Considering a Canon New F-1, tell me about them

[Ken Ford]

I need to quit reading about T90s and stay focused on finding a New F-1...

 

[Ken Ford]

Are there any decent places like RFF where Canon film users congregate?

 

[Mackinaw]

Are there any decent places like RFF where Canon film users congregate?

Not really. Most FD users have moved on to something else. The best place to go is probably the FD group on Photo.net. Outside of the picture of the month, not much activity, but if ask a question, you will get an answer.

Jim B.

 

[Fixcinater]

There is a Yahoo groups for Canon FD, but I can't stand the format so never go there. Also, some groups on Flickr but a lot of those are lens based vs the entire system so people can show shots made with mirrorless.

 

[kermaier]

I used to own 3 of these, still have one left with a slow mirror return (needs an overhaul), that I don't use anymore. My favorite film SLR, no question.

I always used just the FN "eye-level" finder, as the AE finder struck me as bad kludge, from an engineering perspective. Instead of aperture-priority AE, I set aperture on the lens and used the match-needle meter to select the shutter speed with the viewfinder held to my eye. The manually selected shutter speed is visible below the aperture/meter scale. With practice, I got pretty quick at it, and this also allowed me to do on-the-fly/ad-hoc exposure compensation, without removing my eye from the VF.

If you have the motor drive, there should be blank holes on it, where you're supposed to screw in the camera base plate plugs for storage, so you don't lose them after removal to mount the motor drive. (I think that might be on the bottom of the drive, hidden by the mounted battery pack.) Sometimes the motor drive is sold separately by someone who forgot to recover his base plate plugs. 🙂

BTW, I still have some nice accessories for the F-1N, including an AE power winder (much less beastly than the motor drive), a wireless remote release LC-1 and a SpeedLite 299T.

 

[Ken Ford]

My motor drive and battery pack arrived and look great, no extra body caps included. Lol. I also grabbed a clean nFD 50/1.8 so I have glass when the time comes.

 

[Ken Ford]

Not really. Most FD users have moved on to something else. The best place to go is probably the FD group on Photo.net. Outside of the picture of the month, not much activity, but if ask a question, you will get an answer.

Jim B.

I drifted over there and was only slightly surprised to see I hadn’t logged in since 2010. Is it any more civilized these days? The Leica forum in particular used to be a snakepit.

 

[Mackinaw]

I drifted over there and was only slightly surprised to see I hadn’t logged in since 2010. Is it any more civilized these days? The Leica forum in particular used to be a snakepit.

The FD forum is actually quite polite. All the hotheads have long left for something else (probably all on APUG now). Conversations come and go, but are always civil. Again, if you ask a question somebody will almost always answer.

Jim B.

 

[back alley]

when i had questions about my f1 there was lots of answers here.

 

[brennanphotoguy]

Well my buddy got me a super clean (glass-wise) 20/2.8 SSC for a wedding gift so I guess I’ll give that a whirl here soon. The FD system is so good and cheap.

 

[Ken Ford]

I’ve been reading up on lenses, and think I’m going to look for three, all nFD - 35/2, 50/1.4 and 100/2.8. I don’t want this to get out of hand.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

I’ve been reading up on lenses, and think I’m going to look for three, all nFD - 35/2, 50/1.4 and 100/2.8. I don’t want this to get out of hand.

I purchased like-new 35/2.8 and 100/2.8 New FD lenses at very good prices.
If I take to my Canon EF I may consider faster glass in those focal lengths.

Chris

 

[Ken Ford]

No pun intended, but I really suck at keeping focus. Lol. I fell across this clean, functional T90 for a price that I couldn’t pass up. The metering system absolutely fascinates me. It has an optical lens cap for now, I have a 35-70/4 on the way. I’ll keep watching for primes, too.

Still looking for a New F1, though.

 

[back alley]

No pun intended, but I really suck at keeping focus. Lol. I fell across this clean, functional T90 for a price that I couldn’t pass up. The metering system absolutely fascinates me. It has an optical lens cap for now, I have a 35-70/4 on the way. I’ll keep watching for primes, too.

Still looking for a New F1, though.

must have been a hell of a deal to beat free...

 

[Ken Ford]

must have been a hell of a deal to beat free...

It was given to me by a coworker, all it cost me was lunch and a few things I wasn’t using.

 

[back alley]

It was given to me by a coworker, all it cost me was lunch and a few things I wasn’t using.

gotta love a deal! especially a local one.

 

[Ken Ford]

Yeah, the total value of the stuff he wanted was about $40, plus a $10 lunch. I did well.

Now if I can just find a similar deal on a New F-1.

 

[back alley]

Yeah, the total value of the stuff he wanted was about $40, plus a $10 lunch. I did well.

Now if I can just find a similar deal on a New F-1.

i'm keeping mine...along with the 24 and 100 lenses.

 

[Ken Ford]

Whelp, a very nice condition, smooth focusing nFD 50/1.4 arrived today, the hood for it should arrive in a few days, and I have a nFD 100/2.8 and hood on the way from KEH. I’m about half way through a test roll in the T90, the weather and my schedule haven’t been cooperating.

I was playing more with the multi spot metering yesterday - amazing. I think this T90 is going to see a fair amount of Velvia, I remember a friend back in the day telling me how his then new T90 increased his ‘chrome exposure hit rate dramatically.

 

[Ken Ford]

I was able to source what appears to be a very clean New F-1 with AE finder, it should be here in a week.

Almost done, I would still like a 35/2 and possibly a 24/2 or 2.8, all nFD. And maybe, just maybe an 80-200 L too, they are surprisingly affordable and have a stellar reputation.

Being laid up with an iPad is dangerous.