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

FD 135mm f/2

Canon · Canon FD · 1980 · 6 elements in 5 groups (Canon Camera Museum)

Also known as: Canon FD 135mm f/2 · Canon New FD 135mm f/2 · Canon NFD 135mm f/2 · Canon FDn 135mm f/2 · Canon FD 135mm F2 · Canon FD 135mm 1:2 · キヤノン New FD 135mm F2 · キヤノン NFD 135mm F2 · キヤノン FD 135mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
New FD 135mm f/2 Canon FD 1980 — —
  1. Weight is 670g on the Canon Camera Museum page and in the FD table on Wikipedia, and 660g on mir.com.my and Canon Classics. Canon's own figure is used here.
  2. No US list price has been found. The yen price is the Canon Camera Museum's 76,800 yen at the May 1980 launch.
  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 135mm 1:2 on the front ring; New FD lenses do not carry a coating engraving
  • The FD 135s with 1:2.5, 1:2.8 or 1:3.5 on the ring are different lenses; the 1:2.5 breech-lock of 1971 to 1979 is the one most often mis-sold as the f/2

New FD 135mm f/2:

  • New FD bayonet: the whole barrel turns to lock and a square chrome release button sits at the base; no silver breech ring
  • Built-in sliding hood, 72mm filter and a C-72 cap; 78mm across and 90.4mm long at 670g
  • Minimum aperture f/32. The New FD 135mm f/2.8 and f/3.5 of 1979 are smaller lenses with 52mm filters
  • The only 135mm f/2 Canon made for the FD mount; the breech-lock fast 135 was the f/2.5

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: a year letter (A = 1960 through Z = 1985, then A again for 1986) followed by three or four digits whose first one or two give the month. U is 1980, the launch year; V is 1981. The stamp can lag the serial sequence by a month or two.

Specifications

Formula
6 elements in 5 groups (Canon Camera Museum)
Construction
6 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/32
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
1.3 m
Dimensions
78 × 90.4 mm
Weight
670 g
Filter
72 mm
Years manufactured
1980
Country
Japan
Coating
S.S.C. (Super Spectra Coating), not marked on the barrel
Original price
¥76,800 (May 1980) (today ¥114,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
purple fringing, LoCA
Flare & ghosting
flares wide open

History

The FD range had three 135s in the breech-lock years, an f/3.5 from July 1970, an f/2.5 from March 1971 and the S.C. version of the f/2.5 from 1973, and when the New FD bayonet arrived in June 1979 the f/2.8 and f/3.5 were the first to move across. The f/2 came in May 1980 at 76,800 yen, and it is the only 135mm f/2 Canon made in the mount. Canon’s description of it is a lens that keeps the overall length to a minimum for its speed by spreading the optical power through the system rather than concentrating it, with spherical aberration corrected well enough for use at full aperture. That is six elements in five groups, eight blades, f/32 at the small end, 1.3m close focus, a 72mm filter, and a built-in hood that slides out of the barrel.

It is not a small lens. Canon gives 78mm across, 90.4mm long and 670g; mir.com.my and Canon Classics both print 660g, and Canon’s figure is used here. mir.com.my calls it big and heavy but well balanced on a body with a motor drive, and puts it to head-and-shoulders portraiture, fashion, news and sport, where the extra stop over the f/2.8 buys shutter speed and subject isolation.

Reviewers split on what f/2 looks like. Phillip Reeve finds the centre very sharp wide open with good midfield and edges, excellent by f/2.8, and rates it Highly Recommended. The mu-43 thread from 2011 says pretty sharp but not critically so, with purple fringing on high-contrast edges and a fair amount of longitudinal colour error. Adam Harig, shooting it for its character, describes f/2 as extremely soft and dreamy with notable flare and low contrast, becoming sharply detailed at f/2.8, and sells that as two lenses in one. The Canon Classics owners land closer to Reeve, calling it one of Canon’s best New FD lenses and sharp wide open, with heavy and lots of CA as the complaints. Everyone agrees on the bokeh, which is smooth, and several owners suggest it as the cheaper way to something like the look of the 85mm f/1.2 L.

Check the mount first: a New FD lens whose inner assembly has been rotated out of line with the chrome ring will not seat, and the cure is to press the release button and turn the inner assembly until the red dots align. Check that the hood slides freely, since it is part of the barrel and cannot be replaced from a shelf. The rear plate carries a date code, a letter and three or four digits; U is 1980, V is 1981. No serial table, no final production year and no US list price have been found for this lens in the sources consulted, and no freely licensed photograph of it was found on Wikimedia Commons.

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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 wanted — shot with a FD 135mm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $390 across 29 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $320–$480). First day tracked.

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

Show 37 more listings

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

Related: FD 100mm f/2 · FD 200mm f/2.8 · FD 300mm f/2.8 Fluorite / L · FD 85mm f/1.2 Aspherical / L · FD 85mm f/1.8

Sources (10)

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.