Canon T90 History & Review - This Old Camera 

These in depth historical reviews are fantastic!

In high school I saved up every cent for years and bought a T90 in 1986. I still have it and use it whenever I can.It is a great, great and highly under-rated camera.

The Canon T90 was the last manual focus camera I used, it was incredibly advanced and practical. Especially the flash technology when coupled to the 300TL. It made my F1N feel instantly obsolete.

I am lucky to have a "as new" t-90 in perfect condition purchased in 1990. This was my last film camera. I wish modern digital cameras had multi-spot metering. You have given me some motivation to start using it again.

I am a Canon user and still have my AE-1, A1 and T90 and I too was disappointed when they introduced the EOS range. I had a number of FD lenses and just couldn't afford to ditch them and start fresh. I only succumbed to the EF range when I bought my first digtal camera, a 40D. I am going through similar problems now, with the introduction of their mirrorless cameras and the RF mount for their lenses. Fortunately, this time around, an adapter is available that allows me to use my EF lenses, several of which are from the expensive L series, on my R5. As such, it's going to be a while, if ever, before I buy any RF fit lenses.

I have a T90, awesome camera. Always cool to learn about the history from your detailed reviews. Thank you for making my day!

This camera was a beast. It's to manual focus cameras what the Nikon F6 was to AF film cameras. PMS... lol

I still have mine from new and I'm not selling it. Thank you

Your videos are always thorough and well produced. Thank you!

Thoroughly enjoyed review. This was my all-time favorite camera. I deliberately skipped the T80 because the auto focus of the day was slow and not always very accurate. I sold my AE-1 to buy this model. Having an A1 with the T90 was a great setup. I used them through the years I was in Asia. Sadly lost it in the Camp Fire when our home was lost with 14,000 others (along with 5,000 out buildings. It was the kind of kit (together with my Sigma to 17 to 35mm, 35mm to 210mm, and t 50mm 1.2 lens) that I never thought of selling. I just wish they had made a digital sensor back for this camera as they had done with some other cameras.

I remember the debut of the T90. I looked at it but bought the F1New in 1986 after using an AE1P for three years. I had all the FD lenses I wanted already but lots of people were seriously mad when Canon dropped the FD lens line. I thought they should have incorporated the autofocus EOS into the T90. I guess time moves on whether you like it or not. Still no one was jumping ship for Nikon since the EOS autofocus was superior to Nikons system which retained the FD mount.

This was so in depth, I had to follow and like. Amazing video.

Awesome video, I love the T-90, going to start using it again, my favorite camera EVER!--- just amazing how well it works! thank you for putting this together!

azriel, your videos are positively superb. we are lucky to have you!

The T90 is brilliant. I had to try a couple of times before I got a good second hand copy of the camera, but it sure was worth the trouble. The T90 is also the perfect camera for creating camera sound effects, if you ask me, but that's a side note.

Nice new intro sequence Azriel, I like the higher production quality!

I just acquired a T90 today at a camera show. It came with a nice Tamron 28-200 lens. You are the first person I went to first for in depth information on this camera.

as always you are very informative and interesting

Love the new intro man! It's the TANK!

The T-90 brochure was so thick that it felt like an instruction manual.

I never owned any "T" model cameras. A friend of mnie back in that era bought a T70. I didn't like it and figured I'd feel the same about all Ts. I stuck with A1 and F1N until the the 650/620 hit the market.

As always a stellar in depth review, I had a ton of fun taking mine out to the river this summer, it's a beast but well worth it!

Love these videos. If you're a vintage SLR enthusiast/obsessive, they're like illicit drugs - addicting. Keep up the good work!

What an amazing wealth of hard-to-find T90 info, expertly narrated. Thank you. The camera is a joy to use.

Great work!

I had a T-90 back in the 90s and I absolutely loved that camera. So much so that I just ordered a used one from Japan. Going back to my roots. I started with film. Looking forward to shooting some rolls with the T-90.

Great review! Entertaining yet packed with useful and interesting information. ⭐️👍🏻

Excellent production and research. I found the multiple program modes fascinating. The imagery was pretty cool and proved to be the climax of the production. Well done as always.

