Canon S.S.C breech lock lenses
Thought I'd share what I think is a special combination of things in one post.
- The Canon FD film era breech lock S.S.C lenses
- The first ever mirroless camera by Sony. The NEX-3
- The adapter I use to mount my film era Canon FD lenses to Sony E-mount cameras
The Sony NEX-3
Released back in 2010, the NEX-3 is a historical camera for Sony. It was the first mirror-less Sony camera and the first to have Sony's new e-mount. The NEX-3 was an entry level compact camera with a 14.2 mp APSC CMOS sensor.
Today, you can mount just about any lens to a Sony e-mount camera with an adapter. I like my old NEX-3 because it pairs well with older lenses that have more character than clinical sharpness and using the small NEX-3 behind old glass feels like strapping a 14.2 mp APSC sensor to the back of a lens.
The older NEX cameras have held their value well on Ebay but if you search your local classified ads, you can typically find an abundance of older NEX cameras for less than $100. While the NEX-3 was first in the NEX series, there were many to follow. Spending a couple extra bucks will get you newer models however I do think the sensor is the NEX-3 is still pretty good even to this day.
Adapter: The Zhongyi Lens Turbo II "focal reducer"
There are an abundance of lens adapters for Sony E-Mount cameras. Most adapters are fairly simple and inexpensive. For mounting my vintage glass to my Sony NEX-3 I use an adapter called a "focal reducer". A focal reducer is an adapter that has a glass lens in it which corrects the focal length of a lens back to it's equivalent on a full frame camera (roughly). What do I mean? Well typically when mounting vintage glass onto a smaller sensor (smaller than full frame), you need to calculate your resulting focal length by some factor. For example my 50mm Canon FD lens mounted onto an APSC camera with an un-corrected adapter turns my lens into roughly 75mm. The focal reducer on the other hand will adapt a lens and "correct" the focal distance back to it's what it would be on a full frame camera ( 50mm ).
Focal reducing adapters have some interesting side effects. For starters, the corrective lens in the adapter will gather the light from a full frame area and concentrate it onto the area of a smaller sensor (like a magnifying glass). In doing so you improve light gathering and low-light capability of your lens. For example, my Canon 50mm f1.4 behaves like an f1.0 lens using a focal reducer. Second, because you improve your minimum f-stop you can also achieve a shallower depth of field compared to what you would get without the focal reducer.
In terms of sharpness I see no degradation using a focal reducer. I have used this adapter on my NEX-3 and my higher resolution A6000 (sold it). I don't know all the theory behind these adapters but focal-reducers seem to be the one case where adding additional glass does not degrade sharpness.
MF Canon FD breech lock S.S.C lenses
The Canon FD line of lenses lived between the FL (older) and EF (newer) Canon mounts. The lenses being shown here have the breech lock (method of attaching to camera with rotating silver ring) and have the S.S.C coating. These lenses were released some time in the mid to late 70's and were top of the line Canon lenses.
My love affair of these lenses started as a teenager when I bought my first Canon manual focus camera. Like any geek I collected a number of older Canon bodies and each came with number of lenses. I eventually got my hands on a Canon FD 50mm f1.4 prime that came with my Canon A-1 body (still have it) and it easily outclassed all my other lenses at the time. This led me to collect a few other lenses in the series.
I love the build quality of these lenses. They also produce their own special "look" which I enjoy.
Putting it all together
Using these vintage lenses on a somewhat less vintage digital camera by way of a focal reducer is fun! Using the Canon FD 50mm f1.4 is almost ridiculous as the depth of field is so shallow it's almost impossible to focus on anything. Other lenses I have are the 35mm f2, the 24mm f2.8, and the 50mm f1.8.
This combination makes for a fun time on the occasional walk. The flip screen on the NEX-3 along with the focus peaking make it easy to nail focus. The LCD on the NEX-3 is fine ... until you are in bright day light when it becomes tricky to see what you are doing. For this reason I think the NEX-6 or NEX-7 would be nice as they have a viewfinder. There is no in-body stabilization so make sure you keep a steady hand.
