based on the distance the Camera identifies the lens maximum aperture. A slower lens would only push the pin in a tiny fraction...the camera would then identify the lens as a f4 or a f3.5. A faster FD lens would push the pin in much farther, and the camera would respond with f1.4 or f1.2. The adapter ring and attached M42 lens does not touch the pin at all, so the camera responded by telling me the fastest stop was f5.6.

I found a fix, however. I took a small piece of plastic about the diameter of a cigarette and sliced a cross section about 2mm wide. I mounted the adapter ring onto the camera body, and then wedged the little piece of plastic between the pin and the inside of the adapter ring. This pushed the pin in pretty far and also held the plastic wedge firmly in place against the inside of the adapter. The A-1 now thought my 50mm 1.4 Super Tak was a very expensive Canon FD f1.2 lens!

If anyone is really interested, I can shoot some macros of the setup and post later.

Now, the other issue I discovered is with the metering. My A-1 has been with me since the very early 80s and has never been CLAed, so there could be an issue with exposure. But I did some unscientific tests with both my K10D and a freshly CLAed ME Super and found the Canon was under exposing by a full EV step. I was comparing meters using the same target, same lighting and same lens. I dialed in a full step of EV on the compensation dial and now all three cameras offered the same exposure value.

Through the lens, the Canon's view is small and a bit dark. The ME Super is far superior in brightness and general usability. However, the Canon split prism is really very good, I'd say better than a Katz eye... you can really really tell when you have critical focus.

As I've said, I have not yet run any film through this A-1/Takumar combination. I will this weekend, and perhaps even shoot some comparison targets with a 50mm Super-Tak and a 50mm FD 1.8 lens and see how they look.

Thanks,

germar