Canon EOS-1: A History & Review | This Old Camera #17 

Initially, I was one of those ‘FD’ shooters cursing Canon when they announced the ‘1’ and tossing the ‘FD’ system into the trash bin. I was in love with my F1s and the newly acquired T-90, I felt betrayed. Two years later, I was rockin’ 2x EOS1(N)s, the FD system was in the rearview mirror, there was no going back. Many credit the ‘EF’ system for dethroning the Nikon system from it’s lofty perch as the top dog of pro camera systems back in the 90s. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know, but as a wire service shooter back then, I recall seeing the sea of black Nikkors at many sporting events and press conferences, turning into a sea of white EF glass in the early 90s.

I got one from a camera shop for 13 bucks. It was marked "parts" but everything looked good cosmetically so I took a very easy gamble and bought it. The battery cost more than the camera, and I didn't expect much, but I turned it on and everything worked! I just finished a roll with it and developed it. Everything looks good!! Best 13 bucks I ever spent.

The new lens line were revolutionary, I was already 10 years into an FD lens system. When I made the complete switch in January of 1990. To afford the switch, I was in Panama 🇵🇦 for the US Invasion. And Canons Latin America was headquarters there. With the immediate funds I made shooting video of the invasion. When things settled down. Canon sold me a complete kit at an amazing price. 20-35mm 2.8L, 80-200 2.8L 50mm 1.0L & 300mm 2.8L. The auto focused changed everything. The body had two serious flaws though. The sound of the film rewind is at an extremely high pitched screaming sound. You 100 percent had to make sure you changed the auto rewind setting to off. You would then have to bury the camera under your armpit to subdue the sound. The other problems were the control buttons, sand and moisture would get underneath the buttons, enabling them unresponsive. You would have to use camping tent repair tape over these buttons to keep the camera operating, otherwise you couldn’t change important settings and would be stuck at whatever settings you had.

Yay! My favorite series on RU-vid is back.

Glad you are back doing this series again.

I have all three generations; 1, 1N and 1V and all three work beautifully.

Yay for the return of This Old Camera!! Hope you keep making more vids for this series :)

So glad to see new episodes in this series. 🎉

A trip down memory lane! Thanks Az.

As someone has already said here, this is a happy return of one of the best old cameras video series, if not the best. I greatly appreciate all the magazine's articles and advertising you show, fundamental history milestones and, of course, to listen to your experience and comments. And it's kind of funny because I didn't like my experience with a EOS1. I have several old cameras, rangefinder and slr, Minoltas Nikons, Olympus that I like a lot and, I often shoot with. One day I started investigating the 90's Canon, cameras with very good looks and features and, I looked and tried an EOS 3 and an EOS 1, as I had read they were the reference because of their professional competence but honestly , I did not like both, I didn't get a good use experience. To me there's something wrong with the Canon buttons in general, (with their digital cameras remains the same), maybe lack course to have a convincing feel, some are hidden behind a door and those functions with use of two buttons, with a disorganized look of arrows in several directions, honestly that were ergonomics and design options not very well achieved. Of course none of this makes sense to the Canon's supporter's, that's only my feels when I pick up one of these cameras. I ended up buying an EOS 5(A2e) and a 30 (Elan 7e) which, although maybe being of a lower leaguer, at least in prestige, take pictures equally with heaps of brilliance and competence and, unlike the 1 and 3, for me are nice to use. Cheers,

Absolutely fantastic review. Thank you so much for your efforts in getting its history and functions. Bravo!

Love these old camera review

Once the EOS-1 was released, I sold my T90 for $1 more than what I had paid for it, along with my 24 f/2.8, 50 f/1.4, 85 f/1.2, and my 200 macro. And bought the EOS 1 and their trinity of zoom lenses. To shoot with an EOS 1 is to understand why Canon became the professional’s choice for a 35mm SLR. As noted in the video, the EOS 1 could focus on horizontal and vertical lines. In contrast, Nikon’s F4 could not. If that wasn’t reason enough to make the switch to an EOS 1, the use of a rear focusing button sealed the deal. This button, activated via custom function #4, allowed the user to pre-focus on a spot, say 2nd base, and then wait for the decisive moment to take the shot. In contrast, the Nikon F4 didn’t have this capability. Therefore, the user had to: 1) press the shutter button half way and wait, or 2) put the camera into manual focus. This feature alone made the EOS 1 a favorite among sports photographers and photojournalists. Looking at press pools at sporting events like the Super Bowl, one saw a sea of white lens (Canon’s pro lenses are white while Nikon’s are black). Pros were switching from Nikon to Canon in droves. So much so that saying someone “made the switch” was taken to mean they sold their Nikon gear for Canon. Lastly was Canon’s introduction of professional quality zoom lenses like the 20-35, 28-80, and the 80-200. Meanwhile, Nikon sat on their laurels stuck in the 60s with the belief that zooms were inferior to prime lenses. But with the use of aspherical lens elements, Canon proved them wrong. Canon had the versatile 20-35 and 28-80 f2.8, while Nikon had their 35-70, which was an antiquated inferior and less versatile design. It would take the better part of a decade for Nikon catch up, but by that time Nikon had lost the vast majority of the professional and advanced-user market.