The EOS 650 came out into march 1987...I had one, about 1990...but wasn't happy with the build quality, or the SLR into general. I liked much more my Minolta gear.

I have got the Canon training manual on the T90, and even that is built like a tank, with plasticised pages. Also, don't forget there's mod, to allow you to keep the film tab out on the T90. It's just a solder blob on the top board. This mod makes this camera perfect for me, as I can finish films later on, by taking them out, and putting them back in when I need to.

Incredible video and production! Thank you mate 📸🤩

Great video! Just picked one up for my FD glass!

Yes, finally! A video about the T90! I have two of them. One with the rare PC sync port modification

I love these videos!!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Awsome T90 review dude...the best I found on FB

I just dug out my T90 and gave it a hug - I love it. Grew up in a camera store in Halifax N.S. and it was my pick of the litter. Great job!!

Thanks for a great presentation! I still have the T90 I purchased in 1988. I think I will check if it works still...

More of this please! It's so interesting to see how people in the 80's used to make a purchase decision and what was important to the reviewers of the time. Thanks for the insight, great stuff!

I would love it if you did such a video on the new F-1, the literature you dig up is amazing!

I had one. Curiously, the feature I miss most - multiple spot metering - is rarely mentioned. I've only seen it on an Olympus - OM4, I guess. It was a pleasure to use. But after changing two shutter in a period of 5 years, I sold it and ran to the reliability of the Nikon F2 mechanics, which I own until today and never needed a shutter exchange... The technician at Canon's tech assistance here in Brazil said something like "yeah, it happens, some photojournalists change it quite often, but it's a great camera..." At least the shutters were not expensive. Just unreliable... But the multi spot metering was VERY useful. If only it were more reliable

I do remember this Colani (german designer) designed FD-Mount T90. I even had it hold into my hands from a friend, back into the day, which was being very proud of it. I was never being a fan of this design...but the T90 had many advanced features, back into it's heyday.

I have had a T90 since about the mid 2000’s. I’ve put several rolls of film through it, and love it! Even though I have a New F1 with the motor drive, it’s heavy!! I also only have manual & shutter priority, since I do not have the AE Finder to allow aperture priority. Of all my FD Mount cameras, also including the family T70 & a T50, and previously the non program version of the AE-1, I reach more often for the T90. My trusty Elan 7e (also my very first SLR purchase) is the only film camera I use more often than the T90. If the T90 had autofocus, and evaluative metering, I might actually use it more than the Elan 7?!

AA Batteries explode in these and can eat the power cables. I had to resolder mine. Was all that was wrong with it. Meant I got it for about a quarter the price of a working on on the fleabay. I've an Eos650 to compare it too - and there really is a big difference between the pair. The 650 is just a lot less fussy to use. The T90 feels like a prototype in many ways. It's like a feathered velociraptor - the apex of the cretaceous, pointing at what's to come after. On the other hand, the automated double-exposure button has let me do some interesting photographs. Its best feature is that it runs on AA batteries - so you'll always find power.

nice to see another video! 😁😁

Azriel -- as usual, great and in-depth history and review. But don't forget the T60 -- the 5th T-series camera from Canon, released in 1990 -- actually the last FD-mount Canon camera. But not often considered a "real" T-model -- plain-jane design and features. More like a batch of basic, manual-focus, FD-mount components thrown together to use up stock and make a few last dollars in the FD-mount/manual focus arena.

I have a T-90 in which have some of the FD mounted lenses, But I also got a FD to Nikon F mount adapter as for the metering that I Stop Down Metering, using the Center Weight Metering mode, and it is very Accurate Exposure mode in using my Nikkor lenses in which I use the 50mm F2.0, 43-86mm 3.5 zoom, 135mm 3.5, and 35mm 2.8 ALL Nikkors... Good Video, I Missed Pop, and Modern Photo.