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A few shots with this combination:
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Great write up! I learned a lot. I know nothing about vintage lenses beyond Pentax/Takumar and some M42 lenses, but nothing in Canon's lineup. And I've heard of the focal reducers but have never used one personally. I know people use them on M4/3 cameras a lot for video making. I may have to try one out one day - that's the biggest downside to me about adapting vintage lenses to non-35mm equivalent sensor cameras - you get these longer focal lengths and it's really tough to get wide angle especially.
Beautiful collection. It's fun to hear what little niches different photographers have found themselves attached to and collecting 🙂
Quote from James Warner on June 29, 2022, 2:25 pmGreat write up! I learned a lot. I know nothing about vintage lenses beyond Pentax/Takumar and some M42 lenses, but nothing in Canon's lineup. And I've heard of the focal reducers but have never used one personally. I know people use them on M4/3 cameras a lot for video making. I may have to try one out one day - that's the biggest downside to me about adapting vintage lenses to non-35mm equivalent sensor cameras - you get these longer focal lengths and it's really tough to get wide angle especially.
Beautiful collection. It's fun to hear what little niches different photographers have found themselves attached to and collecting
Thanks James,
I really like having a focal reducer on a small, older, mirrorless camera. The combination of an older camera and focal reducer does my older canon prime lenses justice and nothing more. I don't feel like the lenses are out-resolving this combination and I don't feel like I'm holding the sensor back. At the same time I get the character of these lenses in the photos.
Looking at this setup as a sum-of-all-parts, things work well together and there are no weak links. There aren't any features on the NEX that I don't need. It's basically a 14.2MP sensor with focus peaking and manual controls behind old glass corrected to 35mm equivalent focal length. When I want something tack-sharp with modern colors, good auto-focus, or better video, I use my newer camera with newer glass.
Oh man, when the nex-3 and then the nex-5 came out I so, so desperately wanted one. I borrowed one and adapted the Tamron adaptall sp 90mm macro to it, worked great.
Never could afford it, so stuck with film!
I still use a couple of FD lenses on my Canon EF camera (super confusing - it's sort of an electronic F1, brass body, FD mount but shutter speeds are mostly electronically controlled instead of mechanically). I used to have the FL19mm but sold it. Not a great lens, but beautiful and interesting and worth enough that selling it made sense. Regret!
Quote from ThePrettyDamned on July 15, 2022, 6:26 pmOh man, when the nex-3 and then the nex-5 came out I so, so desperately wanted one. I borrowed one and adapted the Tamron adaptall sp 90mm macro to it, worked great.
Never could afford it, so stuck with film!
I still use a couple of FD lenses on my Canon EF camera (super confusing - it's sort of an electronic F1, brass body, FD mount but shutter speeds are mostly electronically controlled instead of mechanically). I used to have the FL19mm but sold it. Not a great lens, but beautiful and interesting and worth enough that selling it made sense. Regret!
I always wanted the FL19mm but couldn't afford it lol.
I also wanted an F1 body! Can't afford that either judging by eBay prices. The EF is awesome as well but considering I already have an A-1, AE-1, and AE-1 Program, I figured a more mechanical F1 would have been a nice edition. Oh well, just way to many great cameras!
Quote from grover on July 16, 2022, 1:35 amQuote from ThePrettyDamned on July 15, 2022, 6:26 pmOh man, when the nex-3 and then the nex-5 came out I so, so desperately wanted one. I borrowed one and adapted the Tamron adaptall sp 90mm macro to it, worked great.
Never could afford it, so stuck with film!
I still use a couple of FD lenses on my Canon EF camera (super confusing - it's sort of an electronic F1, brass body, FD mount but shutter speeds are mostly electronically controlled instead of mechanically). I used to have the FL19mm but sold it. Not a great lens, but beautiful and interesting and worth enough that selling it made sense. Regret!
I always wanted the FL19mm but couldn't afford it lol.
I also wanted an F1 body! Can't afford that either judging by eBay prices. The EF is awesome as well but considering I already have an A-1, AE-1, and AE-1 Program, I figured a more mechanical F1 would have been a nice edition. Oh well, just way to many great cameras!
Man you're making me want to bust out my Canon AE-1 Program now. It's what I started photography on and I can't imagine ever parting with it. I bought some rolls of film recently but then prices of everything went up and I'm not sure I should be spending on film development when I have a DSLR... I see a darkroom in my future. 🙂
