Questions about older Canon's 35mm film

[esmikell]

Good morning,

Question about older canon purchase.

CANON 50mm F1.4+ FTb vs CANON F-1

Thank you.

 

[Derrel]

SOLID but consumer-level build and design on the FTb....a nice, old-school, full-sized consumer-grade 35mm SLR. My favorite pawnshop had a minty one with working meter for $29.95 a month ago, I tried to get a young customer there interested in it; he came in with a squeaky-shutter AE-1...I showed him the FTb that Stuff had for sale.

Canon F-1 (the first version)....Canon's effort at copying Nikon's pro-level F-series offering...even stole the name!!! F, and added a 1 to it! MODULAR camera...interchangeable backs and screens and prisms....a nice camera for its era, very robust, bulky, handsome. This is a full-blown "system camera" from its era. It is a gorgeous machine...with the ultimate in 1970's camera design ethos.

The two are sort of like a Chevy Caprice (FTb) and a Chevrolet Corvette (F-1).

 

[esmikell]

Thank you for the info. I am seeing a bunch of these on ebay that look good from good sellers. And LOTS of types of lens. The F-1 is from a solid camera shop not in ebay. I think I am going for the F-1.

 

[Derrel]

The F-1 is a gorgeous mechanical camera, and was state of the art in Japanese camera design and build when it was new. It is a lovely,lovely machine. One of my earliest mentors loved his F-1 system, back in the mid-1970's. It is very,verrrrrrrry nicely made, much more so than an FTb. You will love it!

 

[esmikell]

I think I will order it today with a good lens. Question, I have in my mind I will use my row boat to get out around some cargo ships and such where I live and "out away" from the shipping lanes to get some ships moving, what is your advice on zoom or telephoto lens in the 300mm range? I see what looks like good ones on ebay.

Thank you again.

The F-1 is a gorgeous mechanical camera, and was state of the art in Japanese camera design and build when it was new. It is a lovely,lovely machine. One of my earliest mentors loved his F-1 system, back in the mid-1970's. It is very,verrrrrrrry nicely made, much more so than an FTb. You will love it!

 

[Derrel]

Yes, I would suggest a 300mm lens for distant shots of ships, such as in the shipping lanes, from shore on major rivers or seaports where the ships are 400,500,600 meters distant. The issue is a 300mm can be too long a lens, too narrow a field of view for bow-to-stern, side-view pictures unless the ships are so far away that most detail is lost. In my area, the Columbia River, we have many ships, and a 70-200mm telephoto is a good suggestion.

The mid-1970's to mid-1980's were the heyday of manual focusing, third-party zoom lenses, like 70-200 or 70-210mm f/3.5 lenses, or chaper ones, like 70-210 f/3.8 type lenses, or a few oddballs with 70-250 or whatnot....these lenses are now OLD, and available for $10-$35 used from pawn shops, KEH.com, etc.

Asanuma, Quantaray, other oddball brands, MANY to chosoe from. I suggest KEH.com because they buy only the better items, of each type...but a prime, 300mm f/4.5 or f/4 telephoto will be harder to find in Canon FD type mount....but they do exist.

ONE BRAND to look into would be Tamron Adaptall or Tamron Adaptall-II manual focus lenses, with a Canon adapter being the ONLY difference in a lens that can/could be fitted to a Pentax or Nikon,etc, or a Canon. Tamron made some nice Adaptall-II lenses: a NICE 180mm f/3.5 or f/2.8....I shot one, good. Same with their 300/2.8 and their 400mm f/3.5 super-teles. They also had some zooms...maybe a 90-300mm f/3.8???

I would say, also do NOT discount a 1970's-1980's era 135mm f/2.,8 lens: THIS is an EASY lens type to build well,and sharp, and cost is usually a mere $10,$15,$20!!! GOOD lenses, the 135/2.8 lenses of the 70's and 80's.