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

FD 50mm f/1.4

Canon · Canon FD · 1971

Known as “Chrome Nose”

Also known as: Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 · FD 50mm 1:1.4 · FD 50mm 1:1.4 S.S.C. · Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C. · Canon FD 50mm F1.4 SSC · New FD 50mm f/1.4 · Canon nFD 50mm f/1.4 · NFD 50mm f/1.4 · キヤノン FD 50mm F1.4 · キヤノン NewFD 50mm F1.4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
FD 50mm f/1.4 — chrome nose, breech-lock Canon FD 1971–1973 — Marketed March 1971 at 22,000 yen (Canon Camera Museum)
FD 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C. (I) — black nose, breech-lock Canon FD 1973–1973 — Marketed March 1973 at 25,500 yen; superseded three months later (Canon Camera Museum)
FD 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C. (II) — black nose, breech-lock, lighter barrel Canon FD 1973–1979 — Marketed June 1973 at 32,000 yen (Canon Camera Museum)
New FD 50mm f/1.4 — bayonet Canon FD 1979 — Marketed June 1979 at 32,000 yen (Canon Camera Museum)
  1. Canon's museum lists two S.S.C. lenses three months apart, both 7 elements in 6 groups, at 350 g / 67 mm and 305 g / 65.3 mm. No source consulted states whether the June 1973 lens is an optical recomputation or a lighter barrel around the same glass. The Noisy Shutter, testing a 370 g chrome nose against a 303 g S.S.C., found the chrome nose marginally better at f/1.4–f/2 and the S.S.C. marginally better at f/2.8–f/8, with the S.S.C. "significantly softer wide open"; that is one pair of lenses and not a version test.
  2. The generation dates are Wikipedia's: chrome nose 1971–73, black barrel with green o 1973–76, green A 1976 on, New FD from 1979 (the article's body says 1979 for the New FD; its mount section says 1978; flynngraphics says 1978 on one page and June 1979 on another). Canon's own marketed date for the New FD 50mm f/1.4 is June 1979, which is what the table uses.
  3. The spec row carries the New FD figures (52 mm filter, f/22, 235 g, 63 x 41 mm), the version made longest and sold most. The breech-lock lenses take a 55 mm filter, stop at f/16 and weigh 305–370 g; the variant table has each.
  4. All prices are Canon's Japanese list prices from the museum: 22,000 yen (March 1971), 25,500 (March 1973), 32,000 (June 1973) and 32,000 (June 1979). No US list price was found.
  5. No production figures and no serial ranges are published for any version by any source consulted, including mir.com.my and Canon Classics.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Chrome front ring means 1971–73; black ring with red S.S.C. means 1973–79 breech-lock; no breech ring and a square release button means New FD, 1979 on
  • Every version is 7 elements in 6 groups with 8 blades and a 0.45 m close focus; the barrel, not the formula, is what changed
  • Filter size is the quick sort: 55 mm on every breech-lock lens, 52 mm on the New FD

FD 50mm f/1.4 — chrome nose, breech-lock:

  • Chrome (unpainted) filter ring and hood bayonet at the front; silver breech-lock ring at the rear
  • No coating engraved on the name ring: the 1971 instruction manual describes Spectra Coating, but the barrel does not say so
  • Green o at the end of the aperture scale for the automatic position, no lock button
  • The breech ring turns freely when the lens is off the camera; the 1973 lenses latch it
  • 370 g, 66 x 49 mm, 55 mm filter, f/16 minimum, 8 blades
  • Date code on the rear plate begins L (1971), M (1972) or N (1973)

FD 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C. (I) — black nose, breech-lock:

  • Black filter ring; S.S.C. engraved in red on the name ring
  • Breech ring latched when the lens is off the body; chrome lock button beside the green o on the aperture ring
  • 350 g and 67 mm across, the heaviest and widest S.S.C. lens; otherwise the same 55 mm filter, f/16 and 0.45 m as the chrome nose

FD 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C. (II) — black nose, breech-lock, lighter barrel:

  • S.S.C. in red on the name ring; 305 g and 65.3 mm across against the 350 g and 67 mm of the (I)
  • Green o and chrome lock button on lenses to about 1976, green A and a black button after (Wikipedia's third generation)
  • 55 mm filter, f/16 minimum, 0.45 m close focus, 8 blades, 49 mm long

New FD 50mm f/1.4 — bayonet:

  • No breech ring: the whole barrel turns to mount, and a square silver release button sits at the base
  • No coating on the name ring at all (every New FD lens except the 50mm f/1.8 is S.S.C.)
  • 52 mm filter instead of 55, f/22 minimum instead of f/16, 235 g instead of 305, 41 mm long instead of 49
  • Plastic aperture ring on a metal barrel; BS-52 bayonet hood

