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

FD 24mm f/1.4 Aspherical / L

Canon · Canon FD · 1975

single source, unconfirmed via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Canon FD 24mm f/1.4 · Canon FD 24mm f/1.4 L · Canon New FD 24mm f/1.4 L · Canon NFD 24mm f/1.4L · Canon FD 24mm f/1.4 S.S.C. Aspherical · Canon FD 24mm F1.4 SSC ASPHERICAL · Canon FD 24mm 1:1.4 · キヤノン New FD 24mm F1.4L · キヤノン NFD 24mm F1.4L · キヤノン FD 24mm F1.4 S.S.C. アスフェリカル

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
FD 24mm f/1.4 S.S.C. Aspherical, breech-lock · 10 elements in 8 groups; the aspherical surface is the rear face of the eighth element; floating mechanism (Canon Camera Museum) Canon FD 1975–1979 — —
New FD 24mm f/1.4 L · 10 elements in 8 groups including one aspherical element, floating elements (Canon Camera Museum; mir.com.my) Canon FD 1979 — —
  1. Both versions are 10 elements in 8 groups, 8 blades, f/16 minimum, 0.3m close focus and a 72mm filter, and both were priced at 180,000 yen at launch, so the two are carried as one family. Canon does not say whether the New FD L is the 1975 computation in the new barrel or a recomputation; the weight drops from 500g to 430g and the diameter changes from 75mm to 76.5mm, which is consistent with a barrel change alone. No source consulted settles it.
  2. Where the aspherical surface sits. The Canon Camera Museum says of the 1975 lens that the aspherical surface is the rear face of the eighth element. mir.com.my says of the New FD L that "an aspherical lens was used as the front element". DPReview's auction report says the aspherical design was "phased out in newer iterations", which contradicts both Canon and mir.com.my on the L and is not followed here.
  3. The dollar price. DPReview gives a 1975 launch price of $1,300 for the S.S.C. Aspherical, and is the only source found to do so; it is recorded here as a single-source claim and not put in the price fields. Canon's own figure is 180,000 yen with case.
  4. The New FD L's diameter is 76.5mm on the Canon Camera Museum page and 75.5mm on mir.com.my; Canon's figure is used.
  5. allphotolenses.com gives 1979 to 1986 for the L. No other source prints an end year, so the variant's years are left open. Wikipedia dates the end of the FD mount to the T60 of 1990.
  6. Wikipedia puts the introduction of the New FD series in 1978; the Canon Camera Museum dates every New FD lens consulted here to 1979 or later, and the 24mm f/1.4 L to December 1979.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Breech ring and S.S.C. ASPHERICAL engraving is the 1975 lens; square release button, red ring and an L on the engraving is the 1979 lens. There is no third version
  • Both take 72mm filters and focus to 0.3m; weight separates them at 500g against 430g

FD 24mm f/1.4 S.S.C. Aspherical, breech-lock:

  • Breech-lock mount with the silver locking ring; black filter ring engraved S.S.C. and ASPHERICAL
  • 75mm across, 68mm long, 500g: 70g heavier than the New FD lens in the same length
  • Maximum magnification 0.117x against 0.12x on the L, at the same 0.3m close focus

New FD 24mm f/1.4 L:

  • New FD bayonet: whole barrel turns to lock, square chrome release button at the base, no silver ring
  • Red L ring at the front and an L after the aperture on the engraving; no S.S.C. or ASPHERICAL engraving
  • 76.5mm across, 68mm long, 430g; hood BW-72

Serial-range notes

date code on the rear mount plate
No serial table for either version 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. P is 1975, T is 1979, U is 1980. The stamp can lag the serial sequence by a month or two.
10337
The S.S.C. Aspherical lens offered by Wetzlar Camera Auctions in an October sale, described as almost new with clean optics, estimated at 12,000 to 15,000 euros from a 6,000 euro start, as reported by DPReview. The one published serial for the breech-lock lens found here.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus wide-angle, 10 elements in 8 groups with one ground-and-polished aspherical surface and a floating element group (Canon Camera Museum)
Construction
10 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/1.4–f/16
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
76.5 × 68 mm
Weight
430 g
Filter
72 mm
Years manufactured
1975
Country
Japan
Coating
S.S.C. (Super Spectra Coating) on both versions; engraved only on the 1975 lens
Original price
¥180,000 with case (March 1975); ¥180,000 again for the New FD L (December 1979) (today ¥368,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Spherical aberration
soft wide open
Optical formula — Retrofocus wide-angle, 10 elements in 8 groups with one ground-and-polished aspherical surface and a floating element group (Canon Camera Museum)

