The version II, from what I have read, does not have the concave front element or rare earth, and does not perform as good. You can see the version II has a convex front element in the photo here http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/fd/data/17-35/fd_35_2_sscv2.html which means that it is a completely different optical design, despite having 9 elements in 8 groups as the version I does.
From all the research I did, the version I is the only one with the winning combination of concave front element, rare earth and SSC coatings.
The three non-SSC versions use the same concave front element and rare earth, but no SSC, AFAIK.
The SSC ver. II is a new optical formula due to rare earth being phased out (removing the high refractive index rare earth glass required an attempt to compensate somewhere else).
The nFDs were yet again a newer (cheaper?) design. I have heard they are pretty damn good, though.
It does seem the transition to EF, and the introduction of the 35L, resulted in the EF 35/2 being downgraded.
The version II, from what I have read, does not have the concave front element or rare earth, and does not perform as good. You can see the version II has a convex front element in the photo here http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/fd/data/17-35/fd_35_2_sscv2.html which means that it is a completely different optical design, despite having 9 elements in 8 groups as the version I does.
From all the research I did, the version I is the only one with the winning combination of concave front element, rare earth and SSC coatings.
The three non-SSC versions use the same concave front element and rare earth, but no SSC, AFAIK.
The SSC ver. II is a new optical formula due to rare earth being phased out (removing the high refractive index rare earth glass required an attempt to compensate somewhere else).
The nFDs were yet again a newer cheaper design, as is the EF, IMO.
Aug 08, 2009 at 09:39 AM
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