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

FD 35mm f/2

Canon · Canon FD · 1971

single source, unconfirmed

Known as “Concave”, “Thorium 35”

Also known as: Canon FD 35mm f/2 · Canon FD 35mm 1:2 · Canon FD 35mm 1:2 S.S.C. · FD 35mm f/2 S.S.C. · FD 35mm f/2 S.S.C. Concave · Canon FD 35mm f2 chrome nose · New FD 35mm f/2 · Canon nFD 35mm f/2 · FDn 35mm f2 · キヤノン FD 35mm F2 · キヤノン NewFD 35mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
FD 35mm f/2 (I, II, III), chrome nose, concave front Canon FD 1971–1973 10001 – 12199 — version I, first date code March 1971 (lummukka.com)¹
12200 – 20000 — version II, first date code about May 1971 (lummukka.com)¹
20001 upward — version III, first date code about August 1971 (lummukka.com)¹ 		—
FD 35mm f/2 S.S.C. (I), concave front Canon FD 1973–1976 50000 upward — first date code March 1973 (lummukka.com)¹ —
FD 35mm f/2 S.S.C. (II), convex front, recomputed · A second optical design (lummukka.com): still 9 elements in 8 groups on Canon's count, but a convex front surface, f/22 minimum aperture, and no thoriated glass Canon FD 1976–1979 100000 upward — first date code April 1976 (lummukka.com)¹ —
New FD 35mm f/2 · 10 elements in 8 groups with the floating system; about 25 percent shorter and 29 percent lighter than the breech-lock lens (mir.com.my) Canon FD 1979 — —
  1. Every serial range on this page comes from one source, Vesa Vähälummukka's table at lummukka.com, which he says is a study of serial numbers and date codes on lenses examined between 2008 and 2021. Nothing else consulted prints ranges for this lens, so the single-source badge applies to all of them.
  2. The family spec table carries the S.S.C. (I) concave lens of 1973 (370 g, f/16, 67 x 60 mm). The chrome-nose lenses share its glass at 420 g; the S.S.C. (II) is a different design at 345 g and f/22; the New FD is 10 elements in 8 groups at 245 g with a 52 mm filter.
  3. Coating on the chrome-nose lenses is disputed. lummukka.com reports that Canon's 1971 interchangeable-lens brochure lists the 35mm f/2 with Spectra Coating (S.C.) while "certain references" say all the chrome-nose 35s were S.S.C.; Wikipedia's version list says S.S.C. for them without a citation. Canon's museum pages for (I), (II) and (III) carry no coating suffix at all. Whether the coating changed silently before the 1973 engraving is not known.
  4. Element count on the S.S.C. (II). Canon's museum gives 9 elements in 8 groups for all five breech-lock versions and 10 in 8 for the New FD only; lummukka.com calls the S.S.C. (II) a second optical design and the New FD a third; Wikipedia's version table repeats Canon's counts. Canon's counts are carried. That the (II) is a recomputation rests on the convex front, the f/22 stop, the 25 g weight change and the disappearance of thorium, which Canon's figures and lummukka.com's table agree on.
  5. Which lens was first with a floating element. Canon's page for the S.S.C. (I) says it was the first Canon wide-angle interchangeable lens for SLR with a floating mechanism; mir.com.my credits the FD 24mm f/2.8 S.S.C., marketed the same month, with a floating system too. Canon's statement is the maker's own and is what the historical note rests on.
  6. Holbrook's date code. His concave S.S.C. carries L1105: L is 1971 on Alan Watson Forster's table and the first two digits the month, so November 1971 (Holbrook reads it as October). The lens is engraved S.S.C., which Canon dates to March 1973. Either the code is misread, the lens is a chrome-nose with a replaced front ring, or S.S.C. engraving predates Canon's marketing date, which is what lummukka.com's note on the 1971 brochure leaves open; the evidence here cannot decide.
  7. Radioactivity. Vähälummukka measured 1.31 microsieverts per hour at the front and up to 3 at the breech-lock end with a Geiger counter, about twenty times local background, and infers that the rear element is the thoriated one; a lens carried on the body around the clock would give roughly 26 millisieverts a year on his arithmetic. He found no meaningful difference between the four concave designs. His page, not this one, is the place for the figures.
  8. No US list price was found for any version. The yen prices are the Canon Camera Museum's; the 32,500 yen for the S.S.C. (I) is stated as including the case.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Look at the front glass first: a concave, dished front surface means one of the four thoriated versions (1971–76); a convex front means the S.S.C. (II) of 1976 or the New FD
  • Then the filter ring: chrome with no engraving is 1971–73; black with S.S.C. in red is 1973–79; a turning outer barrel with a square release button is the New FD
  • The minimum aperture confirms it: f/16 on every concave lens, f/22 on the convex S.S.C. (II) and the New FD
  • Yellow or brown glass is thorium, not haze, and only the concave lenses have it

