Canon 55mm f1.2 m4-3 (4 of 4)

I was half heartedly looking at the Voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95 a few weeks ago as my next m4/3 prime lens purchase and that got me thinking about the Canon 55mm f1.2 prime lens I have in my EOS-M kit. At around $300 used the Canon FD 55mm f1.2 is about $700 less than the Voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95 and not extremely far off in terms of focal length. Add to that a $17 adapter and you’ve got a pretty decent deal on a manual focus prime lens for the GH4.

Canon 55mm f1.2 m4-3 (2 of 4)

Thanks to the more compact design of FD lenses, the Canon 55mm f1.2 prime lens avoids look like an elephant riding a unicycle when attached to the GH4 body. Even with the inch or so added by the adapter, the Canon 55mm f1.2 isn’t much larger than the Voigtlander 25mm f0.95. If you do decide to use larger FD lenses the adapter has a nice little mounting plate on the bottom that reduces the strain on the GH4. That’s a good thing to have if you’re using something like the Canon FD 35-105 f3.5 lens.

Another thing to note is that you always have the option of adding a Metabones FD to M4/3 adapter in the future. That reduces the focal length by .71x (78mm instead of a 110mm on an m4/3 body), increases the max aperture by an extra stop, and improves image quality which puts the 55mm f1.2 on a level playing field with the Voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95 and still save you a few hundred dollars.

The Canon 55mm f1.2 prime lens I have is one of the older versions (if I remember correctly) which is why the focus ring looks a little different. This older version is supposed to be slightly softer wide open and lacks a few lens coatings that were added to lenses made after 1973. Still, for the price it’s definitely worth considering. If you’d like a few image samples of the 55mm f1.2 you can find more info here in this earlier post.

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