Canon EF, the Fly Below the Radar FD Body

March 25, 2024

I gotta stay away from the used counter at Burlington Camera (famous last words). This makes my second EF in my tool shed, and works better than my first one. The Canon EF was a test bed for new technology, featuring a vertical copal shutter, something Canon would not adapt into the autofocus era, that was hybrid mechanical/electronic being evey shutter speed was mechanical above one second and everything slower was electroncially controlled, and was shutter priority. The EF fell between the F-1 and FTb in the product line up and was geared to well healed advanced amateurs who loved cool technology. In the end the EF after a five year run was replaced by the better living through plastic AE-1 while on the surface being the same as the EF in function was geared to a more casual photographer, then a well healed enthusiast who loves their tech.

Personally, I'll take the EF over the AE-1 any day of the week. I love the large shutter dial which inversely controls the aperture value. The ISO dial is on the left side of the camera underneath the rewind knob which makes adjusting super easy if you need to do some exposure compensation. While I learned on an AE-1 over 20 years ago as digital photography was stumbling out of the crib, I never really like that camera for some visceral reason, maybe the feeling it wasn't all that durable and prone to the dreaded Canon A series squeal. I can't wait to get my hands on my FD lenses after my move (they are in storage at the moment).

For further background, I can't reccomend Mike Eckman's piece on his very in depth camera blog and my friend Alex Luykx's thoughts from his blog.

Jo-Anne and I wandered around the neighbourhood in Midtown Toronto, when you get west of Yonge St. you're reminded what Yonge and Eglington used to look like before the massive explosion in highrises. It was a rather foggy and misty day but the EF delivered and how. Using Fomapan 400 and considering how very, um, Scottish the weather was I loved what I got. This is the part of Toronto I want to be in, it's just so damn easy to get every be it on foot, bike, public transit and car.

Camera: Canon EF, FD Lenses.

Film: Fomapan 400, Ilfotec HC 1+31.