FD 35mm f/2 (I, II, III), chrome nose, concave front:

  • Chrome filter ring, no coating engraved; a concave (hollowed) front surface visible at a glance
  • Thoriated glass: the front group looks yellow to brown on most surviving lenses (lummukka.com)
  • Canon lists three sub-versions: (I) March 1971, 64 mm across; (II) undated, 67 mm across; (III) January 1973, 67 mm across; all 9 elements in 8 groups, 8 blades, f/16, 0.3 m, 55 mm filter, 60 mm long, 420 g, 32,000 yen
  • Version III may carry a black filter ring without the S.S.C. engraving (lummukka.com)

FD 35mm f/2 S.S.C. (I), concave front:

  • Black filter ring with S.S.C. in red, chrome lock button on the aperture ring, and still the concave front
  • Same 9-element, 8-group optics as the chrome nose, still thoriated, still f/16; 370 g against 420 g; 67 x 60 mm; marketed March 1973 at 32,500 yen with case (Canon Camera Museum)
  • Canon's museum page carries the block diagram of this version

FD 35mm f/2 S.S.C. (II), convex front, recomputed:

  • Convex front surface, the plain way to tell it from every earlier FD 35mm f/2
  • Minimum aperture f/22 where all concave lenses stop at f/16
  • 345 g, 65.3 x 60 mm, 55 mm filter; marketed April 1976 at 39,500 yen (Canon Camera Museum)
  • Not radioactive and does not yellow (lummukka.com; s58y's Commons photo description)

New FD 35mm f/2:

  • Bayonet-style mounting: the outer barrel turns, square chrome release button at the base, green A on the aperture ring; no S.S.C. engraving though the coating is S.S.C. (mir.com.my)
  • 52 mm filter, 63 x 46 mm, 245 g, f/22, convex front; marketed December 1979 at 39,500 yen (Canon Camera Museum)
  • Hood BW-52A, cap C-52 (mir.com.my)

Serial-range notes

10001 – 20000 and above
The three chrome-nose sub-versions, as Vesa Vähälummukka reads them from date codes on lenses he has examined: 10001 to 12199 from March 1971, 12200 to 20000 from about May 1971, and 20001 upward from about August 1971. Canon's museum dates version (III) to January 1973 and leaves (II) undated; a first date code and a marketing date need not agree, and no source explains the gap.
50000 upward
The S.S.C. (I), concave and thoriated, from March 1973 on lummukka.com's reading. Any concave-front lens, whatever its number, should be assumed to contain thorium glass.
100000 upward
The S.S.C. (II), convex and thorium-free, from April 1976. Wikipedia's table gives January 1976 for this version against Canon's own April; Canon's page is the one followed here.
any number
Canon FD serial numbers do not encode a date. The rear-plate code does: one letter for the year (A = 1960 through Z = 1985, then A again for 1986) followed by digits whose first one or two are the month, on lenses to 1986. The L1105 on John Holbrook's concave S.S.C. reads as 1971 by that table (he gives October, the table's month digits give November), which would put an S.S.C.-engraved lens more than a year before Canon's March 1973 marketing date; see the table notes.

Specifications

Formula
Inverted-telephoto wide-angle with a floating group; 9 elements in 8 groups on every breech-lock version (1971–79), recomputed as 10 elements in 8 groups for the New FD of 1979
Construction
9 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
67 × 60 mm
Weight
370 g
Filter
55 mm
Years manufactured
1971
Country
Japan
Coating
Chrome-nose lenses unmarked (S.C. per Canon's 1971 brochure as reported by lummukka.com, S.S.C. per other references); S.S.C. engraved in red from March 1973; S.S.C. unmarked on the New FD
Original price
¥32,000 (1971, chrome nose); ¥32,500 with case for the S.S.C. (I) of 1973; ¥39,500 for the S.S.C. (II) of 1976 and again for the New FD of 1979 (today ¥105,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Vignetting
minimal
Flare & ghosting
easy without hood
Coma
minimal
Distortion
very low
Optical formula — Inverted-telephoto wide-angle with a floating group; 9 elements in 8 groups on every breech-lock version (1971–79), recomputed as 10 elements in 8 groups for the New FD of 1979

