Canon FD lens hire in London: TLS-rehoused FD primes in PL (14, 28, 45, 100 & 135mm, full frame) from £750/day, plus Canon FD cine-mods in EF. N16.
Looking for Canon FD lens hire in London? We hire two sets of Canon FD glass from our counter in Stoke Newington, N16: the TLS Canon FD Extended Prime Set, rehoused by True Lens Services in PL mount, from £750 a day, and the lighter Canon FD Cine-Mod Prime Set in EF mount. Both cover full frame, and every lens below shows its live day rate.
Canon made its FD lenses for 35mm stills cameras from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. They're popular on digital sensors because they bring back a softer, warmer rendering than most modern glass, and cinematographers often compare their look to Canon's K35 cine primes. That's why so many of them have been rehoused for cinema work.
What's in our TLS Canon FD Extended Prime Set:
Five lenses in one set. The exact kit list and T-stops are on the product page.
What TLS does to them (from True Lens Services' published specs):
How we'd describe the look: warm skin tones, gentle contrast, highlights that bloom a little and flares that come easily when you point the lens at a source. It's vintage glass, so expect some character towards the edges of frame and wide open. We reckon that's the point of hiring it.
TLS FD or the cine-mod FD set? The TLS set is the proper cinema option: PL mount, cam focus, matched fronts and gears, and the 45mm at T1.5. The Canon FD Cine-Mod Prime Set (20, 24, 35, 50, 85 and 100mm) is Canon FD glass converted to EF mount, so it suits EF cameras or a Sony E-mount body with the Metabones EF to E adapter. It's lighter and costs less per day, but it doesn't have the TLS housings.
Which cameras it suits:
The rehoused lenses are heavier than the stills lenses they started as, so on a small body like the FX3 or Komodo, build the camera on rods and a solid baseplate rather than hanging the lens off the mount.
Pairing it with a zoom: our Canon K35 Zoom 25-120mm T2.8 shares the warm Canon look, so it's the natural zoom to carry with the FDs. Note that the K35 zoom is a Super 35 lens. Read our Canon K35 zoom guide for coverage details, and our Canon FD TLS guide for more on how the set came about and how to shoot it. If you're on a Sony body, see our piece on vintage lenses on the Sony FX6, FX3 and FX9.
Kit is collected from and returned to Unit H1, 2 Leswin Place, London N16 7NJ, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm. We have one TLS FD set, so book early if your dates are fixed. If it's your first hire, please register a production account before ordering. For the rest of our glass, see the lens hire page, or call 020 7898 3322 or email rentals@weareyellowcactus.com to check a lens and camera combination.
The TLS Canon FD Extended Prime Set is £750 a day at Yellow Cactus. The Canon FD Cine-Mod Prime Set in EF mount costs less. Both show their live day and week rates on this page, and longer hires get cheaper per day: three days are charged as 2.5 days and Monday to Friday as 3.5 days.
The TLS-rehoused PL set is 14mm, 28mm, 45mm (FD-X, T1.5), 100mm and 135mm. The EF cine-mod set is 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 100mm. Each product page has the full kit list.
True Lens Services (TLS) is a UK lens workshop that takes the original Canon FD glass and builds it into a new cinema housing: PL mount, focus and iris gears, a circular iris and a cam-driven focus mechanism, with a common front diameter across the core lenses.
Yes. They were made for 35mm stills cameras, so both our TLS set and our cine-mod set cover full-frame sensors such as the Alexa Mini LF, V-Raptor X, Sony FX6, FX3 and FX9.
No. K35s are Canon cine primes from the 1970s, while FDs are Canon stills lenses from the same era. Many cinematographers find the look similar, which is why FDs are often used as an alternative. We hire the Canon K35 25-120mm zoom but not K35 primes.
Yes, with our PL to E-mount adapter. They cover the full-frame sensor. Because the rehoused lenses are heavier than stills lenses, build the camera on rods and a baseplate.
From our counter at Unit H1, 2 Leswin Place, Stoke Newington, London N16 7NJ, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm. Collect after 4pm the day before and return by 11am the day after, and those aren't charged as hire days.