Lincoln Park, Chicago
July 2021
Coneflower by
Paul Sager, on Flickr
The "new" version of the Canon FD 500mm f/4.5L used for these images was released by Canon in December 1981. Canon continued to manufacture FD lenses until the early 1990s, unlike the company's current transition to mirrorless EOS technology.
Bumblebee and coneflower The lens is mounted to a Sony a7II, an older 24MP full-frame digital mirrorless camera, captured in RAW, and processed in Adobe Lightroom v6 with Topaz DeNoise 6.
Coneflower and sweat bee The lens has a minimum focal distance of 5-meters (16 feet). I stacked together FD 12mm and 25mm extension tubes to bring the close focus distance to about 12 feet. The flower is literally within an inch of the minimum distance.
Monarch All images are captured in manual focus as the lens is pre-electronics with no communication to the digital mirrorless camera. The lens has a fixed lens collar and was mounted to a tripod.
The aperture is set via the aperture control ring on the lens, but there is no report of the aperture value to the camera. The camera is set to Shutter Priority with AUTO-ISO. The camera simply meters the light as reaching the sensor where I'm manually controlling the aperture and shutter speed.
Monarch Canon's FD mount was introduced in March 1971, alongside the Canon F-1 camera. The FD mount was the interchangeable lens mounting system for Canon's SLR cameras until 1987, when Canon completely changed to the EOS series of cameras and lenses. During the 21-year production, Canon made 134 different lenses for the FD mount, ranging from 7.5mm to 1200mm focal lengths.
Monarch I did eventually move to a cluster of coneflowers with a butterfly busy on most every bloom.
Swallowtail The FD 500mm f/4.5L is a high performance super telephoto lens utilizing artificial crystal fluorite and UD glass lens elements in the optical system (UD - Ultra-Low Dispersion). Despite the large aperture, the lens has sharp image quality throughout the entire frame even when the aperture is at its maximum. The lens features a rear focusing system that does not change the overall length of the lens, and a vari-pitch focusing system that makes focusing easier at long distances.
Monarch Details on the exposure and lenses are provided in the EXIF data from Flickr, just use the image titles as URL links to Flickr.
Beautiful work
Thanks for sharing
Ironically, my wife has been using the newer Nikon 500 mm lens for a number of months, and is very pleased
with the results. Sorry, butI don't have any of her images to post.
Wow, nice set. I use my 70-300 as my close up lens a lot for flowers and bugs.
WELL done ! ......thanks for sharing
Beautiful photos! I suspect you were hand holding the camera. Did I miss that?
wmurnahan wrote:
Wow, nice set. I use my 70-300 as my close up lens a lot for flowers and bugs.
Thank you Bill! I was packing my FD 200 f/4 macro for the same trip, pictures of those close-ups of smaller insects pending.
Cubanphoto wrote:
Beautiful photos! I suspect you were hand holding the camera. Did I miss that?
Thank you Cubanphoto! This lens is impractical for handholding. All images are captured in manual focus as the lens is pre-electronics with no communication to the digital mirrorless camera.
The lens has a fixed lens collar and was mounted to a tripod. Here's the lens in that tripod configuration.
Canon FD 500mm f/4.5L by
Paul Sager, on Flickr
Thank you Toment, Loren, Carl, Bill, Larry, Cubanphoto! I bought this lens over the window from a Canadian seller via ebay. Last year I was shooting the FD 300 f/2.8L with an FD 1.4x intender. The 300 lens lets me focus closer, a limitation I wasn't expecting from the 500 that has been the only disappointment so far of the longer lens.
CHG_CANON wrote:
Lincoln Park, Chicago
July 2021
Coneflower by
Paul Sager, on Flickr
The "new" version of the Canon FD 500mm f/4.5L used for these images was released by Canon in December 1981. Canon continued to manufacture FD lenses until the early 1990s, unlike the company's current transition to mirrorless EOS technology.
Bumblebee and coneflower The lens is mounted to a Sony a7II, an older 24MP full-frame digital mirrorless camera, captured in RAW, and processed in Adobe Lightroom v6 with Topaz DeNoise 6.
Coneflower and sweat bee The lens has a minimum focal distance of 5-meters (16 feet). I stacked together FD 12mm and 25mm extension tubes to bring the close focus distance to about 12 feet. The flower is literally within an inch of the minimum distance.
