The Canon F-1 and New F-1 were more than just metal: these legendary professional SLR cameras have enduring appeal

Of all the major camera milestones in the 20th century 1959 and the Nikon F is certainly one of the biggest . Arguably, it did as much for 35mm photography – especially among professional photographers – as Leica’s 35mm rangefinder system.

Nikon had the professional 35mm SLR all to itself for over ten years and was onto the second-generation F2 by the time Canon got into gear with a credible competitor. The cheekily named F-1 was unveiled at the 1970 Photokina exhibition in Germany and went on sale in March 1971, roughly six months before the F2 arrived.

Canon had had plenty of time to study the F system’s strengths and weaknesses, and as would subsequently be the case in the future, decided to be a lot less conservative. 

There were similarities between the Canon F-1 and the Nikon F2 – interchangeable viewfinders and focusing screens, for example – but while Nikon preferred to play it safe and give the market more of what it had traditionally wanted, Canon opted to show the market what is was likely to need.

The new FD lens mount was designed to be future proof – for as far as could be seen ahead at the time – by enabling automatic aperture control when the rest of the camera industry was going down the aperture-priority auto exposure control path (i.e. auto shutter speed control).

Cleverly, Canon kept the purists happy with a purely mechanical – and hence manual control – camera body, but the progressives could add shutter-priority auto exposure control via the EE Servo Finder metering. 

With Canon’s early emphasis on appealing to sports and action photographers, which has remained ongoing, shutter-priority AE had a lot more appeal than aperture-priority control. And right from the beginning, there was an emphasis on speed, including ways of making the reflex mirror operate faster while also minimising shock and vibrations.

The first motordrive unit delivered 3.0 fps, but 1972 Canon offered a special high-speed version of the F-1 using a fixed, semi-silvered mirror to enable continuous shooting at 9.0 fps – very fast for the day – and with the motorised film transport integrated into the camera body (which no longer had a film advance lever). The monster battery pack took 20 AA-size batteries and to make for an even bigger rig, there was a 250-exposure bulk film back.

In 1976 there was a small model refresh which is most commonly called the F-1n, but the new version never actually carried this model designation. Canon itself just calls it the “later version”. Among the updates were a multiple exposure facility and an extended film speed setting range to ISO 3200 (from ISO 2000).

A much more significant upgrade came in 1981 with the New F-1 – although still just marked ‘F-1’ on the camera and also known, confusingly, as the F-1N – which had a new body design, revised control layout and an electro-mechanical shutter with an components – the AE Finder FN delivered aperture-priority auto and fitting either the Motor Drive FN or the AE Auto Winder FN added shutter-priority auto. The motordrive is good for 5.0 fps, and there was the option of longer-lasting NiCd battery packs as an alternative to the AA battery holder now slimmed down to take 12 cells. Again there was a dedicated high-speed version of the New F-1 – initially built for the 1984 summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles – with a pellicle mirror and now capable of very rapid 14 fps.

Metering was upgraded to the more reliable SPC measuring cells and the titanium-curtained shutter was rated to 100,000 cycles. All aspects of the construction were designed to maximise reliability and durability, and many areas – such as the shutter release and dial junctions – were weather-sealed well before such protection was even a thing. The body construction – a diecast metal chassis with machined brass top and bottom plates – was supremely rugged, but for this camera Canon also introduced new, more advanced manufacturing processes which greatly enhanced the precision of its build.

With all the issues of the previous model now effectively addressed, the New F-1 established Canon’s reputation for building professional cameras that were always just a little more technologically advanced without compromising the core values of reliability and durability.

A few years later, Canon again showed its capacity for making hard decisions, introducing a new all-electronic lens mount that would allow it to move ahead with technologies such as autofocusing. Consequently, the New F-1 stayed in production for many years after the introduction of the EOS system in 1987, allowing professionals invested in big systems of FD lenses plenty of time to make the transition.

The New F-1 undoubtedly helped build the trust that allowed Canon to subsequently be more adventurous in its professional cameras – as evidenced by the first EOS-1 model in 1989 – and also established the brand’s strong reputation in this category that endures to this day.

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