The Canon F1



Canon, from the 1950s on, had always been the great also-rans of the camera industry. Their rangefinder cameras, although solid, dependable and well finished were seldom inspiring. The exceptions to this were the last two models: the 7 (including the later 7s) and P, both of which proved sufficiently popular in the age of the SLR to still sell well, long after most of the competition had died naturally or been shot by the accountants.

When Canon finally got into the SLR business, their first effort, the Canonflex, was yet another solid, dependable and, once more, uninspiring camera which had the additional misfortune of being launched in the same year (1959) as the Nikon F. Nevertheless, Canon stuck at it and, by 1970, had aquired an enviable reputation for building cameras for the mass market, with their long-lived FT series selling in large numbers to people who wanted quality but couldn't afford Nikon.

Then, in 1971, Canon did the unthinkable: they produced a camera that could do everything  the Nikon F could do, only better!

Wonder Child.

This wunderkind was the F1, a solid, beautifully proportioned machine that had the same modular design as the Nikon, the same 100% viewfinder and the same ability to take add-on finders, backs and winders. Moreover, it had TTL metering built into the body, a swing open back rather than the Nikon's pull-off version and, best of all, the winders just screwed into the baseplate instead of replacing the back.

On launch day, the F1 had almost all the accessories available that made the Nikon system so popular among professional and scientific photographers, together with a lens range that fully rivalled the Nikon's. The F1, naturally, sold like hot cakes.

The Canon's viewfinder was noticeably brighter than that in the Nikon and the range of interchangeable screens just as extensive (the gridded screen is particularly nice). The built in TTL meter was reliable and accurate (essential in the professional market) and the basic prism had greater eye relief than that on the Nikon, which appealed to older photographers just learning the joys of wearing spectacles.

Most importantly of all, professional and scientific users began to discover what amateurs had known for years, that Canon lenses were not only as good as Nikkors, they could even be better. All in all, F1 was a tour-de-force and Canon suddenly became the other professional camera.

All Change.

The F1 was in production from 1971 to 1979 with some minor changes in 1976 to produce the F1n. Then in 1981, Canon decided to produce a new camera to compete with Nikon, the F1N. Despite the similarity in names this was an all new camera. Unfortunately, it suffered in comparison with the original design.

The whole camera felt less commanding than its predecessors, thanks to an unpleasant 'black chrome' finish in place of the smooth black enamel of the previous cameras and a shutter that sounded distinctly 'tinny' when fired.

The shutter was of an unusual hybrid variety, electronically timed for speeds from 8 seconds to 1/60 second and mechanically timed for the remaider of the range up to 1/2000 second. One nasty gotcha! about the new model was that if the battery failed, you had to physically remove it in order that the mechanical speeds could still be used. More than one photographer was caught out with an apparently unusable camera when all that was required was to yank the battery from its holder to let the high speeds work!

Users of the previous models had to replace their focusing screens and viewfinders because those for the older models wouldn't fit the new camera. In theory, the older backs and winders would work on the new machine but there were persistent rumours that this wasn't necessarily so.

A Step Backwards

The viewfinders seemed like a step back to many people, with less eye relief and screens that, while adequate, seemed to lack the 'snap' of the previous range. Used as a manual wind camera, the F1N also seemed rougher than the F1 and it didn't balance so well in the hand as its predeccesor.

What the new camera did have going for it was an auto-exposure prism, which, when fitted, provided aperture priority automation. This was something of a negative selling point because, while most professionals were still somewhat wary even of built in meters, it was generally agreed that if you were to have automation, setting the shutter speed and letting the camera choose the aperture was the way to go. Canon even tacitly admitted their mistake by providing shutter priority automation if you fitted a motor drive.

As a result of all this, the F1N was not a flop, though it was a lacklustre camera in many people's eyes, but frankly, Canon weren't bothered. In the first place, they were already fully occupied in frying much bigger fish, in the form of the automated consumer SLR series of which the AE1 had been the first to market in 1976. In the second place, by the time the F1N was released, the company had its eyes firmly fixed on the future.

That future was the Eos auto-focus range of cameras that would ultimately replace manual machines like the F1 altogether. What was more, when Canon introduced the Eos 650, they equipped it with a new and totally incompatible lens mount. This wasn't the first time that Canon had pulled this trick, as the lens mount for the original Canonflex cameras was incompatible with the later 'FL' series to which the F1 belonged. Both Canon and independent companies manufactured converter systems to allow users to fit the earlier lenses to the Eos bodies but the results were considered to be less than satisfactory by many users.

All in all, the F1 range roared into the market place like a lion and whimpered out of it rather like a lamb, largely, it seems, because Canon lost interest in it. Commercially, that can only have been the right decision, as anyone who glances at the company's commanding position in the market must agree.

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