Detailed Review and Demonstration. F-1 was Canon's challenge to Nikons early dominance of Professional film cameras.
The F-1. It was produced from 1971 to 1981.
There are 3 versions of this camera. F-1, F-1n and New F-1.
What I demonstrate here represents F-1 and F-1n.
The Canon F1 was meant as a direct competitor to Nikon F but almost a decade later. It takes a similar path as a true system camera. According to Canon’s own literature, it had 10,000 component parts. They claimed to demonstrate reliability unmatched by any other product in the photographic industry ie nudge-nudge wink-wink, Nikon. That was the brand to beat, even though other Japanese brands like Pentax, Minolta and Olympus were also doing incredibly innovative things but in a different market segment. At the time Canon F-1 was launched, to some extend thanks to Nikon, you could completely forget about competition from Germany, either West or East, let alone. It did not matter anymore.
It is questionable if Canon F-1 was meant as a competitor to Nikon F2 since the release dates for Nikon F2 and Canon F-1 were so close. There was little time for Canon to try to change the design and compete with the new features of the F2. But in fact it was marketed as such. In many areas, Fanon F-1 did manage to match and surpass the features of both Nikon F and Nikon F-2.
Canon F-1 is still a favourite of film photographers. It has an exceptional reputation for reliability after more than 50 years.
