I know...

Sal gave me a look similair to headlights beaming from a car.

It isn't really that nice when you take images of your partner as he just got out of bed. When I am newly awakened, I look like i've run into a wall. With puffy strange lemon eyes... and a face that looks more like my true age. Then it tends to revert 10 years younger, during the day

*LOL*

Still, i like the image of Sal - because it is different. Portraits do not always have to be so damn mainstream and predicteable, by "just looking good".

Canon FD 85/1.2 L on Fujifilm GFX

Nevertheless; here I primarily wish to show, what a vintage lens like the old, manual Canon FD 85/1.2Lfrom the analog 80s can accomplish when adapted to a digital Fujifilm GFX 100s II mediumformat camera.

It does cover the larger GFX sensor - pretty well, actually. There are some darker soft corners visible in the original, but rather easy to correct. (No hard vignetting). On top, it pulls off a really nice rendering in a portrait (black & white) !

I do not use the original Canon lens hood in order not to exarbeit the dark corners, but instead of make them go less: I took the slimmer lens hood one from the Mitakon Speedmaster 65/1.4 lens (which is another manual lens, native made for GFX cameras and its larger sensor. In other words; not just a fullframe lens converted to GFX).

Then i put the Canon lens hood on the Mitakon, because that one benefit from a deeper lens hood, instead.

Black & White makes it even easier

When you work with the Canon FD 85/1.2L in Black & White, the present optical errors (chromatic aberrations and LoCA) do not show at all. Therefore, you get a razor thin, well defined albeit slightly soft sharpness at ƒ1.2 open aperture. Kind of the same characteristics this lens gave from during analog days of film.

Stop the lens down to ƒ2 and you see some serious sharp details - but still with razor thin DOF (Depth of sharpness). Quite an accomplishment for an old lens on a super high resolution mediumformat camera with 102 MP !

Notion on second hand prices

For unknown reasons, the Canon FD 85/1.2L is not always cheaper comapred to it's later EF silbing eith AF. Perhaps it has to do that many old manual FD lenses got a big uptick in prices, due to that cinema folks started to convert those into cine-lenses (for even bigger money). Albeit the tend seem to have reverted, with the FD versionbeing cheaper again.

The FD 85/1.2L often goes around 500-900 €, while the EF 85/1.2L II goes 800-900 € on eBay. Taxes and import not included, so the end price might change dependend on your location.

An alternative would also be the even more modern, somewhat sharper Canon EF 85/1.4L IS lens, which is similarly priced. Its autofocus is way snappier (via Fringer adapter) compared to the EF 85/1.2L II lens.

Other alternatives fit for the larger Fujifilm GFX sensor are (all in Canon EF mount + Fringer adapter):

• Sigma ART 85/1.4,
• Samyang / Rokinon XP 85/1.2
• Tamron SP 85/1.8 VC