I have a FD 300/2.8 S.S.C. Fluorite lens, introduced in 1975. It's a FANTASTIC lens, sharp corner to corner wide open at f/2.8, and excellent for astrophotography. It's able to capture details of the Orion nebula, horsehead nebula, and the spiral arms of the Andromeda galaxy in a single shot. It's also excellent for outdoor portraits and creams backgrounds, though you'll need to use a phone call on speakerphone to talk to your subject.
The list price back then was 420000 JPY which is $5364 in today's dollars. I got it for $400, used.
Back then prices of FD mount lenses dropped dramatically because nobody wanted them: the flange distance was too short to be adapted to any DSLR. I ended up taking apart the entire back part and machining a conversion mount to make it usable on DSLR. (An adapter ring won't work, since it adds thickness.)
Unfortunately with the advent of mirrorless cameras, FD lenses are once again usable with simple adapter rings, and their used market prices have gone back up. However they're still excellent, excellent value for $ in comparison to modern autofocusing equivalents in optics; the lens I have costs ~$600-$1000 on eBay now whereas a new Sony 300/2.8 GM costs $6000. For anyone looking for a fast, large aperture telephoto lens I'd highly recommend looking into FD lenses that have fluorite elements, as long as you don't mind manual focus.
I used to have a FD 500mm f/4.5 which is nice but not as well corrected as modern glass. I got it for $750 which, too, is a bargain.
> as long as you don't mind manual focus
Given that the primary use case of large aperture telephoto lenses is sports and wildlife, fast autofocus is a killer feature. Moreover, modern computer optimization has managed to vastly lighten the weight and improve the weight distribution of the lens, not to mention impeccable image quality, which is why for many the $6000 is more than justified.
The list price back then was 420000 JPY which is $5364 in today's dollars. I got it for $400, used.
Back then prices of FD mount lenses dropped dramatically because nobody wanted them: the flange distance was too short to be adapted to any DSLR. I ended up taking apart the entire back part and machining a conversion mount to make it usable on DSLR. (An adapter ring won't work, since it adds thickness.)
Unfortunately with the advent of mirrorless cameras, FD lenses are once again usable with simple adapter rings, and their used market prices have gone back up. However they're still excellent, excellent value for $ in comparison to modern autofocusing equivalents in optics; the lens I have costs ~$600-$1000 on eBay now whereas a new Sony 300/2.8 GM costs $6000. For anyone looking for a fast, large aperture telephoto lens I'd highly recommend looking into FD lenses that have fluorite elements, as long as you don't mind manual focus.