Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

FD 100mm f/2

Canon · Canon FD · 1980 · 6 elements in 4 groups (Canon Camera Museum)

Also known as: Canon FD 100mm f/2 · Canon New FD 100mm f/2 · Canon NFD 100mm f/2 · Canon FDn 100mm f/2 · Canon FD 100mm F2 · Canon FD 100mm 1:2 · キヤノン New FD 100mm F2 · キヤノン NFD 100mm F2 · キヤノン FD 100mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
New FD 100mm f/2 Canon FD 1980 — —
  1. The Canon Camera Museum and the FD table on Wikipedia both give 63 x 70mm and 445g. mir.com.my prints the length as 53.4mm in its otherwise matching spec table, which no other source repeats; 70mm is used here.
  2. No US list price has been found. The yen price is the Canon Camera Museum's 63,500 yen at the January 1980 launch. mir.com.my says only that the lens "costs almost double that of the f2.8".
  3. No end-of-production year has been found for this lens specifically. Wikipedia dates the end of the FD mount as a whole to the Canon T60 of 1990.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved CANON LENS FD 100mm 1:2 on the front ring; New FD lenses do not carry the S.S.C. marking even though they are multicoated
  • Any lens engraved 1:2.8 at 100mm, breech-lock or New FD, is a different lens with a different page

New FD 100mm f/2:

  • New FD bayonet: the whole barrel turns to lock and a square chrome release button sits at the base; there is no silver breech ring
  • 52mm filter, rubber focusing grip, BT-52 clip-on hood; 63mm across and 70mm long at 445g
  • Minimum aperture f/32; the f/2.8 New FD 100mm is the lens with the same barrel style and a much smaller front element
  • The only 100mm f/2 Canon made for the FD mount; there is no chrome-nose or S.S.C. breech-lock version to confuse it with

Serial-range notes

date code on the rear mount plate
No serial table for this lens has been published by any source consulted. Canon stamped a date code on the rear plate of FD lenses: one letter for the year (A = 1960 through Z = 1985, then A again for 1986) followed by three or four digits whose first one or two give the month, so a New FD 100mm f/2 from the launch year carries a U, one from 1981 a V, and so on. The code can run a month or two later than the serial sequence suggests, because some lenses were stamped after rework at inspection.

Specifications

Formula
6 elements in 4 groups (Canon Camera Museum)
Construction
6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/32
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
63 × 70 mm
Weight
445 g
Filter
52 mm
Years manufactured
1980
Country
Japan
Coating
S.S.C. (Super Spectra Coating), not marked on the barrel; New FD lenses dropped the coating engraving
Original price
¥63,500 (January 1980) (today ¥94,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
magenta wide open
Flare & ghosting
holds contrast
Distortion
very low pincushion

History

Canon’s 100mm for the FD mount had always been an f/2.8. The 100mm f/2 arrived in January 1980, in the New FD bayonet generation, at 63,500 yen, which mir.com.my puts at almost double the price of the f/2.8 that continued beside it. There was never a breech-lock version: this lens exists only with the New FD mount, so every example has the square chrome release button at the base of the barrel and no silver locking ring.

Canon’s spec is six elements in four groups, eight blades, f/2 to f/32, one metre close focus, a 52mm filter, and 445g in a barrel 63mm across and 70mm long. mir.com.my quotes Canon’s own line that the lens holds spherical and chromatic aberration down well enough to be used at full aperture, and gives its purpose as depth-of-field control for stage and low-light work, one stop beyond what the f/2.8 could do. The small filter thread on a lens this fast is the thing owners notice first; the front element fills almost the whole of it.

Reviewers who have used it on digital bodies agree on the essentials. Phillip Reeve finds the centre very sharp at f/2 with good midfield and edges, very low pincushion distortion and pleasant bokeh, and rates it Highly Recommended. Chase Hagen sees high resolution and contrast at the point of focus, longitudinal colour error that shows as magenta in bright transitions but is not excessive, and a background blur with the bright-edged discs of a Planar-type design. The owners on Canon Classics say the same in fewer words: sharp at f/2, wonderful bokeh, small and light, with colour fringing wide open as the one optical complaint. The disagreement, such as it is, is over the bokeh, which Reeve calls pleasant and Hagen calls busy in the background and smooth in the foreground.

When buying, check the mount before the glass. A New FD lens whose inner assembly has been turned out of alignment with the chrome ring will not seat on a body; the fix is to press the release button and turn the inner assembly until the red dots line up, not to force it. The aperture ring is known to feel rougher than on the breech-lock lenses. A date code on the rear plate, a letter followed by three or four digits, gives the year of manufacture: U is 1980, V is 1981. No serial table has been published for this lens, and no source consulted gives a final year of production or a US list price.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the FD 100mm f/2
Canon New FD 100mm f/2 (Hiyotada) — Hiyotada, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a FD 100mm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $310 across 27 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $270–$400). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 33 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-18. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: FD 135mm f/2 · FD 200mm f/2.8 · FD 85mm f/1.2 Aspherical / L · FD 85mm f/1.8

Sources (8)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.