why are canon fd lenses so inexpensive

[waynecrider]

When the 4/3rd's adapters came out the price on FD glass spiked a little and it seems to be maintaining it's price levels although everything seems to be more expensive nowadays, not just camera equipment. I did notice about 2 sales magazine issues back or so that KEH prices went up. Checking prices just now on the 50mm F1.4 manual focus lenses in Ex condition in the KEH catalog shows Nikon the highest followed by Pentax A series, Olympus, Canon then Minolta basically. The FD SSC glass in 50mm is one sharp cookie according to my testing, but not everyone wants a 100mm fov on a 4/3rd's camera or a 75mm FOV on a digital camera with a APS-C sensor which is why the much wider focal lengths are more expensive, and with film cameras continuing to loose users the excess of used equipment, as has been said, drops prices.

[Chan Tran]

Because they are not as good as their competitor (Olympus)

or Pentax, or Nikon

[2F/2F]

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

[2F/2F]

...you're stuck with FD cameras.

THE HORROR!

[Pumalite]

WOW!

[mdarnton]

I don't really know how old most of you guys are. I bought my first camera around 1965, and watched Canon repeatedly burn their customers over the years with incompatible lens mounts every time they wanted to add some feature. Their lenses have always been great, and I owned several in Leica mount over the years, but when it came time to get a new SLR system a couple of years ago (having owned Oly before) I got a system that would use all the system lenses from day one--Nikon--and half my lenses are old Nikon ones now. I would have gotten Canon, but I really didn't want to join the hosts of the burned the next time Canon decided to add a feature.

I've got about a dozen lenses, and five bodies from different periods, a mix of from the 70s to now, including digital, and all the lenses fit all the bodies, and do what they're supposed to.

There's inexpensive. . . and then there's just plain cheap.

[Wolfeye]

Canon isn't alone in obsoleting their products. Olympus abandoned SLRs entirely, Minolta not only changed lens mounts they came up with a proprietary flash shoe. Pentax scrapped m42 in favor of their K mount. Nikon? Try and use a non-AIS lens on a modern body.

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Just go to flickr and see some photos shot with Canon fd lenses. It's good glass.

[darinwc]

Canon is great glass, no doubt. But most of their vintage cameras just don't have the finish of say nikon, none of them are compact like pentax or olympus. (I consider the A series medium size) Add to that their incompatablity with most of the modern digital cameras. Dont forget the supply. There seems to be 10x the availability of pentax or olympus. And the final nail I would say is the availability of L series lenses, which the collectors and power users value over the regular series.

All this combined really keeps the price down. i was able to put together more FD lenses than I could use.

[darinwc]

Canon is great glass, no doubt. But most of their vintage cameras just don't have the finish of say nikon, none of them are compact like pentax or olympus. (I consider the A series medium size) Add to that their incompatablity with most of the modern digital cameras. Dont forget the supply. There seems to be 10x the availability of pentax or olympus. And the final nail I would say is the availability of L series lenses, which the collectors and power users value over the regular series.

All this combined really keeps the price down. i was able to put together more FD lenses than I could use.