The Canon EOS 5


Canon introduced the EOS 5 (known as the EOS A2E in the USA) in 1992 and discontinued it 10 years later at the end of 2001. It's a camera that has at times evoked strong emotions both for and against it but the strong sales attested to by its long product life suggest that the majority decision is positive.

The EOS 5 was a major turning point in camera design, as influential in its way as the Leica or the Nikon F. Its progenitor, the original EOS 650, had proved that practical autofocus cameras could be built that would meet the needs of the advanced amateur and had spawned a whole family of advanced autofocus cameras ranging from the entry-level EOS 1000 to the professional work-horse EOS 1.

Focus Control.

The EOS 5 fitted into the range in almost the same position as that first EOS, the 650. It had the features and build quality to meet most professional needs but was priced to appeal to the advanced amateur. The EOS 5 also introduced a breakthrough technology in eye controlled focussing.

The earliest auto-focus cameras used a fixed part of the frame to define what they would focus on, generally the centre point. This didn't necessarily meet the photographer's needs. So Canon and others had experimented with systems of multi-focus spots where the photographer used a button or control dial to choose which of several focussing points to use. This was fine - except in those circumstances for which most photographers had a real need for auto-focus: fast moving objects and events. In the EOS 5, Canon produced a system where the camera judged what the photographer was looking at and focussed using the focus point nearest to it.

ECF isn't perfect but it can work well, especially if the photographer takes the trouble to train the system. Training is a process by which the photographer's eye movements are recorded in a miniature database which uses artificial intelligence techniques to refine the camera's performance every time the training process is carried out. It all sounds a little like mumbo jumbo but the surprising thing is that it really works.

The EOS 5 is remarkably quiet in use, thanks to the 'whisper' technology developed for the EOS 100 (Elan). It's so quiet that in a lot of situations subjects are completely unaware they've been photographed. There have been reports that some fashion photographers found this actually to be a problem because the models, used to changing pose following the shutter noise, don't get their usual cue and need to be told that the shot had been taken.

The 5's metering system is extremely flexible. A sixteen zone evaluation, coupled with the option of changing to centre weighted or spot metering, provides very effective exposure control under most conditions, even the snow shots. It's very hard to get a poorly exposed shot with this camera, short of switching it to full manual and guestimating!

The EOS 5 has such a wide range of options that it can become a challenging hobby in itself to master all of them. You can change the focussing mode, the metering mode, how the film is wound and re-wound... the list seems endless. The user manual runs to 80 pages and still doesn't manage to cover everything in enough detail to satisfy everyone.

If you run out of light, the built in flashgun can get you out of trouble. Herein, however, lies one of the few problems with the camera. The gun doesn't rise very far and if you use a lens with a wide diameter or a long lens-hood you may find the bottom of your shot obscured by shadow. It has to be emphasised, though, that the EOS 5 is far from being alone in suffering from this problem. It's an inherent defect in all cameras that mount a flash too close to large lenses.

In use, the Eos 5's built-in flash is a useful emergency backup for the photographer who normally prefers available light and Canon provide a good range of advanced add-on flashguns that can make the most of the 5's features for those who prefer to make their own daylight where-ever they go.

Reliability.

So if this camera is so good, why do some people loath it? Well, firstly there are people who are put off by its 'plastic' construction and less than perfect 'fit and feel'.  The EOS 5 isn't built in the same way as the heavy metal bludgeons from Nikon or Leica, or even Canon's own 'heavy metal' the EOS 1, but that doesn't mean it's not tough. People have spoken of dropping it several feet onto concrete and finding that the camera is still functioning. I wouldn't dream of suggesting that you try this yourself but the stories are out there!

The unreliability myth is really based on a problem with the control dial which lives at the top left side of the body, over the film cassette chamber. In some cases this has failed catastrophically, rendering the camera unusable. It's difficult to establish just how many cameras are affected but it seems to be only a very small number.

The source of the problem is a pair of tiny plastic rivets which connect the control dial's spinner to the switch. These have been known to shear and the dial then spins uselessly. The problem is compounded by a tiny ball and spring which 'click' into a detente to mark the stops on the dial. The spring is sometimes too strong, and the extra pressure needed to move the dial distresses the rivets with the aforementioned result. There have also been reports that sometimes the spring is too weak and the control dial, although not broken, spins without stopping at a particular point. Presumably the camera is still usable, just not very convenient to use.

At least one engineer has published a step by step guide to fixing this problem yourself and made it available on the web. But it has to be stressed that this is nothing like as common a problem as some people have made out. Canon have sold many thousands of these cameras and only a tiny proportion have failed. It's annoying if it's your camera is one of them but the chance that it will be seems pretty slim.

On the plus side, the viewfinder is bright and uncluttered with the exposure information displayed in an illuminated panel below the frame. The eyepoint, while not as high as in, say, the Nikon F4, is still far enough out that I can see the entire finder while wearing glasses (it helps that Canon include a soft rubber bumper around the eyepiece that you can push your spectacle lens against). The camera shape is excellent, easy to hold steady for relatively long exposures if necessary. Battery life is excellent, the 2CR5 seeming to last indefinitely. All in all, the EOS 5 is fast, light, effective and it takes all those lovely Canon lenses. What more could you want?

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