The 5 Best Canon T80 Camera Lenses
The T80 is a great camera.
If you don’t have a lens or desire a new lens, this page will talk about the top 5 lenses to use with your T80 camera.
Additional details are below, but if you’re limited on time, below is the list:
- Kit Lens - Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 (eBay)
- Wide Angle Lens - Canon FD 28mm f/3.5 (Amazon)
- Portrait Lens - Canon FD 100mm f/2.8 (Amazon)
- Zoom Lens - Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/3.5 (eBay)
- Macro Lens - Vivitar 90mm f/2.8 (eBay)
Kit Lens and Standard Primes
Canon FD 50mm f/1.8
The Canon FD 50mm F/1.8 lens was the “kit Lens” often sold with the T80. The 50mm f1.8 is plentiful, has terrific image quality, and is cheap.
- The “classic” setup as it can be considered the original kit lens.
- Unbeatable value.
- Light and compact.
- Widely available and easy to find in good condition.
- Uses 55mm filter threads.
Check a variety of places to find the best condition and price.
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For the 50mm focal length of photography, the 50mm focal length is a fantastic choice. The areas of photography encompass architecture, casual use, travel, street, portraits, and landscapes. This is the most common focal length that is used with the T80.
In terms of weight and size, the lens is small, well balanced, and light. Based on on the version of the lens, it will weigh between 170-305g. If you want the lightest lens, buy a new FD version.
There are 2 faster versions of the 50mm lens in a FD mount.
Canon FD 50mm f/1.4
The Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 is 2/3 of a stop faster, but that comes at the cost of additional weight. It is more expensive than the f1.8, but not by much.
- Excellent image quality.
- Optical multi-coatings.
- Fairly easy to find in good condition.
- Larger and heavier than the f/1.8.
There are four copies of the 50mm f/1.4. The “new FD” version is the newest and lightest out of the choices.
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This lens is bulky, hefty, and very hard to focus lens. Shot wide open, photographs will not be sharp. Stopped down, you’re not going to see a huge difference between it and the f/1.8 or f/1.4.
The two versions of the lens are high-priced. Optical quality is not why the lens is expensive. People yearn for the lens due to collectibility and rarity.
Alternative Standard Lenses
If the 50mm focal length isn’t what you are searching for, here are other possibilities. You should expect to pay additional money than you normally would for a 50mm lens of comparable speed.
- Canon FD 35mm f/2 SSC
- Canon FD 35mm f/2.8
- Canon FD 35mm f/3.5
- Canon FD 55mm f/1.2
Wide Angle Lens
Canon FD 28mm f/3.5
A popular focal length for street photography is 28mm. However, lenses that have a larger field of view than 28mm are most commonly used for architectural and landscape photography.
- Great combination with a 50mm lens.
- Optical multi-coatings.
- Inexpensive and widely available.
- Small and light.
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My recommended pick is the Canon FD 28mm f/2.8 on account of the cheaper price, ease of finding a copy, and superb optics.
Alternative Wide Angle Lenses
In terms of cost, the correlation is simple. The greater the field of view, the pricier the lens will be. Faster versions also sell for considerably more.
Weight will vary based primarily on the qualities of the lens. You can get lenses from 170g to 500g. Faster apertures will also mean that those lenses will be sizeable and mess up the weight balance of the camera.
- Canon FD 7.5mm f/5.6 Fisheye
- Canon FD 14mm f/2.8L
- Canon FD 15mm f/2.8
- Canon FD 17mm f/4
- Canon FD 20mm f/2.8
- Canon FD 24mm f/1.4
- Canon FD 24mm f/2
- Canon FD 24mm f/2.8
- Canon FD 28mm f/2
- Canon FD 28mm f/2.8
Portrait & Telephoto Lens
Canon FD 100mm f/2.8
The 85mm lens wasn’t as significant when the T80 was initially made available. Instead, the 135mm focal length was more popular to use as a lens for portraits.
- Excellent portrait lens.
- Less expensive 85mm alternative.
- Great value.
- Inexpensive.
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For taking portrait photos with the T80, there are several short telephoto lenses to choose from. The 100mm f/2.8 lens is one of the least expensive options readily available.
An 85mm lens will be the most expensive, with 135mm lenses coming in the middle of the price bracket.
Since all the Canon FD telephoto lenses will be manual focus, they are more compact than modern versions. As you can imagine, professional lenses like the Canon FD 85mm f/1.2L will be huge and heavy with the amount of glass in the lens.
Expect to see very affordable prices for the Canon FD 100mm f/2.8. Addititionally there is a 100mm f/4 macro version of the lens. It will cost more and is not ideal for portraits as it ought to be stopped down.
Alternative Telephoto Lenses
Another option, the Canon FD 135mm f/2.8 is one of the cheapest prime lenses you can find. You will need to look through a large number of results for thirdparty 135mm lenses that aren’t going to be anywhere near as good as a Canon lens.
