Vintage
CANON FD 100-200mm 1:5.6 S.C.
Telephoto Zoom Lens

s/n: 237718, date code: S1012 (Oct. 1978)

Used, almost 50 years old, so signs of use are visible.
See the pictures please.
Signs of wear and minimal scratches on the exterior.
There are some dust and fungus in the interior, but this is not visible in the sample pictures.
The sample pictures were taken by a NIKON D5600 camera with a Canon FD/Nikon F adapter.
Shipping by Royal Mail

Canon FD 100-200mm f/5.6 Telephoto Zoom Lens

(source: Gemini)

This is a manual focus telephoto zoom lens designed for the Canon FD mount system.

Specifications:

  • Focal Length: 100-200mm

  • Maximum Aperture: f/5.6 (constant throughout the zoom range)

  • Optical Construction: 8 elements in 5 groups

  • Aperture Blades: 8 (some sources mention 6 for earlier versions, but the S.C. version typically has 8 blades)

  • Minimum Aperture: f/22 (some sources mention f/32)

  • Angle of View: 24°–12°

  • Closest Focusing Distance: 2.5 m (8.2 ft)

  • Maximum Magnification: 1:10.4 (some sources mention 0.1X or 0.15X at 100mm; 0.3X at 200mm)

  • Filter Thread Size: 55 mm (some sources mention 52mm, but the S.C. version usually has 55mm)

  • Length: 176.1 mm (some sources mention 172.2 mm or 175 mm)

  • Diameter: 66.1 mm

  • Weight: 778 grams (some sources mention 710g or 768g)

  • Optical Coating: S.C. (Spectra Coating) for improved contrast and reduced flare.

  • Zoom Type: One-touch (push-pull) zoom/focus

  • Built-in Lens Hood: Yes, retractable

  • Mount: Canon FD

S.C. (Spectra Coating)

When light passes through a lens, some of it is naturally reflected by each glass-to-air surface. This reflection can lead to several undesirable effects in your photographs:

  1. Flare: Bright spots, streaks, or general haze across the image, often caused by strong light sources hitting the lens directly or indirectly.

  2. Ghosting: Distinctive "ghost" images of bright lights, typically appearing as hexagons or circles corresponding to the shape of the aperture.

  3. Reduced Contrast and Color Saturation: Reflected light scattered within the lens reduces the overall clarity and vibrancy of the image.

To combat these issues, lens manufacturers apply thin layers of anti-reflective coatings to the lens surfaces. These coatings work by using the principle of light interference. By carefully controlling the thickness and refractive index of these layers, they cause reflected light waves to cancel each other out, thereby allowing more light to pass through the lens and reducing internal reflections.

Canon's "Spectra Coating" (S.C.) was their proprietary technology for this process. It was a significant improvement over uncoated lenses, effectively reducing flare and ghosting and improving light transmission, which in turn led to better contrast and more accurate color reproduction.

It's important to note that while S.C. was an advanced coating for its time, Canon later developed S.S.C. (Super Spectra Coating), which was a more advanced multi-layer coating system. Generally, S.S.C. offered even better performance in reducing reflections across a wider range of wavelengths compared to S.C. lenses. However, S.C. lenses still provide excellent optical quality, especially for their vintage.