Originally posted by aliasant I recently modified an older Canon FD 55mm F1,2 so that it works like a K or M lens on Pentax DSLR.
The modification took several days since the margins are so very very tight and Im afraid it could have looked much better if I had more time and better tools but it at least works well and should last a long time. Its a joy to use and of course focus to infinity.
First is a poor shot of the modded lens. You can see the Pentax arm that connects to the cameras aperture lever.
Then some shots with it, both full frame and 100% crop.
Then some straight shots just to look at the rendering.
Unfortunatly this lens was for someone else so I need to get one myself. In the mean time I guess I have to satisfy myself with my Canon FD 85mm F1,2 ...
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I am the lucky Forum member who benefited from alisant's hard work on the Canon FD 55 mm f 1.2. I love having it on my cameras. It is a black, heavy but compact, chunk of Canon glass from the old school. Of course it is a moderate telephoto (83 mm) on cropped sensor digital cameras, but it is a focal length that I personally find very convenient. This is an excellent focal length for portraiture as well as the flowers that I often do. I am planning to try the lens on my MZ-S film camera, but have not gotten around to it--using a 50 mm on full frame may seem a little strange.
The lens is wonderful for low-light and interesting DOF effects. Anyone with a new f 1.2 has to go through a stage of using the lens wide open and checking on DOF effects, which is a good thing because focussing is not the easiest with this aperture, and a bit of practice is needed. Once that stage is past with this lens, you can start enjoying its sharpness and rendering at 5.6 or 8.0, and you still have f 11.0 and f 16.0 for overly bright lighting situations.
The first three photos illustrate the use of this lens wide open, and the last two at 5.6 shows its sharpness when stopped down to a more normal level.
This project would probably run you around $500 to $600, including purchase of a suitable lens for conversion, and many are readily available on eBay. I think that is a reasonable cost for a lens of this quality and versatility.
Now I am looking at the Canon FD 55 mm f 1.2 aspherical, but those lens are running around $1,000 to $2,000 before making the modification. However, the lens is said by some experts to be the best 50/55 ever produced by anyone anywhere, which includes a lot of 50/55 mm lens from both Germany and Japan. The lens is said to produce an absolutely sharp image from corner to corner, side to side, but not to yield the quality of blurred background that is highly valued in a fast lens.