Canon Nailed Autofocus...40 Years Ago! Canon FD 35-70mm ƒ/4 AF 

This feels like DigitalRev, again. Awesome.

My first thought was 'Canon had autofocus in the 60s?!' Then I realised 40 years ago it was 1981. Oof.

it's at a 45 degree angle because it works like a rangefinder, and as anyone who's used a rangefinder knows, it's difficult to focus if your subject only has horizontally oriented details to try to line up with each other, like a horizon. at 45 degrees it minimizes the chances of that happening both in portrait and landscape orientations.

Kai does acid, glues a Super Nintendo to an a7 body, and talks like a robot. All this and more!

"Faster than a Panasonic!" cracked me up 😆

I even forgot LOK has moved to the UK a little while ago, so nostalgic after watching the 10-year-duo re-united in different place on Earth. So good.

Hey Kai! Do you still have this lens? Sending you an email about it :-)

10:19 nice drawing on that telephone booth...

Poor Lok, in the end he had to drag that Pelican-case too while filming!

Canon in 1980: "How do we allow users to make sure the battery has charge?" Employee 1: "Why do we need to do anything? I think its obvious if the AF doesn't work change the bettery" *You're Fired* Employee 2: "We can add a battery check and a cute mouse noise!" *Employee 2 is now CEO. Be like Employee 2*

Holy mother, not only the lens is a blast from the past. This video gave me vibes from the olden days. Wonderful!

I remember that Vivitar made several lenses like that, battery powered autofocus with different SLR mounts available. I bought a Canon T80 with the 3 available autofocus FD lenses just as a collector's item. They were only made for one year.

Really enjoyed watching this little bit of vintage kit, I've never actually seen one of these in operation before!

Randomly stumbling across Kai's channel brought back so many memories when I used to watch DigitalRev religiously back in 2015. Glad to see he's still doing well and making great content

I actually remember when it came out. I was a Canon user and thought it was just a toy as AF would never be common. Yes, I was so very wrong.

Goodness me. I remember reading about these. Quite intriguing, and impressive for its day. The future of the past!

"The colours look rubbish on this.. that is a sony that is why" haha brutal

LOL I’m old. I remember drooling over that lens years ago when I was 10. Thanks for the nostalgia feels! Great to have Lok back!

Now I kinda want this lens. I love the 80's cyberpunk look.

I'm so used to Lok and Kai being together I forgot they couldn't make videos for over 4 years

I remember the very first one the Rikenon 50mm F2.0 AF. I actually owned one back in 1984.

Pentax every time introducing cool new stuff first but the other Brands takes the idea makes it nice and get the money. I think Konica has a auto focusing point and shoot in the late 70s but don't know how good it was. Maybe a Camera for a follow up Video. Cheers

So it's a better built kit lens? Kinda sharp, kinda dark, little bits of chroma, flare, ghosting and so on but doesn't disintegrate at first contact.

Canon really is remarkable, I have a canon SLR that was made in 92 and it autofocuses faster then a modern nikon DSLR

The special K mount SMC Pentax AF 35 mm-70 mm f/2.8 Zoom was the first full frame lens with internal autofocus system in 1981 a few months before the autofocus Canon FD 35-70mm f/4 AF lens of the video. The Pentax autofocus lens was designed for the full frame Pentax ME F camera. It is sad that Pentax wasn't mention by Kai. Pentax wasn't really successful during the digital revolution but during the film era and especially during the manual focus era it was legendary. The story is similar with the first APS-C mirrorless autofocus camera with interchangeable lenses. It was Samsung a few month before Sony that launched the first mirrorless APS-C camera in 2010 but Samsung wasn't successful with the mirrorless technology. The Canon FD 35-70mm f/4 AF lens was followed by the 50mm f/1.8 and 75-250mm f/4.5 of similar autofocus technology technology. The camera manufacturers were reluctant to abandon their successful lens mounts for new mounts more suitable for autofocus technology. Minolta took the first bold step and the autofocus revolution of film SLR cameras began in 1985 with the new α (alpha) mount cameras by Minolta. Until 1987 Nikon Canon and Pentax followed with similar autofocus technology which ended with dSLR cameras after 34 years, in 2019 after the prevailing of mirrorless cameras. Canon has a tradition of preferring the autofocus electronics and mechanisms to be inside the lenses. In 1981 Canon and Pentax selected the autofocus electronics and mechanisms to be inside each lens. While the Minolta was the the first to prefer the autofocus mechanism to be inside the camera body in 1985. In 1987 the Minolta, Nikon, Pentax preferred their autofocus lenses to be screw driven with the motors of autofocus and aperture to be inside the camera and not inside the lens. Canon in 1987 launched the EF mount autofocus lenses with the motor of autofocus and aperture inside the lens. The autofocus electro optical system was still in side the camera but it was a bold decision because it increased the cost of each lens. It proved to be right and Nikon followed much later and Minolta after 2000. Also canon today still prefers most of its RF amount lenses to have internal image stabilization system which increases the cost of each lens while Sony and Nikon rely mostly on the Image sensor stabilization.

