Canon F-1

Canon F-1 + New FD 50mm F1.4

Sample by Canon F-1 in Vancouver, BC

San Francisco by Canon F-1

Hollywood by Canon F-1

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After I used Canon New F-1 for many years, I shifted to older original F-1

This camera was first introduced in 1971 to break into Professional market which was dominated by Nikon F.

In late 50s, Canon rangefinders used to be quite popular with professionals in Japan, but they shifted market to more profitable middle class rather than luxury cameras.

Then, they stopped professional service and that was how all the professional shifted to Nikon rather than Canon.

It came out with brand new FD lens system which was designed for color photography.

Young people won’t believe….but in 60s, almost everybody used Black & White and 1970 was the year more people started using color film.

This means lots of old lens were not really careful about color balance and that was how Canon FD lens became famous. It was the perfect timing.

When I started using this camera, EOS was already in the market, but Canon was still selling FD lens because there was no computability between.

During film era, I was always happy about full manual camera because I really did not feel like trusting automatic things.

Today,  I don’t use manual at all….but it is not because I trust Automatic. It is only because I can check the result straight away with digital.

As I told you before, I lost interest in photography after I got New F-1. I realized the reason when I got original F-1.

It was good feeling on everything.

• Clear view finder…..Not as bright as New  F-1….but the color was natural.
• Strong & Smooth black paint….it was good feeling on hand.
• Gentle shutter noise and low vibration.
• good weight balance.
• Accurate & easy to use metering system

There are also some negatives such us metering range is not as wide as New F-1…..but what I noticed was….

• New F-1 improved negatives of original F-1.
• At the same time, It lost all the positives of original F-1.

At least original F-1 did not have any problems while I was using, then I was using until the end of 2005. It was the time I shifted to digital.

Personally I am not very interested in latest technology or new products. I like something good and use good stuff for long time.

To me, AE or AF did not mean too much and that was how  I was using F-1. But Digital was different. It changed photography style completely and that was how I shifted to.

But none of camera feels as good as F-1 and that will be the same.