Canon FD 75-200 good buy at $40?

Heh buying lenses before the camera is an interesting strategy. If you really need the zoom and you're comfortable with manual, $40 is a no-brainer, the cheapest native E-mount zooms are the SEL55210 and Tamron 18-200 at about 10x the price or more (and certainly not 10x the performance).

I stole my dad's old Tokina 70-210 FD mount (the thing is built like a tank, it just feels great - but it does make my 5N feel like a flimsy piece of plastic beside it) but I'm waiting for the adapter to come in from Ebay. I've also got the SEL18200LE to compare it with. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how good legacy zooms compare until then!

Perhaps you could also ask the seller to show some pictures of the glass, it's hard to say what the condition of the lens is but the body looks superb. I'm still not convinced about going for the ultra-long zooms with NEX. It just doesn't feel right, and hand shake with a heavy lens is a really big problem because the balance is so far off - you need a tripod for most 200mm shots.

 

Do you have experience of manual focus lenses? I have 4 manual focus lens and really enjoy using them, I feel more involved with the process of snapping the image.

I picked up a Canon 70-210 FD lens a few weeks ago off my brother (great build quality and free!), at first I was unsure where I would use it apart from a bit of macro stuff. I decided to try it out down in the Lake district in Cumbria UK on a few boats in the lake and a bit of street. Love the lens and with a bit of practise you can get some good shots (handheld) so decided to take it on a trip to London last week. Great for street stuff as I'm not brave enough to get close!

Handling is not a problem for me at all, I hold the lens with my left hand and I'm able to focus at the same time and it feels very balanced and stable. Overall very happy with it and need to get out more and get more practise in. Although my lens was free, I would be happy to have paid for it.

 

Well the Tokina 70-210 is smaller but actually heavier than the SEL18-200LE (my dad says in the 80s the Tokina was touted as one of the lightest zooms in its class - I'm assuming it's at least comparable to the Canons in weight). And the ergonomics is different too - with the old manual zoom consists of simply pulling it in and out, with the 18-200LE you have to twist, and that means focusing (if not auto) is done with your third or fourth finger if you don't want to reposition your hand after you've framed your shot which is quite awkward because you're also supporting most of the weight of the camera in this hand (and also with the front-loaded weight, repositioning your hand *will* move the camera considerably). I'm really keen to try out the Tokina because it works very differently and I want to see if it's actually more comfortable to handle.

All of this of course does not apply with a tripod.

 

Using a tripod on the NEX with a long legacy zoom lens scares me. I always wonder if the mount and adapter can handle the torque. Would almost prefer a lens with it's own tripod mount.

 

Yeah I've been thinking about this, especially because the FD adapter is one of the fatter ones. It may just end up being a really long macro lens. And even if I only get to use it with the kit canon 50 it'll still be a bonus that cost me the price of an adapter for otherwise pristine 80s glass (my dad literally had these sitting in a drybox for nearly the last 20 years - and because he had a Yashica at the same time and later an auto Minolta, he tended to use those more so the A-1 looked like new, I could not believe my eyes)

 

I have the Canon FD 70 to 210mm f4 and I would NEVER trust the NEX lens mount with the weight (actually the leverage) as it's quite a heavy lens and extends far from the mount so increasing the leverage. These heavy lenses must be supported as teh NEX mount is considrably smaller and thinner than the FD mount and the NEX bodies are diminutive and plastic.

 

Hi Erick... while I was searching for FD-NEX adaptors on eBay a while back, I came across some adapters that came with Tripod Mounts. I steered away from these as my Canon legacys are all short primes. I don't know how strong these tripod fixtures are (they're only attached by two little screws), but at least they should take the strain away from the NEX body and also redistribute the camera's balance on a tripod, although by only a small degree. If you do a search for "FD-NEX adaptor tripod mount" you'll find plenty of them. Personally I think these are only suitable for shorter telephoto lenses but I could be wrong.

I haven't been able to find any tripod lens clamps on eBay that you mentioned... but I can imagine that a properly built one that clamps around the adapter barrel itself (not the lens, as it would interfere with focusing and zooming) with a longer, more forward offset for the tripod screw - would be more ideal for really long and really heavy telephotos.

A tripod mounted NEX body might be strong enough to handle your FD75-200, but I too feel uneasy about the possible strain.

 

Thanks for that link Erick... I've actually been looking for those sort of collars. Pretty good prices too!

 

Update: The FD adapter + Tokina 70-210 is actually ok mountwise, no real sense of strain holding up the lens, but it is heavy! It's also dark-ish, I don't know if I'm using it wrong, but it seems darker than my LE at 200mm/f6.3 even though I think it's f5.6 at the long end.

Without OSS, it's really hard to use, and I don't think I'll bother much with it. I haven't really had the time to take this lens out for a spin in daylight (damn life!) but not sure I really would want to. Definitely not going to go in the travel bag for now.

 

It does make a pretty decent 70mm portrait shooter, but I suppose I could probably find a lighter lens for that purpose