"No-one remembers that brand" Ah, so it is that pentax lens I was thinking about, yeah.

There are many good lenses from the 80. I received to day a canon 70-210 d4 EF. A mint example for £45. Truly supprised by the image quality . And much cheaper then a L 70-200 f4

Great, now I have to go and find one...

I remember when they launched that. Looked like a kludge. Still does 30 years later. I assume Canon had started planning the Eos in 1981 and wanted a stopgap lens.

Not only does it focus automatically but the glass is quite nice! Look at the contrast and colors 😎

Is Lok recorded and edit the video? I feels like this video has "digitalrev" vibe on it.. EDIT: Yes, It was Lok who took the video after keep watching. I felt is from the begining of video.

Guessing the AF is based on rangefinder-like alignment, so the 45 degree offset is needed to avoid pure vertical or horizontal lines (e.g. buildings, waterlines) from confusing the algorithm.

I did enjoy the "past it's prime" pun shoved in there

That’s a huge lens I have not ever seen that type of lens before and I am much older than 1981.

Kai and Lok, Glad to see you guys making video in Kinston, I am living nearby, wish to see you in Kingston on one day, keep up the good work😇

I still miss all your old funky videos with lok back in the DRTV days, you made me love photography bro, ill never thank u enough

I have the Tamron Adaptall 2 AF from the early 80s. I love the concept

Wow! I'm old enough to remember this lens in the then Canon lens brochure, which I'm sure I still have somewhere.

Way cool! I actually have the Vivitar 28-70mm f/3.5-4.8 Macro, FD Mount, that uses an early phase detection auto focus system. better coverage at 28-70, more standard for today's user. it focuses quicker too

There's a lot of gems from the FD, Minolta, Nikon, and Pentax lineup for 35mm. They're not really getting much rarer over time, but sadly the prices are going up nonetheless. I buy up Bargain/Ugly quality old vintage lenses whenever I see them for cheap to refurbish. I used to make a pretty penny doing it, machining any parts I couldn't find; but now it basically pays for itself if you want something to do as a hobby.

Kai!!!! I thought you passed. Thank god your alive. I need your channel

Kai with the Air Jordan 5 "Oregon Ducks" Wow

Wow this is great

the last 5 sec nailed it :-D thanks! never seen this Canon actually working, always only know it from pictures

I feel like Lok C is the cameraman and it didn't disappoint me . You two are back, awsome !

dude i heard lok behind the camera and now i know i want to watch this channel again, this absolutely feels like home again, damn. I jumped out of my chair when i heard him

Kai & Lok!! 💯

Very interesting video, thanks Perhaps the way it fits to the side is to allow the flash on the hot shoe to be effective

10:20 The kid was asking the mom was the drawing XD

Thanks grandpa, I got his old canon AE-1 with a 50mm and this lens. 20 years ago When nobody want it. 👌it still works till this day and yes, I take pictures with the old system, but perhaps i should also get a adapter for the digital one

Another epic video!!!

Question for Lok is he using autofocus for this video ? on the s5 ?

F'ing cool. As an engineer I'm always blown away by what people could do with this early tech. Figuring out autofocus with slide rules and all that.

Solid-state triangulation basically the two sensors know the distance between each other And they use that information to calculate the distance between themselves and what they’re looking at

I'm really enjoying reading your book. Picked it up in one of my favorite bookshops. I love that you write like you speak. Great pictures as well.

Great content and a throw back to the DRTV days. Big Fan. The background music in the first couple of minutes was painful though.

Kai and Lok making content like they used to... so glad to see you guys back!

Oh! Lok capturing video for Kai!

Fascinating video. Bringing back old tech in a new video. Very cool.

It doesn’t detect u while on sunglasses means only 1 thing.. this lens had eye autofocus since 1981! Thats terrific!!! Hahaha

After stumbling across this, i knew had to get this lens to use on my F-1

Kingston in the summer.... Yea the river definitely smells

I own a Pentax ME with their version of this autofocus lens. Its crazy how well it works.

Smashing review 👍🏻💃🏻

Found an Amazing Canon ProShot Bridge camera 28 -200 I recall in HCMC about 1998 was so impress tried for a 2nd one but it was the end of production.

