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

FD 28mm f/2

Canon · Canon FD · 1975

Also known as: Canon FD 28mm f/2 · Canon FD 28mm 1:2 · Canon FD 28mm 1:2 S.S.C. · FD 28mm f/2 S.S.C. · New FD 28mm f/2 · Canon nFD 28mm f/2 · FDn 28mm f2 · キヤノン FD 28mm F2 · キヤノン NewFD 28mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
FD 28mm f/2 S.S.C. Canon FD 1975–1979 — —
New FD 28mm f/2 · 10 elements in 9 groups with a floating system; four alternating convex and concave elements in the front group, high-refraction glass; 24 percent shorter and 23 percent lighter than the breech-lock lens (mir.com.my) Canon FD 1979 — —
  1. The family spec table carries the breech-lock S.S.C. lens of 1975. The New FD is a different computation: 10 elements in 9 groups, 52 mm filter, 47.2 mm long, 265 g, from the Canon Camera Museum's New FD page.
  2. Optically changed or not. mir.com.my's FDn page says the FD 28mm f/2 and f/2.8 "essentially remain optically unchanged other than cosmetic changes" when upgraded to New FD, and one blog review repeats that the New FD is the same lens repackaged. The same site's own specification block, and Canon's museum pages, give 9 elements in 8 groups for the breech-lock lens and 10 in 9 for the New FD, and mir's New FD text describes a new front-group arrangement. The element counts are the harder evidence and the New FD is carried as a recomputation.
  3. "One of the fastest 28mm lenses in the world" is mir.com.my's phrasing for 1975. Canon's museum page says only that larger apertures were considered difficult at wide angles and that this lens resolved the conflict with new glass types and power distribution. The absolute claim is not checked against other makers here.
  4. No US list price was found for either version. The yen prices are the Canon Camera Museum's.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Two versions only, both black-fronted: the breech-lock S.S.C. of 1975 with the red engraving and the chrome button on the aperture ring, and the New FD of 1979 with the turning outer barrel and square release button
  • 55 mm filter and 343 g is the breech-lock lens; 52 mm and 265 g is the New FD
  • Both have the floating system and focus to 0.3 m; both stop down to f/22

FD 28mm f/2 S.S.C.:

  • Black filter ring with S.S.C. engraved in red; there was never a chrome-nose 28mm f/2, the lens arrived in November 1975, two years after the chrome ring was dropped
  • Breech-lock: chrome locking ring at the rear, chrome lock button on the aperture ring beside the green o
  • 9 elements in 8 groups, 8 blades, f/22 minimum, 0.3 m close focus, 55 mm filter, 66 x 61 mm, 343 g; 62,000 yen at launch (Canon Camera Museum)
  • Hood BW-55B (Canon Classics)

New FD 28mm f/2:

  • Bayonet-style mounting: the outer barrel turns, a square chrome release button at the base, green A on the aperture ring; no S.S.C. engraving although the coating is S.S.C. (mir.com.my)
  • 52 mm filter against the breech-lock lens's 55 mm; 63 x 47.2 mm, 265 g; marketed June 1979 at 64,500 yen (Canon Camera Museum)
  • Hood BW-52B, cap C-52 (mir.com.my)

Serial-range notes

any number
Canon FD serial numbers do not encode a date. The date is in the code stamped on the rear plate: one letter for the year (A = 1960 through Z = 1985, then A again for 1986) and digits whose first one or two give the month, on lenses to 1986; two letters and four digits after that. Alan Watson Forster, whose table is used here, notes that lenses in one serial sequence sometimes carry codes a month or two apart. No published serial ranges for either version were found in the sources consulted.

Specifications

Formula
9 elements in 8 groups with a floating system (breech-lock S.S.C., 1975–79); recomputed as 10 elements in 9 groups for the New FD of 1979
Construction
9 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/22
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
66 × 61 mm
Weight
343 g
Filter
55 mm
Years manufactured
1975
Country
Japan
Coating
S.S.C. (Super Spectra Coating) on both versions; engraved in red on the breech-lock lens, unmarked on the New FD
Original price
¥62,000 (1975, S.S.C.); ¥64,500 for the New FD of 1979 (today ¥127,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
some at f/2
Flare & ghosting
worse wide open

History

The FD 28mm f/2 S.S.C. was marketed in November 1975 at 62,000 yen, nearly twice the price of the 24mm f/2.8 S.S.C. of two years earlier. Canon’s own account of it is unusually candid: the aberration corrections needed for a large aperture and for a wide angle pull against each other, so fast wide-angles were considered difficult, and the demand came from system-camera users who had started treating the 28 as a standard lens. Canon had already answered the same demand at 24mm with an aspherical element; here it used new glass types and a new power distribution instead, and added a floating system so the correction held from infinity to 0.3 m. The result is 9 elements in 8 groups, eight blades, f/22 minimum, a 55 mm filter and 343 g.

Because it arrived in 1975 there is no chrome-nose version. The lens was born black-fronted with S.S.C. in red and the chrome button on the aperture ring, in the breech-lock mount with its turning chrome ring at the rear. That is the only breech-lock form it took.

The New FD 28mm f/2 of June 1979, at 64,500 yen, moved to the bayonet-style barrel that turns as a whole, with the square release button at the base and a green A in place of the green o. Canon’s museum figures make it a different computation: 10 elements in 9 groups, a 52 mm filter, 47.2 mm long and 265 g. mir.com.my describes four alternating convex and concave elements in the front group to curb distortion, astigmatism and coma, high-refraction glass, and the floating system kept, and puts the lens at 24 percent shorter and 23 percent lighter than its predecessor. The same site says elsewhere that the two 28s were optically unchanged apart from cosmetics, which its own specification block contradicts; the element counts are the better evidence.

Reviews are fewer than for the 24 and the 35, and mostly from owners rather than test benches. On the S.S.C., the Canon Classics owner reviews and bramallama’s write-up agree that the lens is genuinely usable at f/2 and very good by f/2.8, that it loses contrast and resolution and picks up some flare and colour fringing when fully open, and that the corners are the weak point. Hiron, reviewing the New FD, is less interested in resolution than in rendering: a slight haze throughout, a somewhat hard ordinary bokeh, and a foreground blur he finds unusually beautiful for a 28. One Canon Classics owner rates the New FD above both the 24mm f/2.8 and the 35mm f/2 for low light.

Buying one: the two versions are told apart at a glance by the mount and the filter size, 55 mm on the breech-lock and 52 mm on the New FD. Neither is known to use thoriated glass and no yellowing has been reported for them in the sources consulted. On the New FD check that the square release button springs back and that the lens locks and unlocks cleanly on a body or adapter; on the breech-lock check that the aperture ring’s chrome lock button and the rear locking ring move freely. No serial ranges have been published for either lens; the rear-plate date code dates one to the month.

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 28mm f/2
Canon AE-1 with an FD 28mm 1:2 (Maja Dumat, 2015) — Maja Dumat, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the FD 28mm f/2
Canon AE-1 with an FD 28mm 1:2, front (Maja Dumat, 2015) — Maja Dumat, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a FD 28mm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $320 across 30 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $200–$470). First day tracked.

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

Show 25 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/1.4 Aspherical / L · FD 24mm f/2.8 · FD 35mm f/2

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.