Interview with designers of the EOS 1

[Dr Croubie]

Here.
It's 25 years old already, where did the time go?

 

[gone]

I have some a few pertinent words I've been saving for the people who changed that lens mount. Lots of people like these cameras, but they were a regrettable design to me. They look(ed) like black blobs of smooth, shiny plastic.

 

[AgX]

In the 70s Luigi Colani was my idol.

 

[ntenny]

I have some a few pertinent words I've been saving for the people who changed that lens mount.

They did give us a world of bargain prices on some terrific FD lenses, though!

-NT

 

[John Koehrer]

Got to admit in the early days Canon was far ahead of Nikon with AF stuff though.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Thank you for posting that!

From 1987 until just a few years ago I thought Canon made a big mistake and I didn't like their cameras or lenses since then ('what, no aperture ring!?"). I've since reconsidered.

Nikon has done a good job maintaining compatibility between 1959 and today (more accurately. 1977 and today), though it seems the best Nikon body/lens compatibility is always within a 20-year sliding window of time (e.g. an an F4 can use NAI lenses in stop-down mode, can use AI lenses ok, can use AF-D best of all, and can use G lenses except for Aperture-Priority and Manual modes). Maybe for the working professional this was their best course of action.

Canon, however, totally pissed-off a lot of pros and people in 1987 by creating the FD/EF barrier. Looking back, I now see this as a risky but bold move. Clearly it worked out well for them. It is amazing you can take any EF lens from as far back as 1987 and use it with full functionality on any Canon camera today (EF-S bodies excluded). Likewise, I can grab an old EOS-650 and use any EF lens made today. As for quality, many of their lenses feel chintzy to me, but they work. My favorite is their cheapest: the 50/1.8 II - amazingly sharp!

 

[Christiaan Phleger]

Yeah to the pro holding a 400mm f/2.8 and a 800mm f/5.6 in 1988 they were pretty ticked off. The EOS-1 was the extension of the T90 program (with all the shutter challenges). What the EOS-1 really gained from was the excellent AF motors in the long glass; The Ultrasonic motors were the correct solution of how to move lens elements in an AF system (so much so that Nikon had to wait out the patent to be able to shift their lenses to this type of AF motor).
The noticeability of speed and accuracy of the EOS-1 AF system especially with the fast aperture tele lenses converted nearly all of the working sports pros I knew at the time; late 80's-mid 90's. Was rather rare to see a black lens at certain points. The EOS-1 had its challenges; the shutter wasn't always up to the task and the topside weather proofing wasn't as good as everyone thought. But they fixed those things mostly in the 1n which is another topic.