Vintage Canon 50mm FD mount Long Term Review

I inherited a vintage Canon 50mm F1.8 FD mount from my grandfather last year. Let’s see how it’s done.

Photo of @stevenobrien_photography (IG) taken by me with the Canon 50mm on my Sony A7iii in Belize, July 2021

I’ve already made a short 1min video review of this lens on youtube:

First off, I don’t use this lens enough(not off to a great start).This is partly because I use my Super Takumar 50mm F1.4 way more. Read that review here. Frankly, the Takumar is the “better” vintage lens, but for sentimental reasons (my grandfather was HUGE into photography at my age but sadly we never connected on the topic while he was alive) I still try and make the original Canon “nifty fifty” work.

Note: I’ve tried this lens on my old Sony A7iii and current Canon R6 an R5 cameras.

Admittedly it does “work”, but I’m rarely wowed by the results. However, pairing this lens with a Tiffen Black Pro Mist 1/8th strength filter does create some lovely soft black tones and would probably turn this into a unique vintage portrait lens if you wanted that.