I love these videos, keep up the good work!

Here I was, watching this video considering this camera -- and BAM, the reviewer is Calgarian! Hello Fellow Cowtown-er! :D Great video, Review, and shots! Hope i see you shooting around downtown one of these days!

great bit of archival researching...thanks

As a Nikon shooter I really enjoyed this episode Azriel! Excellent as always 👍🏻

At least Canon learned thier lesson when bringing out the M mount and the RF mount by bringing out adapters to allow EF lenses to work on both. Plus thanks to Fotodiox. I am able to put my old FD mount lenses on any of my Canon EF mount cameras and I own 3. One being an old used Canon Rebel G 35mm film camera.

Great work! One of my favourite cameras is the 1v!

This is an excellent video

Great review! I almost bought an EOS-1 in 1991, almost.......

And Nikon still hasn’t made a camera to match this! Great episode, and an even better Camera!

Lol "Ever tried to find a 2CR5 Battery in Al-Hajara Desert?" :D

I’ve come close to buying used 1, 1v and 1n at various points over the past 15 years. I backed off each time. Price was a consideration of course as these were still expensive used. More importantly, however, I’ve always had a suspicion that most have already had a hard life. The EOS-1 series were often the staples of in press pools and the like. Nope, bought the EOS-3 instead (and accumulated a couple of A2 and A2e along the way too). The 3 was interesting. This was Canon’s tech demonstration platform. It was also targeted toward the doctor and lawyer photo hobbyist crowd. Picked up a cabinet queen ten years back.

I missed these

In a year that Canon EOS was introduced, I was still burned by awful electronics found in minolta cameras that where freezing already at 5 C (and back than we had strong and long winters). So I stepped back and worked with fully mechanical Nikons for years. I finally jumped the gun in 1995 when I bought than new EOS 5, which I, miraculously, still have, course EOS 1 was still way too expensive, even used one. But that 28-105mm lens that came in the kit... my god, I'm not sure was that my copy only but that was one of worst the lenses I've ever used! While usable at 28mm, at 105mm it was a wash. The 28-90mm, which I got in another kit years later, was smaller, lighter, and way sharper at all focal lengths.

Love my EOS-1. In fact I just bought yet another older EF lens, just so I can use it on both my digital bodies and on my EOS-1 :-)

This is great. I love my Eos-1v. Personally I think they surpass any of the Eos [x]D line. Though, never handled a 1D.

One thing what is missing is that are two motor types where used in the lenses. Not only Ultrasonics....also i simple direct drive for the cheap lenses like 1.8/50 Version I and II as example. The simple 80-300 Zoom came also in USM and a non-USM-Version............100DM difference in 1997

Great review would have been nice to have touched on the EOS 1RS though with it highest frame rate at the time for sports photography.

Years later, EOS cameras are a big success

interesting, while nikon focused its first professional af camera on reliability, canon focused on focus speed and performance. but what about the minolta 9000 and minolta 8000i. those were also advanced professional af cameras.

There is no doubt that Canon has someone on staff that knows how to read the tea leaves! They have disappointed so many photographers over the years by abruptly changing everything in order to make something better. Yet, they are now the market leader in cameras and lenses for pros. With the change to mirrorless, they have finally decided to make these cameras backward compatible with the large family of EOS EF lenses. Good for them! But while they were trying so hard to beat Nikon, they let Sony slip in the back door and now we have a race to see who can corner the market. Two powerful well funded Japanese giants of technology battling it out.

7:35 No easy flash for you. :)

I love my 1n. Slap the 40mm pancake lens on it and you got a real winner.

I miss Modern Photography

The original F-1 that you show was replaced in 1981 by the New F-1... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_New_F-1

The body was plastic? Like my D30?

Fuck Digital. I want a modern day Canon Film Camera.

Imagine having autofocus.