Monarch All images are captured in manual focus as the lens is pre-electronics with no communication to the digital mirrorless camera. The lens has a fixed lens collar and was mounted to a tripod.
The aperture is set via the aperture control ring on the lens, but there is no report of the aperture value to the camera. The camera is set to Shutter Priority with AUTO-ISO. The camera simply meters the light as reaching the sensor where I'm manually controlling the aperture and shutter speed.
Monarch Canon's FD mount was introduced in March 1971, alongside the Canon F-1 camera. The FD mount was the interchangeable lens mounting system for Canon's SLR cameras until 1987, when Canon completely changed to the EOS series of cameras and lenses. During the 21-year production, Canon made 134 different lenses for the FD mount, ranging from 7.5mm to 1200mm focal lengths.
Monarch I did eventually move to a cluster of coneflowers with a butterfly busy on most every bloom.
Swallowtail The FD 500mm f/4.5L is a high performance super telephoto lens utilizing artificial crystal fluorite and UD glass lens elements in the optical system (UD - Ultra-Low Dispersion). Despite the large aperture, the lens has sharp image quality throughout the entire frame even when the aperture is at its maximum. The lens features a rear focusing system that does not change the overall length of the lens, and a vari-pitch focusing system that makes focusing easier at long distances.
Monarch Details on the exposure and lenses are provided in the EXIF data from Flickr, just use the image titles as URL links to Flickr.
Lincoln Park, Chicago br July 2021 br br url=htt... (
show quote)
Excellent series and info! Thanks for sharing 👍.
You have done it again! I get my coffee and log on to find these absolutely stunning shots! With a life-long determination to learn to master my camera (the camera is still winning!) I also appreciate the technical information you included. Thanks again for starting my day of with a WOW!!
Thank you Vaun's photography, GrannyAnnie, Mike! Glad you enjoyed.
CHG_CANON wrote:
Lincoln Park, Chicago
July 2021
Coneflower by
Paul Sager, on Flickr
The "new" version of the Canon FD 500mm f/4.5L used for these images was released by Canon in December 1981. Canon continued to manufacture FD lenses until the early 1990s, unlike the company's current transition to mirrorless EOS technology.
Bumblebee and coneflower The lens is mounted to a Sony a7II, an older 24MP full-frame digital mirrorless camera, captured in RAW, and processed in Adobe Lightroom v6 with Topaz DeNoise 6.
Coneflower and sweat bee The lens has a minimum focal distance of 5-meters (16 feet). I stacked together FD 12mm and 25mm extension tubes to bring the close focus distance to about 12 feet. The flower is literally within an inch of the minimum distance.
Monarch All images are captured in manual focus as the lens is pre-electronics with no communication to the digital mirrorless camera. The lens has a fixed lens collar and was mounted to a tripod.
The aperture is set via the aperture control ring on the lens, but there is no report of the aperture value to the camera. The camera is set to Shutter Priority with AUTO-ISO. The camera simply meters the light as reaching the sensor where I'm manually controlling the aperture and shutter speed.
Monarch Canon's FD mount was introduced in March 1971, alongside the Canon F-1 camera. The FD mount was the interchangeable lens mounting system for Canon's SLR cameras until 1987, when Canon completely changed to the EOS series of cameras and lenses. During the 21-year production, Canon made 134 different lenses for the FD mount, ranging from 7.5mm to 1200mm focal lengths.
Monarch I did eventually move to a cluster of coneflowers with a butterfly busy on most every bloom.
Swallowtail The FD 500mm f/4.5L is a high performance super telephoto lens utilizing artificial crystal fluorite and UD glass lens elements in the optical system (UD - Ultra-Low Dispersion). Despite the large aperture, the lens has sharp image quality throughout the entire frame even when the aperture is at its maximum. The lens features a rear focusing system that does not change the overall length of the lens, and a vari-pitch focusing system that makes focusing easier at long distances.
Monarch Details on the exposure and lenses are provided in the EXIF data from Flickr, just use the image titles as URL links to Flickr.
Lincoln Park, Chicago br July 2021 br br url=htt... (
show quote)
Beyond outstanding images Paul
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