Canon FL 55-135mm f/3.5

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Professional photographers seemed to always defame zoom lenses until the digital age. Zooms from the 1960s were immediately trashed as having poor image quality. Yet Canon made three very good to excellent FL zooms, with the best of the three being this 55-135mm f3.5 lens. All three lenses had an automatic diaphragm. Modern Photography published test results of the three zooms in January 1970 showing excellent performance of each in the middle and at the edges. This lens includes an aperture preview button which is very easy to access. It also has a rotating and lockable tripod mount, which is very handy due to the weight of the lens. It can be easily handheld, however. Focusing is done with a knurled ring while zooming is performed with a textured, rubberized (?) ring. The aperture ring is silver in color, probably to avoid confusion. The filter size is 58mm. It is also very handy that the metal hood for this lens is the same as the hood for the 50mm f1.4 and f1.8, the S-60. I found image quality to be very good wide open in the center with minimal drop off at the edges. At f5.6 IQ is excellent throughout, and at f8 and f11 equal to primes from the period. I like using the appropriate period lenses for the camera. FL lenses are used with my Canon FP and Pellix QL. For me, the only real negative is that the closest focusing distance is seven feet. But it seemed to be designed more for portrait photography, so the distance is appropriate. This lens has been noted for its excellent color balance, sharp focus and high resolving power, making it excellent for that purpose. With high quality film enlargements up to 16x20" turn out beautiful. Even with all the positives in this review I would only recommend it if you are shooting FL mount bodies. If you are using FD bodies look for the nFD 50-135mm f3.5 which is an excellent lens, lighter in weight, with better coating. This FL lens has amber coating whereas the newer "version" has SSC.