I was under the impression that the first autofocus camera was the Konica C35 AF in 1977 and the first SLR was the Polaroid SX70 Sonar in 1978. The lens in video is indeed the first dedicated AF lens for a system camera. Nikon introduced the line up of 3 dedicated AF lenses for Nikon F3 in 1983.

Pentax was sort of first with their 35-70 2,8, but you're right, they were kind of boring again because you had to use it on the Pentax ME-F camera which had the sensors built-in, so no autofocus on manual focus K-Mount camera :( (the lens still looked funny with a bump to fit the motor tho). BUT Chinon did come out with an AF 50mm 1,7 similar to the Canon with everything built-in in 1982, maybe that could work on manual focus Pentax cameras as it is K-mount but I've yet to find one to try that out. edit : just saw that Ricoh did a similar thing with the AF Rikenon 50mm f/2 as well

I love your videos. c: thanks for the continued content. I miss the ones with your friend and the silly competitions too

Pentax was first. Canon and Olympus both launched pretty similar options for there systems not long after.

I still have one in my Canon museum ...

@10:20 Lok pulling focus on the background lol

Blows my mind that this old lens does AF better than Panasonic now! We also see Lok shooting with his Lumix and shots of Kai drifting out of focus.

Thumbs up for Lok for walking and shooting handheld with one hand while dragging peli case 😀

The Chinon CE-5, which was released 1982/83, laid claim to the first equipped with AF lenses. Whilst the CE-5 takes PK lenses it also has contacts for the AF lenses, which will not work on any other brand. I have the CE-5 but no AF lenses. It will take Pentax lenses, I have a couple, but the Auto-Chinon lenses seem to be a hair better glass than Asahi-Pentax of the same period. After a good clean around the shutter button and remembering to turn the self-timer off, the CE-5 works as good as new. Chinon became Kodak (Japan). I eventually retired it in favour of the lighter Samsung AF Zoom 1050, a compact with proper AF.

beautiful sharp photos... nice bokay too.. it lean 45 degree probably to make unblock view for the cam viewfinder

Can’t believe you guys are stood outside my old flat and missed the shop that’s called “knobs and knockers”!!!

Canon made great sleeper lenses in the FD era but people tend to ignore them while clutching onto their Nikons and Leicas.

I noticed you guys now shoot your videos with Panasonic S5. After seeing your reviews I got one too, just did a Hong Kong harbour shoot with it, it produced great dynamic range, an amazing camera.

Finally an usable lens for the EOS M

You use your Sony / Canon Frankenstein, I will shoot film with my Pentax ME-F. Pentax was ACTUALLY first in AF.

Gotta love vintage lenses

Kai as whimsical as he may seem at first is powerful, what I mean is that he can make or brake the sales of a tech company not just a camera company but any tech company with a single phrase. He is one of the most if not the most recognized and influential person in internet photography. Together with his colleague Lok Cheung, they made very entertaining product information shows and simple photography education clips under the heading Digitalrev up to and untill the Hong Kong's political fermentations. It seems he is mostly independent now and his currear slown as it must follow prevailing photography trends but tech manufacturers would be wize to not take Kai lightly or dismiss him because his followers I believe are planet wide.

Nice lens! So does this accept filters it is the uv filter you mentioned built in?

Similar in its weird boxy form to a pretty rare manual Minolta - a 40-80 2.8 without any helicoid. Has a gearbox bolted to it!

miss the digitalrev man

Bro this is great! Keep it up

Nice Rolex...right? Im an Omega guy myself but, respect!

" Faster than a panasonic " LMAO!!

Gotta love the graffiti at 10:20 on the phone box window :)

9:22 yeah... Panasonic autofocus....

10:19 big pen LOL

This is superb but did anyone what shoes did kai put on. It looks amazing

Did you notice that naughty thing on the telephone booth at 10:19 @Kai W

Nice video from Kongston upon Thames.

I haven't seen one in the flesh alas, but my dad had an old copy of Lens Work from the mid 80s and this was in it. I'm rather pleased I managed to snag a couple of the more interesting lenses in there (the 200mm f4 Macro and 20mm f3.5 Macrophoto- that's a bonkers lens)

oh, i have this one in mint condition, will try with my Canon AE-1

Nikon introduced the F3 AF in 1983 with two lenses. Pretty clunky but I think the lenses worked off the cameras battery, and the shutter button initiated auto focus. Guess they were ahead of Canon back then!

I have this lens on my collection. Very rare to find in eBay. With the original box, case, and paperwork.

Great finding

Lol, 20 seconds in and 2 shots fired 😂