What's your oldest Canon EF lens?

[paul13walnut5]

Yep it's a nice little lens, second hand values getting very silly now, nearly as much as 50mm f1.4 yet out of parts for repair.

Seems to have a cult status these days.

 

[mrsfotografie]

I still have the orginal 35-80 that came with an old film Rebel-S. Also have two old zooms from that era... are they 70-200 or 80-200... plastic mount stuff. Old. Still work fine! The one zoom totally clouded on an early morning outing, and when it cleared up... a sort of residue was left behind on one of the elements. Not worth fixing, so I bought another for $99 new. Ha~ The flare caused by the residue makes that zoom "perfect" for portraiture now. Sort of like a Softar I from Zeiss.

Oldest metal mount lens... 28/2.8. My 50/1.4 focus died and that was replaced too.... but the 28's been doing well since the mid 1990's.

Your clouded zoom gives an interesting angle to the story, I didn't know about the Softar filters. Thanks

 

[Kernuak]

My oldest EF lens must be an EF 28-80 3.5-5.6 (MkI). It doesn't appear to have a date code, but the MkII came out in 2004. I got it when I was looking to experiment with slide film a few years ago and it came with an old Canon EOS 500N.

Me too, that's my oldest lens, kitted with the 500n, and the reviews reckon it's a cracking lens, but Canon ruined it with a MkII version.

Perhaps I should try it out. The build quality is pretty awful, but then so was my first Tamron lens and the optical quality on that was pretty good for the price. I'm sort of spoiled by my 24mm MkII and 50 f/1.4 though.

 

[BozillaNZ]

EF 50 1.8 MK I, Date code UB which means 1987

But I got rid of it because it had a nasty yellow-greenish color cast on the images. Maybe the glass has yellowed.

 

[mrsfotografie]

EF 50 1.8 MK I, Date code UB which means 1987

But I got rid of it because it had a nasty yellow-greenish color cast on the images. Maybe the glass has yellowed.

First time I've heard of this, has it perhaps been used much in strong sunlight?

 

[Viggo]

My 35 L is a feburary 2004, and it's one of the best lenses I have owned with no issues. And still looks brand new. Previous owner must've treated it like one of his kids.

 

[BLFPhoto]

My dad still has my original 50mm f/1.8 Mk I, which I bought in 1989 along with my first Canon EOS 650 camera. I had owned minor Nikon kit up to that point, but when Canon jumped out with AF, I jumped to them. That Mark I has traveled around the world and hit 6 of the continents with me while in the military. I'll never sell it, but my dad is using it these days on my old 40D.

 

[TLN]

Canon EF 80-200/2.8L from the first EOS line in 1989. My lens manufactures in 1994, I believe and it works like a charm.
It was later replaced with 70-200/2.8, so this is quite rare lens.

 

[Stormer]

Hi all.
My EF50mm f1.8 is stamped UB0300. (Manufactured March 1987)
Unbelievably, this lens is in brand new condition. I recently bought it complete with an EOS 620 camera, the original shipping plastic protector tape was still inside the camera. I paid the seller a total of US $100 for the camera and lens and sold my pure plastic "nifty fifty" for US $65.
The story the seller gave me is that his late father had bought this camera as a spare and it had been packed away in a cupboard ever since.

 

[Jon Gilchrist]

I have a 50/1.8 Mk 1 with a date code UB0200, so that's February of 1987. Pristine condition.

It's for sale if anyone is interested.

 

[fugu82]

I have the 28-80 that possibly came with my Elan IIE [and whatever happened to eye-controlled AF? I thought it was pretty cool]. It's stamped with 8107536B, which I can't decode.

 

[AlanF]

I have a 50/1.8 Mk 1 with a date code UB0200, so that's February of 1987. Pristine condition.

It's for sale if anyone is interested.

+1 Mine is also UB0200. It looks even more pristine, if that's possible, than yours.

 

[leftnose]

A 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 that I got in about 1996 as the kit lens with my A2. Then I got a 100-300 f/4-5.6 about a year later and a couple after that, I bought a 35/2. Still have all three. Don't use the zooms anymore but the 35 gets regular use on my 5D3. I didn't like it too much on my 5D2 as I could never get satisfactory AF, even with AFMA, but the lens has come back to life on my 5D3 and focuses spot on. Great little travel lens.

 

[RLPhoto]

My 135L is from 2008. It was my first L lens and hasn't had the easiest life.

 

[lol]

I don't have it any more, but I used to have an EF 300mm f/2.8 which dated from November 1987. It looked it too, being "well used". Got the Sigma 120-300 OS now and that does everything it did and more.

 

[michi]

I also have a 50mm 1.8. Date code UC0402, so April 1988. Bought it with a A2e in Europe. In 1988 I think. Lens is in near mint condition even though I used it until about two years ago when I bought a 50 1.4 while they were on sale. Yeah, it's loud, but that's about the only drawback (until Canon comes out with their next gen 50mm lenses).

I also have a 70-210 f4 which I bought maybe a year later, but it's on loan with a cousin and I don't know the date code. It's also has pretty poor image quality, so I don't miss it...

 

[KyleSTL]

I'll have to check the pictures that I took when I sold my 28mm f/2.8 and 50mmf/1.8, I want to say at least one of them had a UB code.

 

[jsexton]

50mm 1.8 I bought new in 1984 with my "Olympic Edition" AE-1 Program. Still have the camera too

 

[RGF]

My 3 oldest canon lens are

180 macro UW (thought I bought in 2000 - so code date implies 1983!)
300 F2.8 IS - no code I could find
500 F4 IS - again could not find the code

 

[tron]

50mm 1.8 I bought new in 1984 with my "Olympic Edition" AE-1 Program. Still have the camera too

OP's question was about EF lenses. The lens you mention is obviously FD.

However, you reminded me of the days that I was (ignorant and) about ready for my first SLR. It was 1981 and I was thinking Canon A-1 when the salesman talked me into getting Konica Autoreflex TC. However, when I lost (literally) a Sigma 70-210 a friend talked me into changing system in general (I only had the Konica with a 40mm 1.8). So I got EOS 620 with 35-105 f/3.5-4.5 100-300 5.6 and 420EZ.