A rare Canon FD 24mm f/1.4 S.S.C. Aspherical hits the next Wetzlar Camera Auction with a starting bid of €6,000

[Rivermist]

Going by the price, not many remain. Unfortunately, those bits of information are extremely hard to come by outside of Leica.

It was a mass-produced lens, but we don't even know the exact number of 1200mm f/5.6L lenses that were made. Even that one has a large range of estimates.

There are two on ebay for $16,000+

Not sure about mass-produced, in current dollars the price was equivalent of about $8,000, hardly a lens that every amateur was going to jump on.
It has in my book the best mount with the Canon 1st generation FD spring-mounted bayonet that moved the ring enough to secure the lens when the lens was pushed into the body, and had zero friction so no wear on the interface.

 

[fragilemachinery]

Just FYI: photographers aren't the ones driving sky-high prices for the rare FD's, it's cinema rental houses. It's become trendy to re-house FD primes into modern cinema housings (Made by TLS, Zero Optik, and the like), because they have a very similar look to the even rarer Canon K35's, which are themselves in style since the release of the Alexa Mini LF and similar full-frame cinema cameras. The 24mm 1.4 is *particularly* expensive now because they simply didn't make that many of them, and unless you can get your hands on one, you can't make a set with reasonably consistent apertures.
I've seen re-housed FD sets with the 24mm 1.4 sell for $200k+, and I'm sure this one will go into a similar set.

 

[Maximilian]

Ah, yes…the look.

Like the sound. There are people who prefer listening to music on vinyl, and think it sounds better than the ‘cold and clinical’ remastered, digitized, lossless audio.

I am not one of those people. I like to hear snap, crackle, and pop from my breakfast cereal, not my speakers.

The sound... 100% there.
I was so happy, to retire my vinyl in late 80ies. Never regretted to never again remix my Isopropanol cleaning liquids.
Went several times to the HighEnd fair in Munich. Never found an exhibitor to show me a "better" sound coming from a small diamond scratching out a groove than CD or HighRes.
Edit: And as @kten stated out, it is more about the sound engineer and the master than the playback equipment.

The look...
I can understand people to collect things. But as others stated, I prefer using them.

 

[ColdBrewCine]

Just to add one to what someone else already said. The big thing with the 24mm 1.4 is two companies Zero Optik and TLS have found a way to modify the 24mm 1.4 to make it an 18mm 1.4 (full frame coverage). The only other wide angle options in that FD set are the 20mm 2.8 and 17mm 4. This is a huge deal for vintage cinema lenses. Full sets of converted FD's that include this converted lens, or better two of them to round out the set, are listing for $150k.

 

[Del Paso]

According to the interwebs that $1300.00 original selling price would be about $7000.00 in today’s dollars. I can’t imagine there were too many people willing and able to plunk that down back then. The U.S. was in a recession with double-digit inflation then too. No wonder it’s so rare.

I guess there's another reason for its rarity, the extreme difficulty in- mostly manually- grinding and polishing asphericals in the seventies. Leica, in the sixties, encountered huge issues, namely finding qualified experts, producing the specific glass, polishing, achieving a constant quality etc...
In the end they succeeded, but for future asphericals, CAM or glass-pressing methods were preferred, also by Canon.
You won't find a Noctilux1,2/50 for less than 20000 Euro. And that would be a bargain and a real foolproof investment...

 

[Skux]

Yeah $15k is a drop in the bucket next to what production companies will pay for cinema glass. I hope this 24mm gets a second life rehoused for filmmaking.

 

[navastronia]

Cinematographers and movie studios buy these and have them rehoused into cinema lenses. I have one. It’s quite lovely. I didn’t pay those prices though. It’s gotten quite mad. I have one of every FD Prime, and now I’m afraid to use most of them due to how much they have skyrocketed in value. I’ve had insane offers for my set. Definitely tempted in this economy…

Indeed, I watched a video about it yesterday and the look is quite good for cinematography. I was surprised.

