Dear FD heads, There's a store in the UK that can evidently still get some BRAND NEW FD lenses (they import from Singapore). They list as available:

100-300mm f5.6 FD L[Canon] £450.00 14mm f2.8 FD L[Canon] £1,750.00 24mm f2 FD[Canon] £450.00 28mm f2 FD[Canon] £349.00 35mm f2.8 FD Tilt & Shift[Canon] £1,150.00 500mm f4.5 FD L[Canon] £3,399.00 500mm f8 FD Reflex[Canon] £349.00

They're details are WWW.ffordes.com. Tel (0 44) 1463 783850.

Best wishes Steve

-- Steve Phillipps (steve@redvixen.freeserve.co.uk), January 29, 2002

Answers

What do you think? Is this an old stock lot, or do you really belive that Canon has resumed the production of FD-lenses. I think tey were discontinued in the early ninties

JomarH

-- Jomar Haktorson (jomarh@online.no), January 30, 2002.

Jomarh, They were certainly discontinued, but the guys at Ffordes tell me that they have a supplier in Singapore who still has a small stock of lenses that were obviously brought in and then not sold. They are a reputable firm and I have no reason to doubt their claim.

Steve

-- Steve Phillipps (steve@redvixen.freeserve.co.uk), January 30, 2002.

Unsold stock of FD lenses is not so surprising. The B&H Used Dept. has them in the B&H catalogue. Canon had committed to supporting the FD line (certainly the T90) up until recently -- some time in 2000, or thereabouts -- and had certainly manufactured certain lenses in anticipation of a need by FD shooters to cover the decade or so of promised support after FD production ceased.

The last FD lenses built, those made to stock up for the ten years of extended support, tended to be high-end and exotic models such as large telephotos, L-series glass, the tilt-shift 35mm, and so on. Canon were most sensitive about possible accusations they had let down their professional user base, so these are the lenses the made sure would be available.

What you won't find new and unsold are standard lenses and cheaper zooms. Even during the extended support period, gripes about a lack of 50mm lenses would probably be coming from whining amateur shooters who could be safely ignored.

Note that prices for new-in-the-box lenses are often significantly higher than even for lenses in comparable condition on eBay -- which is remarkable because crazy eBay bidders tend to drive prices up on almost everything they see.

-- Robert Segal (robertsegal@juno.com), January 31, 2002.

How will you cinsider these lenses compared to "fresh" new lenses. It is a well known fact that lenses need exercise. These lenses have laid unused in their boxes for ten years. They may look good, but may be you would be better off buying av nicely amateur used lens.

-- Jomar Haktorson (jomarh_no@yahoo.com), January 31, 2002.

Having been to Singapore four times since 1998 I can vouch for there being "new-in-box" Canon FD lenses. Old stock, almost certainly. The one I saw most often was the 500/8 reflex.

-- Bill Salati (wsalati@hotmail.com), February 02, 2002.