There are multiple 85mm lenses to pick from. The highest priced is the Canon FD f/1.2L lens. A less expensive pick is the Canon FD 85mm f/1.8 lens, but it is significantly less affordable when compared to the various telephoto lenses in this article.
- Canon FD 85mm f/1.2L
- Canon FD 85mm f/1.8
- Canon FD 100mm f/2
- Canon FD 135mm f/2.5
- Canon FD 200mm f/2.8
- Canon FD 200mm f/4
T80 Zoom Lenses
Canon FD 35-105mm f/3.5 & Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/3.5
The flexibility of combining a T80 along with a zoom lens is appealing. Having the ability to use a range of focal lengths without the need to switch a lens is wonderful.
Be aware that all these are older zoom lenses.
- Haze and or Fungus
- Large amount of dust in the lens
- Loose or tight zoom ring
- Loose or tight focus ring
- Oil on the aperture blades
- Decentered lens elements
Additionally, you need to keep in mind the drawbacks the lenses have even when in excellent condition.
- Image quality will not be good when shot wide open.
- One or both ends of the focal range may suffer from a large amount of distortion.
- Zoom lenses are larger and generally heavier than primes.
Alternative Zoom Lenses
In terms of costs, nearly all vintage zoom camera lenses will be inexpensive.
- Canon FD 70-210mm f/4
- Canon FD 80-200mm f/4L
- Canon FD 28-85mm f/4
Macro Lens
Vivitar 90mm f/2.8 & Vivitar 55mm f/2.8
- My favorite vintage macro lens.
- Available in multiple lens mounts.
- Incredible value.
- Sharp corner-to-corner at f/8.
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- My second favorite vintage macro lens.
- An excellent choice for close-up photography.
- It does not need an extension tube to reach 1:1 magnification.
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Both of the recommended macro lenses were made by Komine in Japan. The lens was also released with different brand names. Elicar, Quantaray, Panagor, Spiratone, and Rokunar are brands you might see on a copy of the lens.
There is a Vivitar 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens Review and a Vivitar 55mm f/2.8 Macro Lens Review.
For shooting at macro magnification (1:1), the 90mm lens will likely be the better choice because it has a greater working distance.
The 55mm focal length lens is very good for table-top and close-up photography.
Alternative Macro Lenses
- Canon FD 50mm f/3.5
- Canon FD 100mm f/4
- Canon FD 200mm f/4
Used FD Camera Lens Prices
Lens prices are regularly changing. For the past several years, interest in film photography has been rising. Because of this, prices have continuously gone up.
To end up with the lowest price, obtainseveral websites. Immediately pay for a great deal the moment you come across one since it can be a very long time until more appears.
What Lens Mount Does the Canon AE-1 Use?
The T80 makes use of the Canon FD lens mount. Canon used the FD mount for film cameras created between 1971 and 1992.
Here is a list of all the cameras that have a Canon FD mount.
The Canon FL mount was preceded by the FD lens mount, which was used between 1964-1971. FL mount lenses are compatible with the T80, but you should be prepared to use stopped down metering.
Standard Lens Cap Size
The standard lens cap and filter ring thread diameter for Canon FD lenses is 55mm.
Utilising a standardized filter thread size is smart due to the fact that you only need to obtain and carry 1 set of filters.
A few zoom and telephoto lenses have bigger filter ring thread diameters as they have substantial front lens elements.
FD vs FL Lens Mount
The Canon FL lens mount was made before the FD lens mount. You are able to use FL lenses on the FD lens mount, and FD mount lenses can be used on the FL lens mount.
What Canon FL lenses lack is the ability to automatically do stop-down metering. This means the lens stopped down by pressing the depth-of-preview switch to allow the T80’s light meter to show a correct value.
FD vs new FD Lenses
The entire body of the new FD lens rotates to lock onto the camera. As opposed to original FD lenses which have a breech-lock ring at the rear of the lens that needs to be tightened in order to secure a lens to the camera.
FD and new FD lenses are interchangeable with each other. There will be no compatibility issues.
Quite often you will spot new FD lenses referred to as FDn lenses.
The difference in the design of the breech-lock ring was because of complaints. A small number of customers experienced lenses getting stuck on a camera.
If you are not familiar with mounting an FD mount lens to a camera body, don’t be anxious. Just take the process slow and do not force anything.
Telling FD and FDn Lenses Apart
You can without difficulty tell new FD and FD lenses from one another. New FD lenses will have a silver button on the outside of the lens, near the mount.
The first version of FD lenses have a ring that needs to be rotated after the lens is mounted to lock the lens into place.
More Canon AE-1 Camera Resources
There is no more to add on the best T80 lenses. As additional info on the camera is published on the website, it will be linked to right here.