 

[justaCanonuser]

I don’t really get it. There’s an EF 24/1.4L II that retails for $1550 and no doubt has better IQ. Why buy a worse lens for 10x the cost to ‘collect’ it. Lenses should be used to take pictures.

I guess even if you scan a vintage gear collector's head in the highest resolution MRI you won't find any answer to this question

 

[cayenne]

Ah, yes…the look.

Like the sound. There are people who prefer listening to music on vinyl, and think it sounds better than the ‘cold and clinical’ remastered, digitized, lossless audio.

I am not one of those people. I like to hear snap, crackle, and pop from my breakfast cereal, not my speakers.

Vinyl has it's place.....I listen to most of my stuff as high of a quality digital as I can...
BUT...I prefer my amplifiers to be analog tube amps....
Same for my guitar amps...


Stereos that GLOW are cool....

 

[Blue Zurich]

The sound... 100% there.
I was so happy, to retire my vinyl in late 80ies. Never regretted to never again remix my Isopropanol cleaning liquids.
Went several times to the HighEnd fair in Munich. Never found an exhibitor to show me a "better" sound coming from a small diamond scratching out a groove than CD or HighRes.
Edit: And as @kten stated out, it is more about the sound engineer and the master than the playback equipment.

The look...
I can understand people to collect things. But as others stated, I prefer using them.

OR making them!

Make your own records with this new turntable | Cult of Mac

 

[Del Paso]

Starting price at the Leitz Photographica Auction for the Leica M Noctilux 1,2/50 prototype: Euro 200000... Yes, it's the starting price!!!
Estimate is 400000 to 500000.
This Canon 24mm is a real bargain

 

[Ozarker]

Desire/scarcity=irrational exuberance.

I've been there.

 

[Ozarker]

Starting price at the Leitz Photographica Auction for the Leica M Noctilux 1,2/50 prototype: Euro 200000... Yes, it's the starting price!!!
Estimate is 400000 to 500000.
This Canon 24mm is a real bargain

I should buy them all and destroy all but one.

 

[Del Paso]

This 24 asph. sold for Euro15000 plus (my guess) 20% to the auctioneer.

 

[Del Paso]

I should buy them all and destroy all but one.

But destroying such beautiful lenses would register as a new capital sin, and you as Canon Hateboy!

 

[TAF]

I don’t really get it. There’s an EF 24/1.4L II that retails for $1550 and no doubt has better IQ. Why buy a worse lens for 10x the cost to ‘collect’ it. Lenses should be used to take pictures.

I’d actually like to see a side by side comparison of the two.

And that is the nice thing about lenses; they don’t lose value when you use them.

 

[TAF]

Cinematographers and movie studios buy these and have them rehoused into cinema lenses. I have one. It’s quite lovely. I didn’t pay those prices though. It’s gotten quite mad. I have one of every FD Prime, and now I’m afraid to use most of them due to how much they have skyrocketed in value. I’ve had insane offers for my set. Definitely tempted in this economy…

But before you sell, you owe it to the CR community to get an adapter for your R6 and shoot something nice with each one. Then the same thing with you RF lens(es). So we can all compare. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover that we should all go back to FD lenses and your collection will be worth even more.

 

[CanonGrunt]

But before you sell, you owe it to the CR community to get an adapter for your R6 and shoot something nice with each one. Then the same thing with you RF lens(es). So we can all compare. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover that we should all go back to FD lenses and your collection will be worth even more.

Oh I’m doing just that. On my R6 and C70. Also, i have put a few pics in the lens galleries already. I’m going to do a video or something with each one.

 

[TAF]

Oh I’m doing just that. On my R6 and C70. Also, i have put a few pics in the lens galleries already. I’m going to do a video or something with each one.

Awesome. Thank you very much!

 

[CanonGrunt]

Awesome. Thank you very much!

Here‘s one of the horses. Very dreamy look.