Serial-range notes

letter plus three or four digits, stamped on the rear plate
Canon FD lenses carry no serial-range record of the Nikon kind, but they do carry a date code on the rear mounting plate. To mid-1986 it is one letter for the year (A = 1960, so L = 1971, N = 1973, T = 1979, X = 1983) followed by the month as one or two digits and one or two digits of unknown meaning: N501 is May 1973. From August 1986 the code is two letters, factory then year (U = Utsunomiya, F = Fukushima, O = Oita; A = 1986 again), then four digits with the month first. The code dates manufacture or final inspection, not sale.
L and M codes
A 50mm f/1.4 dated 1971 or 1972 is a chrome-nose lens. mir.com.my records a collector's example dated October 1972 with the chrome ring, no coating marking and no breech latch.
N codes
1973 is the ambiguous year: chrome-nose lenses were still leaving the factory, the S.S.C. (I) ran from March and the (II) from June. The front ring and the weight separate them; the date code alone does not.

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss derivative, 7 elements in 6 groups on every version
Construction
7 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/1.4–f/22
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
0.45 m
Dimensions
63 × 41 mm
Weight
235 g
Filter
52 mm
Years manufactured
1971
Country
Japan
Coating
Spectra Coating on the chrome nose (1971 manual, via mir.com.my), unmarked; S.S.C. engraved in red from March 1973; S.S.C. unmarked on the New FD
Original price
¥22,000 (1971, chrome nose); ¥32,000 (1973 S.S.C. II and 1979 New FD) (today ¥72,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
halo wide open
Vignetting
strong at f/1.4
Flare & ghosting
middling
Distortion
slight barrel
Optical formula — Double Gauss derivative, 7 elements in 6 groups on every version

History

The 50mm f/1.4 arrived with the F-1 in March 1971 as the fast standard lens of the new FD mount, descended from the FL 50mm f/1.4 that Canon had sold through the 1960s. Seven elements in six groups, eight blades, 0.45 m close focus: those figures never changed across eighteen years and four versions, which is why the lens is identified by its barrel rather than its glass. The first version has a chrome filter ring and hood bayonet, a green o on the aperture ring for the automatic setting, and a breech ring that spins freely off the camera. Its coating was Spectra Coating according to the 1971 manual, but nothing on the lens says so.

In March 1973 Canon put S.S.C. on the name ring in red, painted the front ring black, latched the breech ring and added a chrome lock button by the green o. Canon’s museum records two of these S.S.C. lenses, one marketed in March at 350 g and 25,500 yen, one in June at 305 g and 32,000 yen, both with the same construction. The June lens is the one that stayed in production to 1979 and the one most sellers have; the March lens is heavier and a millimetre or two wider, and no source consulted says what else was different. Around 1976 the green o became a green A and the lock button turned black.

The New FD of June 1979 is a different object around the same optical layout: 235 g against 305, 41 mm long against 49, a 52 mm filter thread in place of 55, f/22 in place of f/16, and no breech ring at all. The whole barrel turns to mount and a square silver button at the base releases it. Canon’s museum calls it the standard lens of standard lenses and says its colour balance is virtually identical to the ISO reference value; mir.com.my adds that the colour balance of the rest of the FD range was measured against it, and that public institutions used it for optical measurement.

Reviewers largely agree on the character. Wide open there is a halo of longitudinal colour and spherical aberration, and the corners are weak; by f/2 it sharpens and by f/5.6 or f/8 it is excellent across the frame. Vignetting is heavy at f/1.4 and gone by f/2.8. Flare handling is ordinary. Phillip Reeve rates the New FD the best value among fast 50s; analog.cafe found a forty-year-old S.S.C. still performing as new. The one direct comparison of versions, at The Noisy Shutter, found the chrome nose slightly better at f/1.4 and f/2 and the S.S.C. slightly better from f/2.8, on one pair of lenses.

Buying: the breech-lock lenses are checked for haze on the cemented surfaces and fungus, which the repair blog that overhauled an S.S.C. (I) found often enough to call some examples junk; on the New FD the release button should spring back and the barrel should lock with a click, since the bayonet action is the part that has no equivalent on the older lenses. Filter size sorts the versions in a second, 55 mm breech-lock or 52 mm New FD, and the date code on the rear plate gives the year: L for 1971, N for 1973, T for 1979. No serial ranges or production totals are published for any version.

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 50mm f/1.4
FD 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C., breech-lock (s58y) — s58y, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the FD 50mm f/1.4
FD 50mm f/1.4, breech-lock (Hiyotada) — Hiyotada, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)
Sample photo taken with the FD 50mm f/1.4
New FD 50mm f/1.4 (Hiyotada) — Hiyotada, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a FD 50mm f/1.4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $110 across 58 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $65–$140). First day tracked.

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

Show 139 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 35mm f/2 · FD 50mm f/1.2 / f/1.2 L · FD 50mm f/1.8 · FD 55mm f/1.2 · FD 85mm f/1.8

Sources (15)

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.