Originally posted by Lord Lucan Crikey LesDMess, do you own all those cameras (and the many more you have shown in previous posts) ? They all look in mint condition too
The Canon new F1 dwarfs its rivals Nikon F3 and LX
Your post answers my original question, very helpful.
I attach two shots of that 1984 Canon brochure, including one showing what the "new F-1" viewfinder shows; and it seems that the technicalities of the camera are a bit beyond what the marketing people can cope with, because the text gives the impression that auto is only available with the AE Finder or a Winder/MD; in fact they are under-selling it. Bearing in mind your post, I guess the camera is in shutter prority mode, as there is nothing being shown in the area under the viewfinder. You say that apertures in the red areas of the scale are beyond what the fitted lens offers, but in that example there are four red bits - perhaps you could clarify?
I wondered why Canon got winders and MDs involved in exposure setting, being required for shutter priority AE in the new F-1. Thinking about it, to achieve shutter priority the camera needs to set an aperture itself and that requires a motor (while a shutter control does not), and a motor requires a fair bit of space and battery power (in those days at least). A winder or MD provided that space and ample battery power I suppose, so it makes sense.
There are two images in your post. The top image is of a T70 or T50 camera which are consumer/hobbyist models.
The second image is of an F-1 New viewfinder. It is in manual or shutter speed priority mode. The shutter speed is set to 1/60 and the lens is set to f8. The largest diameter of the lens iris is f4. The camera is set to “perfect” exposure. The camera is set for normal(open aperture) metering. The viewfinder information assist light is off.
Other info in the viewfinder:
The lollipop is exactly one stop wide.
The black tick mark on the right is for stop down metering and battery check
The camera has a type “PE” screen installed.
The camera is set to 18% rectangle metering.
The focus aid is split image and microprisim combined.
It is impossible to know what kind of viewfinder is attached.
From conversations with a Canon technical person:
The power and a portion of the mechanism for shutter speed priority operation were placed in the various winder and drives to decrease the size, weight, and internal complexity of the camera. The rational was that only sports and news photographers would use shutter speed priority, and they would have one of the motor drives or the power winder attached. The average hobbyist or non-news/sports professional would only use manual or aperture priority mode.
Only the widest opening of the lens was communicated to the camera from the lens and never the narrowest. Therefore only the bottom red area changed as different lenses were mounted. The three red tick marks near the top represent the most common canon lens values narrowest diameter. They never change as different lenses are mounted.
Some of the latest canon fd series lenses had the ability to communicate the smallest aperture, but no fd camera could read it. I guess that enhancement was scrapped when they moved to autofocus ef lenses.