How are these different from the ones that followed, are they just minus the SC or SSC coatings ?

Thanks ,

Canon has a quite complete camera/lens museum on their japanese web site (in english) thats goes way back to the 50's you might want to check there.
http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/
Also here is two other good webs site that I know of.
http://www.canonfd.com/
and
http://mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/index.htm

Hope you can find your answers there.

James,

thanks James I have been to most all the fd sites , the ones you listed were the first and they have no info on the lens much less the differance..thanks for your help though. It may be a dead in road.

Hi tom, a little info on the chrome FD's. These were the first of the FD series and were only manufactured for a couple of years.
The reason being that some people thought that the chrome front would cause reflections so Canon dropped it and went back to a black front.
These lenses are only SC coated and I have found that the chrome ring doesn't cause any problems. There is however some collector interest in them due to the short model run, so if you find one, best grab it!
Tony

The SC lenses (spectra coated ) were single coated, the SSC ( super spectra coated ) were multi-coated, all the new type black FD lenses (FDn ) without the chrome breech lock mounting ring are SSC, with the exception of the 50mm 1.8 that is SC and single coated

Tom,
In some circles, you'll also see these referred to as CN, or "chrome nose".
This should help you in your searches for information and comments. Also, check the archives of the CanonFD group on Yahoo groups.
Chris

I own a few of the chrome-nose FDs' along with some of the newer ones. As someone mentioned before, the CN were the first of the FD lenses with production starting in late 1970 and lasting until 1973. Generally, along with the coating differences, the CN seem to be more robust than later FD lenses. They are definitely heavier. I prefer the chrome-nose variety to later FD lenses mainly because of this robust, cost-be-damned, build quality. Others like the newer FD lenses because of their smaller size and weight. Personal choice as to what suits you best.

Jim Bielecki