Canon F-1N

Some years ago I purchased an original F1 to compliment my A1. The A1 is sadly long gone, a victim of damp penetration under the pentaprism. I sold my F1 a year back by which time I had bought a secondhand Canon F-1N. The F-1N is a truly superb machine. I have since bought a motordrive (for less than £70) that gives me aperture priority automation now. The quality of construction is what amazes me. They really are Rolls Royce quality. No flimsy plastic bits, removing the base covers to attach the motordrive gives you glimpses of the quality that lies beneath. The drive adds balance as well as giving you a conveniently placed shutter release when composing vertical shots. OK, cameras of this ilk are dinosaurs these days but they are quality items. After all, what would you rather listen to music on - your iPod or a Linn LP12?

I'm getting more and more impressed with this camera. The Canon F-1N can do everything.

Read the manual to prevent being frustrated ;). Empty battery prevents shutter from being electrically activated: removal of battery enables manual shutter operation mode.

I've owned two Canon F1n bodies (one of them AE) for around 20 years now, and have found them superb rugged all-weather cameras, ideally suited to the ski-touring, mountaineering, and wildlife photography interests I pursue. In February I dropped one (for the first time ever) onto cobbled paving from waist height when I slipped on ice. Iv'e yet to find a scratch on it, and as expected, it is still fully functional! I can't see me ever parting with them, or going digital, unless film disappears.

I bought a Canon F-1N 8 months ago. Canon F-1N (or Canon New F-1)is a top line professional camera of Canon, made from 1981. The camera has horizontally traveling titan foil shutter with speeds of 8-1/2000sec and flash sync on 1/90. MTBF is at least 100,000 (150,000 Nikon F3) exposure cycles. The shutter is hybrid type, it works on 1/125-1/2000 without batteries while on slower speeds the release is made electronically with magnets. Usually this camera comes with Standart FN finder, but sometimes you can find FN AE Finder.

This camera is from the same level as Nikon F3. It has flash hot shoe on the prism (Nikon F3 doesn't), but there is no mirror lock. This camera has unique selectable pattern metering, by changing focusing screen you can select the pattern that you want. My camera is equiped with Canon 50mm 1:1.4 lens and FN AE Finder,lens is very sharp and the colours are great.

You can attach motor winder or 5fps motor drive to the camera. It's really a very good camera, I bought it for 2000NIS (~450$) with lens. My camera shows signs of heavy use but works perfectly with great accuracy like new.