Ever since JAPB first saw the light of day in the spring of 2020, JAPB has had one article to cover the Canon FL, Canon FD and Canon FDn mount. At the time, this felt like a highly natural choice, given that these three lens mounts are
- consecutive (one follows the other)
- are based on the same physical mounting prongs
- are largely mutually compatible (you can mount an FL lens on a T90 body and you can mount a late FDn lens on an early Canon FX body)
- can be used on modern cameras using the same adapters
While all these considerations are true today, there are also other considerations.
Firstly, the trajectory from the 1964 launch of the Canon FL mount to the 1987 replacement of the FDn mount with the subsequent Canon EF mount spans two dozen years of photographic history. Not only did those two dozen years see the advent of aperture automation, integrated drive units, a general trend towards electronics, and the increased use of light alloys and plastics only to end around the eve of autofocus. Those two dozen years also saw Canon transformed from a notable but minor player in the photo industry into a top-3 player in the industry. Hence, so many things happened during these years and they influenced lens mount development considerations to such an extent that the one article to cover all these three mounts was becoming increasingly unwieldy.
Second, there is the question of delineation. It was originally an easy choice for me to write the FL-FD-FDn article, because it was so clearly different from the Canon EF mount (those were the two Canon mount articles JAPB initially had). But when I was starting the writing of the Canon R (Canonflex/Canomatic) mount article I was already struggling with whether to give it an article of its own or whether to add it as a prologue to the FL-FD-FDn article. Similarly I struggled with the article about the Canon EX ‘mount’, because the whole story of the Canon EX-line of lenses and cameras is so tightly intertwined with the failings of the Canon FL mount. As I recently happened to stumble across a Canon AC mount lens (and as I have a special interest in the autofocus transition) I wanted to discuss the AC mount as well. And here one could really argue whether the AC mount is a lens mount of its own or merely a subtype of the FDn mount (Duh, Yeah! It’s a FDn with some added electronic contacts) or a mount of its own (Well certainly, given that you cannot use an AC lens on an FD-era camera).
Third, there is a strong argument to be made that the discussion regarding the FL/FD/FDn mount is not important because of changes to the mount itself or because of connected compatibilities / incompatibilities, but because every generation of Canon lens mount is connected to its own generation of lenses: that when we’re saying “FDn 50/1.8” we’re not so much making an issue about which lens mount this lens is compatible with (because you can use it on any Canon FL/FD/FDn era body from 1964 to 1990), but that we’re really identifying the FDn-era 50/1.8 in contrast to all the other myriad 50/1.8 lenses canon has manufactured.
For me personally, that last argument was the clincher, that made it clear to me that the JAPB audience is best served by dividing up the old Canon FL-FD-FDn lens mount article into three separate articles. Therefore, starting today, JAPB will steer users towards the separate articles for all the respective Canon interchangeable lens mounts:
Canon R 1959–1963
Canon FL 1964–1968
Canon EX 1969–1972
Canon FD 1971–1979
Canon FDn 1979–1990
Canon AC 1985–1986
Canon EF 1987–2020 1
Canon EF-S 2003–2020
Canon EF-M 2012–2020
Canon RF 2018–today
(the old article has been retained for compatibility reasons)
(featured image) six Canon Nifty fifties (with period perfect lens caps) from left to right:
• Canon R 50/1.8 [data sheet]
• Canon FL 50/1.8 [data sheet]
• Canon FD 50/1.8 (chrome nose) [data sheet]
• Canon FDn 50/1.8 [data sheet]
• Canon AC 50/1.8 [data sheet]
• Canon EF 50/1.8 MkI [data sheet]
- As canon has not introduced any new cameras or lenses for the EF, EF-S or AF-M systems since 2020, these mounts have been coded as discontinued. ↩︎