Does anybody know of Panagor lenses? I just bought one FD mount 35mm F2 for $35. I can not find much information. Is it a decent price, I think so? Maybe I will post some samples when it arrives if someone is interested.

edit UPDATE: jan 17th: (got it today. It looks brand new, in a nice leathery hard case a la 70:ties. Everything in mint condition. Original lens cap. Above what I expected. Has a nice sturdy feel to it. Focus pulling is going to be bothersome. Has long range, like canon FD 50mm 1.4). Further investigation made clear Panagor was the Kiron brand but for Europe. Some Nikon engineers decided to start their own company. I saw the same lens but for Nikon mount: 150 euro on ebay.:D Always nice to find a steal. Will wait till tomorrow to do some testing. Can upload a few clips, and a few photos.

$35 would otherwise give me (in Sweden) 1 Bic Mac Meal, 1 pizza, 1 pack of ciggies and 2 beers at the pub. :P I am happy... This lens will last me. FRAK it will even outlive me ha ha, if taken care of :D

I had the Canon 50/1.2 SSC Aspherical, 85/1.2 and 135/2.0. I used to shoot those fast lenses around 1.8-2.8. I also like the Vivitar Series 1 28/1.9 and 135/2.3 (as well as the Takumar 85/1.9).

I shot my first feature on a Sony HDCAM with a lens that had strong purple/green fringing, so I feel I'm pretty sensitive to it. I don't see it on any of my FD lenses.

@mee Check Ebay for cheap 50mm. There are tons.

You should look here : http://fdreview.com/

and here : http://www.photozone.de/active/survey/querylenstxt.jsp?filter=%22brand=%27Canon%20FD%27%22

I advise you the 80-200L F4 (or maybe the 300L if you really need something that long)

I think the best relatively cheap lenses are :

FD 35 SSC F2 (Concave (down to F16) or convex (down to F22), they are both excellent) : around 150 USD

FD 50 1.4 SSC around 50 USD

FD 85 1.8 SSC around 50 USD

FD 135 2.5 SC around 50 USD

I personaly use 35-105 F3.5(around 70 USD) and 80-200L F4(around 200 USD) a lot (both with a Canon F1 and Lumix GH2) during daytime, because the quality is good enough for me, and I can do most of the photo I like with them. I think they are also good enough for video, when used as "multi-fixed focal length" more then zoom lenses.

I prefer the build quality of the older breech lock lenses to the newer nFD equivalent, but they are heavier, and apparently not optically better then the more compact nFD.

Something great with FD lens is that you can test a lot of lenses for cheap, and sell them if they don't suit you for the same price you paid for

In my armoury of Canon nFD's, I currently have:

28/2 28/2.8 35/2 50/1.4 50/3.5 Macro 85/1.8 135/2.8

Without a shadow of doubt the star performer is the 35/2 - it's incredible. Next after that is the 85/1.8, long, but fabulous bokeh. The 50/1.4 is a great low light performer, but a bit 'too' dreamy at 1.4 for all around use. The 28/2 suffers from internal flare a lot wide open; it's not a lens you want to overexpose.

Cieco7 is the best adapter I've used, but you might want to change the screws on the collar as it's tight. I personally don't get the advantage of older breech lock, and the build quality it superb by any of today's standards.

I used to have the 200/2.8. Epic lens, but too much of a beast on mFT.

Great to see this topic open back up from my inquiries, and I appreciate all the imput. Today I headed to Akihabara and as I was almost rounding up my search for memory (was looking for used camera shops as I had seen them before there, but couldn't for the life of me find them) I walked by a man that said "nice tripod" to me. He had a nice Camera in Hand (Sony?) and he went up a into a narrow opening and up an even narrower staircase.. I started walking on and then said to myself "wait, he knew my manfrotto was good, he has a nice camera, he probably knows a used camera shop or two in the area" So up the stair case I go, quickly noticing a small sign with the word "Camera"! I walk into the tiny doorway on the second floor, seeing almost nothing but used lenses, and the man. I picked up two 50mm FD 1.8 lenses (one older style, one newer) for about 30 bucks !! Both in very good condition, inspected by my new friend, who turned out to be an Akihabara tour guide that just got off work, and took it upon himself to then give me a free 2 hour guide of about half a dozen used camera shops, telling me specifically which ones had the goods vs mediocre lenses. I don't think I could've had better luck.

Can someone please enlighten me, as mentioned earlier I purchased a Canon FD 100-300mm lens, it proved very difficult to find what it was since it looked just like the FD L without the red stripe. I finally found that mine is the 100-300mm (version 2), and below are stats for my lens and the 100-300mm L lens . So minus 5 grams and a slight difference in Grp -El (huh?), they obviously have a lot in common. So my question is what is the difference? Different glass, or just the lens coating? It's hard for me to imagine lens coating weighs 5 grams, but what do I know.

New FD 100-300mm f/5.6 9-15 24°- 8° 15' Auto 32 2 71.4x172 705

New FD 100-300mm f/5.6L 10-15 24°- 8° 15' Auto 32 2 71.4x172 710

Update, I found my answer, http://web.archive.org/web/20011226064209/garycoombs.com/LensWork/LensWork116.htm

I was a big fan of the FD 55mm f1.2, built like a tank, smooth focusing, just a really well made lens. It was a little "dreamy" looking wide open but still usable. Anyway I ran across this video and sold mine off. Some of the older Pentax and Olympus lenses do this as well, it's really a case by case issue and if you search google on a particular lens, you can usually find out of its radioactive. Some people say its harmless which it probably is but I error on the safe side myself lol.

Some older breech mount FDs use a thorium lens element, especially the 35mm f2. This is the reason, and it is very well known.

@mee Hi, this is an interesting post, so I'll make you a deal, but need some answers first; What are you expecting from this lens? Are you happy with it? I tend to agree with Vitaly on tele options for m43-I have none but if I needed one I'd get the panasonic zooms with OS. Still, as a huge fan of FDs, I am intrigued to see this, it's like 3 different lenses in this video to my eyes to be honest. It seems you switch shutter speeds and apertures in a same shot. I have to commend your steady hand, I can't hand hold my 85mm (I like the booze so I invest in stabilizers :) I found that with my clients the BEST and most important question is always: "what is it exactely you want to achieve". Handheld wildlife? - stabilization could help you a great deal with this with cheap Panasonic zooms. Tripod and wildlife - well, even more and faster options from Olympus. I am going to contradict myself here hugely, but FD's are (except for build quality and some exceptions) quite shit lenses! My main and only full set are FD's (carefully selected with many literally thrown away) but they serve a VERY specific purpose - you can do a multicam with an identical looking image and work very fast this way. Also, all my FDs are primes, and although not stellar, they are all very decent and respectable.

To make it more interesting, I'll make you a Personal View deal:

Please explain in great detail: 1. what it is that you would like to do with the GH2 exactely and why you have chosen it, and 2. why did you think this FD lens was the best choice for this purpose and I will send you (you pay shipping) the radioactive FD 35mm f/2 if most people here agree I should. It is one of the 3 lenses from my "egg basket"- the ones I have not kept for my set and did not put on our "lemon tree"(a little chinese chrismass tree with barbwire with all the lemon FDs from eBay. It is also the only non nFD I have kept.

I think you will get way more use from it than me (I will probably never use it), and it could be fun. Also, optically it is better than your zoom, but hey, that is to be expected.

So, what say you? :)

PS Just to be clear, this is in the spirit of giving back, and actually, I would not mind giving away the other 2 FD's as a contest, as long as the people pledge to donate to this site.