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Canon FD lens mount

standard lens mount on analog Canon 35mm SLR cameras with manual focus; was replaced by mount for autofocus lenses

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ209659
Source-derived summary

The Canon FD lens mount is a physical standard for connecting a photographic lens to a 35mm single-lens reflex camera body. The standard was developed by Canon of Japan and was introduced in March 1971 with the Canon F-1 camera. It served as the Canon SLR interchangeable lens mounting system until the 1987 introduction of the Canon EOS series cameras, which use the newer EF lens mount. The FD mount lingered through the release of the 1990 Canon T60, the last camera introduced in the FD system, and the end of the Canon New F-1 product cycle in 1992.

Overview

The FD mount is mechanically compatible with and replaced Canon's earlier FL mount, which in turn had replaced the R mount; FD-mount cameras can use FL lenses in stop-down metering mode and R lenses will mount, but must be used with manual aperture and stop-down metering.

Though never officially explained by Canon, others have attempted to assign a meaning to the "FD" designation. One such attempt states that the "FD" notation stands for "Focal-plane shutter with Dual linkage for diaphragm control"; in actuality, there were two linkages and two signals: the automatic aperture lever, aperture signal lever, full aperture signal pin, and automatic exposure lock pin. This is twice the previous lens series, which used the "FL" designation, said to mean "Focal-plane shutter, Linked mount."

Over the 21-plus years of production, Canon introduced 134 different FD lenses ranging from 7.5mm through 1,200mm in seventeen different fixed focal lengths and nineteen different zoom ranges, one of the most, if not the most, extensive manual focus lens lines ever produced.

The Canon FD system enjoyed huge popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when it established and grew a market share with professional photographers as well as having equipped over a million consumer users. Indeed, sales of the Canon AE-1 camera alone exceeded one million.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Canon FD lens mount” is standard lens mount on analog Canon 35mm SLR cameras with manual focus; was replaced by mount for autofocus lenses. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Canon, lens and mount, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1971, 1987, 1990, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1971. For this dossier, Canon, lens and mount is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “standard lens mount on analog Canon 35mm SLR cameras with manual focus; was replaced by mount for autofocus lenses” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q209659. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1987, 1990 and 1992.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Canon FD lens mount”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Canon FD lens mount primary sources, Canon FD lens mount archive and Canon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Canon FD lens mount” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.