History

In March 1975 Canon put on sale a 24mm f/1.4, which nobody had done before for a 35mm SLR. The Canon Camera Museum calls it the largest-aperture 24mm in the world at the time. It cost 180,000 yen with its case, and it got there with a ground and polished glass aspherical surface, here on the rear face of the eighth element, to correct spherical aberration and astigmatism at full aperture, plus a floating group to hold the correction from 0.3m to infinity. Ten elements in eight groups, eight blades, f/16 at the small end, a 72mm filter, 500g. It is a breech-lock lens with the silver ring, engraved S.S.C. ASPHERICAL on the black filter ring.

In December 1979 the same specification reappeared in the New FD barrel as the 24mm f/1.4 L, again at 180,000 yen. Canon’s museum gives it the same ten elements in eight groups, the same blades, minimum aperture, close focus and filter, 68mm long as before, 76.5mm across and 430g. mir.com.my says Canon made it in answer to photojournalists who wanted a fast, high-performance wide-angle for news work, and that it keeps an aspherical element and floating elements. Whether the glass inside is the 1975 computation or a fresh one is something no source consulted states; the weight loss of 70g in an unchanged length is what a barrel change alone would produce, and the page treats the two as one optical family in two mounts until someone shows otherwise. The two are easy to tell apart: silver ring and S.S.C. ASPHERICAL engraving on the one, square chrome release button, red ring and an L after the aperture on the other.

Opinion on the L wide open is consistent across the small number of reviewers who could be read. The Canon Classics owners call it one of the most underrated L lenses and buy it for the speed, while conceding it is not very sharp at f/1.4 and throws a magenta cast there, improving from f/2 and excellent by f/8. A Japanese owner shooting it on a NEX-5 in 2011 found the plane of focus considerably soft at f/1.4 and the blur smeared and bleeding, which he took to be the lens’s signature, yet the whole frame read as crisp and three-dimensional at normal viewing sizes. A cinema rental house that carries an EF-remounted one sells exactly that: a special softness wide open that stopping down removes. Nobody consulted has published a side-by-side of the 1975 and 1979 lenses. Ken Rockwell, Fred Miranda, photo.net and the DPReview forums all refused this machine, so the best-known English write-ups are not represented here.

The 1975 lens is the collectable one. Kamerastore calls it ultra-rare and listed one at $7,843, since sold; Wetzlar Camera Auctions offered serial 10337 in an October sale with an estimate of 12,000 to 15,000 euros, and DPReview’s report of that sale is the only place a $1,300 US launch price has been found. The L is a working lens by comparison, and a used one in Japan was 70,000 to 100,000 yen in 2011. When buying the L, check the mount: a New FD lens whose inner assembly has been turned out of line with the chrome ring will not seat until the release button is pressed and the red dots realigned. The rear plate’s date code, a letter and three or four digits, gives the year: P for 1975, T for 1979, U for 1980.

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 24mm f/1.4 Aspherical / L
A Canon F-1 collection including the New FD 24mm f/1.4 L, alongside the 14mm f/2.8 L, 85mm f/1.2 L and 55mm f/1.2 S.S.C. Aspherical (huzu1959) — huzu1959 from Saitama, Japan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a FD 24mm f/1.4 Aspherical / L? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,900 across 37 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $2,600–$7,000). First day tracked.

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

Show 39 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 24mm f/2.8 · FD 28mm f/2 · FD 300mm f/2.8 Fluorite / L · FD 35mm f/2 · FD 55mm f/1.2 · FD 85mm f/1.2 Aspherical / L

Sources (16)

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.