Canon FL 28mm 3.5

[truls]

The funniest thing, I bought a Canon FL lens from the bay. The seller clearly stated the lens is full of fungus, haze, dust and other heavy dirt... He had several high quality Canon FD and FL lenses for sale. As I studied his pictures, the lenses looked quite clean to me, so I ordered only the FL 28mm, as it looked very clean. Today the lens arrived, and it is clean as a new polished car.



It is not a fast lens, but I think somewhat underrated. The lens has a manual/auto switch, a surprice was metering is done with fully open aperture, and the camera closes down to selected aperture when firing. I thought one had to meter stopped down, but I was wrong, or does some of you have other information about Canon AE1 and old FL lenses?

[Stephen]

In theory all Canon FL lenses on an AE-1 body should work stopped down metering mode only....at least according to Canon, and from memory selling them.
Stephen.

[Berndt]

I love this lens. I often used it as a "standard frame lens" on my GH1. Here a picture of a cup of Cappuccino, taken with it

[truls]

Yum, I love the coffee Picture, Sharp and creamy!
When metering stopped Down, the camera suggest f8 if I meter stopped to f11, and vice versa, strange. Metering fully open i get correct f-stop, compared to other cameras.

[casualcollector]

Metering at full aperture with a "stop down" lens is like chasing your tail. The FD lenses have a stud on the rear surface that calibrates the meter for the maximum aperture of the lens. The meter has to be informed if it's measuring through an aperture of f-1.4 or f-3.5. The FL lenses had no stud to calibrate the meter. Your 28mm may be working just by lucky coincidence.