Great video, however your timeline as described in the video is wrong. In the U.K at least, the T-80 was released in 1981 then the T-50 in 1982 followed by the T-70 and T-90. There was also the T-60 released in the early 1990s in U.K

Great Review on the marketing efforts to make me want to buy stuff I’d like to add my experience with the T90 summer of 2022. I have an OG F1 with 4 FD lenses. I was inspired to find a backup body for the F1 so that I don’t orphan the 4 lenses. Somewhere in a forum it was highly recommended to get a T90 as it was the most advanced camera that still used the FD lenses. First one I bought worked fine, the next 3 were duds. They all have the EEEE error which says there’s an shutter error. This error is either stuck shutter magnets, or a stuck shutter due to the decomposition of bushings that flow into the base of the shutter blades sticking the blades in place. I’ve followed several internet tips to get them to work with no success. To buy this camera, it would be wise to seek one that is certified to have a working shutter. As Azirel points out there are no new spare parts, if you are brave enough to open the camera and repair it yourself the part you need is probably wore out in a parts camera too. Also I’ve looked into the repair manual and to open it up to check the mechanicals one has to desolder several connections. I’ve not been brave enough to go that far so the three duds are in body bags for now. I’ll probably look at another F1 as a backup for my lenses

I'd argue that the Contax RTSIII was the most advanced manual focus 35mm camera ever made, but the T90 would be a close second.

Hmm. I have never heard of this camera, only the T70 that you talked about on the first episode of this series. But that's still cool. By the way, think you might cover some more interesting and unique cameras? I think the Minolta Maxxum 7 and 9 are pretty cool, in my opinion.

If someone wants to use a FD system, I'll recommend the T90. F1n and FTB for more hard core users. But not the A1 and certainly not the AE1 AE1 program. And lately, by sheer number of AE1's who are dead (due to electronics) never to be reawaken to life ever agin, I was right. But somehow, if not dropped from the 5th floor, T90's are still going strong...

Nice! Thanks for the video! Does the camera have that annoying melting plastic that makes things sticky?

i have 3 t90's in mint condition. i hardly use them because i mainly shoot medium format but refuse to sell them. just make sure to fire the shutter every week just to stop the magnet sticking issue which seems to be common with them in this day and age

bought mine in 87.. still have it, still use it

the comparison to Porsche... The 928 is long dead too. Also, if you want to find T90 ads, it is possible that you might find some in Nat Geo. Canon used to advertise there a _lot_ back then.

i wonder why canon dropped the fd breech lock mount. one of its great design features included the avoidance of grating metal against metal at the interior edge-point of the camera's body.

This was my wifes favorite SLR. Sadly it was stolen years ago.

I had a T80, and enjoyed it. But the lens selection was limited.

What an absolute beast of a camera. Would it be possible to move the teleprompter further back? Once I noticed the eye movement, I couldn't unsee it...

I was wondering about this camera. There is one available in my local camera store for $150. I was debating on it but getting another camera with a different lens mount to what I already have is kinda out of the picture.

Haven't watched yet, but boy oh boy that thumbnail has me hoping this camera has a clear plastic body like all the cool 90s electronics!

I owned one back in the 80s it was the only camera at the time to tempt me away from the Nikons I was using the 50mm FD lens was super to shoot with you had to be careful as 4.5 fps would eat your roll of film in seconds

You know I may just need to look for one to add to my camera collection it is fun to shoot with your not helping my GAS lol 😂

I don't know if it's the most advanced manual SLR ever made, I think that would have to go to one of the later Contax models, yeah?

Is there any way to get those Modern Photography magazines?

Quick question. At 9:55, the magazine shows the T90 with an autofocus lens from the T80 line. Do you know why that is since this camera did not have autofocus ability?

If the T90 is the best 35mm film camera, then what about the Nikon F6? F5? F4? F3?

is it made of would?

Pro tip, load the T90 with Energizer Lithium batteries to decrease weight dramatically and to prevent the chance of acid leakage and permanent damage to the camera.

shoot Azriel now I want one

I really think you should shoot those grain elevators up closer in large or at least in medium format. Could you ask for permission to trespass and record? Just my humble opinion.

Ahh the time of amazing but in my opinion just ugly slrs.