2015
Canon FL 55 f1.2 - Razor-thin DOF on a budget
The FL 55 f1.2 was first released by Canon in 1968 and produced until 1971. According to the Canon Camera Museum, the lens uses "new types of glass" that help minimize distortion, aberrations, and flare. As the name of the lens implies, it uses the FL mount which is a breech-lock mount compatible with the FD mount.
The Canon FL 55/1.2 specs:
Build Quality/Handling (Outstanding/Heavy)
The FL 55 is a pretty good fit for the Sony. The lens with adapter is not much longer than Sony's new 55 f1.8. However, at 480g it weighs as much as the camera body and the combo is definitely front-heavy. It's not too heavy as A7s' grip offers good handling, but it's not something I enjoy holding with one hand, hanging from my neck, or across my body.
Did I mention it's heavy? The lens has excellent built quality - it's all metal and glass with no plastic in sight.
The aperture ring, which is at the front of the lens on all FL lenses, is amazing! I've handled dozens of legacy lenses and this one's one of the best (along with Minolta MCs and Pentax Takumars). It clicks between stops in a smooth, reassuring way that feels so much better than the plasticky aperture rings found on FDn lenses. The focusing is a bit stiff on my copy, but I'm sure that's due to age rather than some fault in the original design.
Image Quality (Interesting)
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this lens performs. Let me show you why. Let's start with sharpness wide open on the A7s. These have been converted from RAW using Lightroom 5 without any other adjustments.
The Canon FL 55/1.2 specs:
- 7 elements in 5 groups
- Weight - 480 grams
- Length - 52.5 mm (77.5 mm with adapter)
- Filter size - 58 mm
- Min. focus distance - 0.6 m
- Aperture - 8 blades, f1.2, 1.4 to f16 in full stops
Build Quality/Handling (Outstanding/Heavy)
The FL 55 is a pretty good fit for the Sony. The lens with adapter is not much longer than Sony's new 55 f1.8. However, at 480g it weighs as much as the camera body and the combo is definitely front-heavy. It's not too heavy as A7s' grip offers good handling, but it's not something I enjoy holding with one hand, hanging from my neck, or across my body.
Did I mention it's heavy? The lens has excellent built quality - it's all metal and glass with no plastic in sight.
The aperture ring, which is at the front of the lens on all FL lenses, is amazing! I've handled dozens of legacy lenses and this one's one of the best (along with Minolta MCs and Pentax Takumars). It clicks between stops in a smooth, reassuring way that feels so much better than the plasticky aperture rings found on FDn lenses. The focusing is a bit stiff on my copy, but I'm sure that's due to age rather than some fault in the original design.
Image Quality (Interesting)
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this lens performs. Let me show you why. Let's start with sharpness wide open on the A7s. These have been converted from RAW using Lightroom 5 without any other adjustments.
f1.2/ISO 100 - vignetting at this aperture is noticeable
100% crop
f1.2/ISO 640
100%
f1.2/ISO 100
100% crop from left edge of frame
And here's a sample to see how the lens holds up to the 24mp sensor of the a6000:
F1.2 - 1.4 - 2.0 - 2.8 (click to expand to view 100% crops)
For my purposes, the lens is sharp enough wide open (especially on the A7s). In fact, the sharpness at that aperture is decent across much of the frame, and the flat, glowing images it produces respond very well to post-processing in LR5. Getting things in focus, however, is a whole different story. Even with focus peaking, it is a challenge to get any slightly moving subject in focus. One of the reasons for that is, of course, the very shallow depth of field. The other issue is the low contrast at f1.2. Unfortunately, focus peaking needs contrast to work its magic. Focus magnification helps, but I find it only useful for static subjects. Consequently, I've missed countless shots of moving subjects, and some of static ones as well. To be fair, I shoot it mostly wide open. I guess I could stop it down a couple of stops, but then what's the point of lugging around a heavy f1.2 lens? Am I right?
The FL 55 does sharpen up significantly when stopped down, especially past f2.
The FL 55 does sharpen up significantly when stopped down, especially past f2.
f5.6/ISO 500 on the A7s
100% crop
F8/ISO 200 on A6000
100% centre crop
Bokeh? It ranges from creamy goodness to swirly madness depending on your choice of background and how far it is from the subject. The FL 55 does not generally do well with foliage.
f1.2/ISO 500
f1.2/ISO 100
f1.2/ISO 100
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f1.2/ISO 2000
f1.2/ISO 100 - missed the focus on this one
f2/ISO 100
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The lens does exhibit a bit of purple fringing in high contrast areas, specifically when shooting bright light sources at night.
f4/ISO 6400
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There can also be lots of flare coupled with loss of contrast with a bright light source directly in the frame or just outside the angle of view. Not surprising, really, as this lens is almost 45 years old.
f1.2/ISO 100
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f1.2/ISO 100
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f4/ISO 100
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Conclusion
Front-heavy handling aside, I like having this lens on my camera, firmly gripped in my hands, ready to fend off potential muggers. It's solid! The FL 55 f1.2 can produce some interesting photos, too, especially if you're into shallow DOF, some unpredictable bokeh, and a classic rendering with 'character' (read: glow, flare, low contrast, and vignetting) especially wide open. The RAWs it produces respond very well in post.
Decent copies seem to go for around $200 - $300, which makes this one of the most affordable f1.2 lenses on the market.
Check out its video performance here.
Front-heavy handling aside, I like having this lens on my camera, firmly gripped in my hands, ready to fend off potential muggers. It's solid! The FL 55 f1.2 can produce some interesting photos, too, especially if you're into shallow DOF, some unpredictable bokeh, and a classic rendering with 'character' (read: glow, flare, low contrast, and vignetting) especially wide open. The RAWs it produces respond very well in post.
Decent copies seem to go for around $200 - $300, which makes this one of the most affordable f1.2 lenses on the market.
Check out its video performance here.
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Sample Images
Sample Images