History

The FD 35mm f/2 was in the first FD catalogue of March 1971, at 32,000 yen, and it stayed the fastest 35 in the FD mount; mir.com.my notes that Canon did not go faster at this focal length until the autofocus EF 35mm f/1.4 L of 1998. Canon’s museum counts six versions. The first three are chrome-nose breech-locks of 1971 to 1973, distinguished by Canon only by their barrel diameter and dates: (I) at 64 mm across from March 1971, (II) at 67 mm and undated, (III) from January 1973. All are 9 elements in 8 groups, eight blades, f/16, 0.3 m close focus, 55 mm filter, 60 mm long and 420 g. All have the concave front surface that collectors call the lens by, and all contain thoriated glass. Vesa Vähälummukka’s table, the only published serial study, starts them at 10001, 12200 and 20001, with first date codes of March, about May and about August 1971.

The S.S.C. (I) of March 1973, 32,500 yen with case, kept the same glass and the concave front and the thorium, lost 50 g to 370 g, and gained the black ring, the red S.S.C. engraving and the chrome lock button on the aperture ring. Canon’s page for it is the one with a design note: the inverted-telephoto layout, negative front group and positive rear, gains astigmatism as it extends for close focus, and this was the first Canon SLR wide-angle to counter that with a floating group moving separately from the focusing group. Vähälummukka starts its numbers at 50000.

In April 1976 the lens was recomputed. The S.S.C. (II), 39,500 yen, has a convex front, stops down to f/22 instead of f/16, weighs 345 g, and contains no thorium. Canon still counts 9 elements in 8 groups, so on paper it looks like the same lens; in the hand the front surface and the aperture scale give it away at once, and Vähälummukka calls it the second optical design and starts it at 100000. The New FD 35mm f/2 of December 1979, at the same 39,500 yen, is a third design: 10 elements in 8 groups, 52 mm filter, 46 mm long, 245 g, which mir.com.my puts as about 25 percent shorter and 29 percent lighter, in the bayonet-style barrel with the square release button.

Reviewers agree that both the concave S.S.C. and the New FD are sharp at f/2 and excellent by f/4, and they disagree about which is better. John Holbrook and Mantas, on the concave, praise centre sharpness wide open, smooth bokeh and good flare control; Mantas finds the edges soften. Tony’s chart tests of the New FD find no visible softness wide open, sharpness across the frame by f/8, very low distortion and colour, and minimal coma and vignetting, while Holbrook, on the New FD, finds it comparable to a modern Sigma at f/2 but easy to flare without a hood. The belief that the thorium lenses are sharper across the frame at all apertures is widespread; Wikipedia records it as a legend that direct comparisons do not bear out, and nothing read here tests it properly.

Buying one: the concave lenses yellow. The thoriated element browns with age through the whole glass, not the coating, and Vähälummukka reports every 1970s example he has seen as distinctly yellow to brown; weeks or months in direct sunlight clears it at least partly, and Holbrook simply corrects the cast in software. The tint costs transmission and neutral colour, and it is the first thing to check, along with whether a seller’s “S.S.C.” is the concave (I) or the convex (II), which differ in price and in radioactivity. Vähälummukka’s Geiger readings put the dose at the rear of the lens at about twenty times background; his page carries the figures and the arithmetic. The convex S.S.C. (II) and the New FD do not yellow. On a New FD check that the square release button springs back and the lens locks and unlocks cleanly; on any breech-lock check that the aperture ring’s chrome button and the rear locking ring move freely. Serial ranges above all rest on one source and should be read as a guide, not a rule.

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 35mm f/2
Canon FD 35mm f/2 with the concave front (huzu1959) — huzu1959, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the FD 35mm f/2
The same lens photographed to show the thorium yellowing (huzu1959) — huzu1959, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the FD 35mm f/2
FD 35mm f/2 S.S.C. (II), the convex, non-radioactive version (s58y) — s58y, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a FD 35mm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $300 across 52 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $250–$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 100 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 28mm f/2 · FD 50mm f/1.4 · FD 55mm f/1.2

Sources (18)

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.