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

FD 50mm f/1.2 / f/1.2 L

Canon · Canon FD · 1980

Also known as: Canon FD 50mm f/1.2 · Canon FD 50mm f/1.2 L · Canon New FD 50mm f/1.2L · FD 50mm 1:1.2 · FD 50mm 1:1.2 L · NFD 50mm f/1.2 · NFD 50mm f/1.2L · Canon nFD 50mm f/1.2 · キヤノン NewFD 50mm F1.2 · キヤノン NewFD 50mm F1.2L

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
New FD 50mm f/1.2 L — aspherical · 8 elements in 6 groups, one aspherical element, S.S.C. Canon FD 1980 — Marketed October 1980 at 90,000 yen (Canon Camera Museum)
New FD 50mm f/1.2 — spherical · 7 elements in 6 groups, all spherical, high-refractive-index glass, S.S.C. Canon FD 1980 — Marketed December 1980 at 52,000 yen (Canon Camera Museum)
  1. Two lenses, one page, because they share a focal length and a maximum aperture and differ in glass: the L has an eighth element and an aspherical surface, the plain f/1.2 has seven spherical elements. Canon's museum lists them as separate products two months apart, the L first. The FD 55mm f/1.2 lenses that preceded them are a different family with their own page.
  2. The spec row carries what the two share: 6 groups, 8 blades, f/16, 0.5 m, 52 mm filter, 65.3 mm diameter. Elements, length and weight differ and sit in the variant table. The price field carries the plain f/1.2 at 52,000 yen; the L was 90,000 yen, 1.7 times as much.
  3. Radojuva gives 311 g for the plain f/1.2 against Canon's 315 g; a weighed sample against a catalogue figure, and not a discrepancy worth more than this line.
  4. The mir.com.my page gives the L a maximum focus scale of 30 m and the f/1.2 the same, which is the distance-scale engraving, not a limit. Neither has any production figure published.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Red ring and L means the aspherical lens, 380 g; no ring means the spherical lens, 315 g. Both are New FD with the square release button; there was never a breech-lock 50mm f/1.2
  • Both take a 52 mm filter and the BS-52 hood, focus to 0.5 m and stop down to f/16

New FD 50mm f/1.2 L — aspherical:

  • Red ring at the front of the barrel and L on the name ring
  • 380 g and 50.5 mm long against 315 g and 45.6 mm for the plain f/1.2; both 65.3 mm across with a 52 mm filter
  • Square silver release button, no breech ring, no coating engraved: the New FD pattern
  • 8 blades, f/16 minimum, 0.5 m close focus, BS-52 bayonet hood

New FD 50mm f/1.2 — spherical:

  • No red ring and no L: a black New FD barrel that looks like a slightly deeper 50mm f/1.4
  • 315 g, 65.3 x 45.6 mm, 52 mm filter, 8 blades, f/16, 0.5 m
  • Two months younger than the L: marketed December 1980

Serial-range notes

letter plus three or four digits, then two letters plus four digits
No serial ranges are published for either lens. Both carry Canon's date code on the rear mounting plate: to mid-1986 one year letter (U = 1980, V = 1981, W = 1982, X = 1983, Y = 1984, Z = 1985) followed by the month and one or two further digits; from August 1986 a factory letter (U = Utsunomiya, F = Fukushima, O = Oita) and a year letter (A = 1986, B = 1987, and so on) then four digits with the month first. A 50mm f/1.2 of either kind is therefore a U-code lens or later, and the earliest carry a U followed by 10, 11 or 12 for the month.

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss derivative: 7 elements in 6 groups on the f/1.2, 8 elements in 6 groups with one aspherical surface on the f/1.2 L
Construction
6 groups
Aperture range
f/1.2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
0.5 m
Dimensions
65.3 mm diameter
Filter
52 mm
Years manufactured
1980
Country
Japan
Coating
S.S.C. on both, unmarked on the barrel as on every New FD lens
Original price
¥52,000 (1980, f/1.2); ¥90,000 (1980, f/1.2 L) (today ¥77,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
strong wide open
Spherical aberration
heavy on f/1.2

History

Canon sold two 50mm f/1.2 lenses in the FD mount, both New FD, both launched at the end of 1980, and and both successors to the 55mm f/1.2 lenses that mir.com.my files as the older versions. The L came first, marketed in October 1980 at 90,000 yen: eight elements in six groups with one aspherical element, the red ring at the front and the L on the name ring. The plain f/1.2 followed in December at 52,000 yen: seven elements in six groups, no aspherical surface, and by mir.com.my’s account a design grown out of the 50mm f/1.4 with new high-index glass to open it up two-thirds of a stop. Neither was ever made as a breech-lock lens.

They share everything a buyer touches: 52 mm filter, BS-52 hood, eight blades, f/16 at the small end, 0.5 m close focus, a 65.3 mm barrel with the New FD’s square silver release button. The L is 5 mm longer and 65 g heavier, 380 g against 315. Canon’s museum gives no description of either; mir.com.my says the L’s aspherical element exists to remove the flare fast lenses show at full aperture, and that the plain f/1.2’s high-index elements give it high contrast and sharpness.

The plain lens is the one most people have reviewed, because it costs a fraction of the L. The verdicts converge: soft at f/1.2 with heavy spherical aberration and strong colour fringing, better by f/2, sharp and contrasty by f/4, and from there rendering like a modern lens. Lens Legend calls it excellent value and says the f/1.2 stop rarely produces the photograph anyone wanted; Lens QA Works calls it unfairly shadowed by the L and its bokeh amazing; Radojuva ranks it among the best of the older f/1.2 primes and warns that a Canon DSLR needs a glass-element adapter that costs quality. The L has fewer written reviews. GotFilm’s first look found it extremely sharp with backgrounds less soft than expected from the aspherical glass; the user reviews at Canon Classics split between excellent at wide apertures and only OK, with more than one saying the older 55mm f/1.2 Aspherical is the better lens at f/1.2.

Buying is simple by FD standards. The red ring settles which lens it is, the date code on the rear plate settles the year, U for 1980 and V for 1981 onward, and the New FD lock should click home and release cleanly on the button. No production figure, no serial range and no US list price has been found for either.

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 wanted — shot with a FD 50mm f/1.2 / f/1.2 L? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $700 across 33 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $640–$830). First day tracked.

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

Show 45 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 50mm f/1.4 · FD 50mm f/1.8 · FD 55mm f/1.2 · FD 85mm f/1.2 Aspherical / L

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.