History of Canon Cameras

Canon have a virtual Camera Museum that has all the cameras and technology that Canon have brought to our loving hands over the years, there are a number of sections and one is called the Canon Camera Story, here is a brief synopsis

In the early thirties, the two most popular brands of miniature cameras were Leica and Contax, both made in Germany, the camera kingdom of the world. These two brands attracted the camera fans, receiving enthusiastic support throughout the world as super grade cameras…. in February 1936, the Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory released the “Hansa Canon (Standard Model with the Nikkor 50mm f/3.5 lens),” which was the first commercial camera made by Canon…..”Canon” became the new trademark of Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory. “Canon” has such meanings as “standard for judgement or biblical scriptures,” which was most appropriate for the company striving for precision as its motto. 

Hansa Canon (Standard Model) J 35mm Focal-Plane Shutter Rangefinder Camera.    In the middle of 1937, strong voices were raised calling for production of the company’s own lenses. Yoshizo Furukawa, the company’s first optical engineer, developed some lenses on a trial basis such as the 50mm f/4.5 lens,

The Precision Optical Industry Co., Ltd., changed its name to Canon Camera Co., Ltd., on September 15, 1947. In 1951, the company introduced the “Serenar 50mm f/1.8″ lens, which was accepted as a masterpiece lens. The first half of the 1950s was the years in which many new cameras were released one after another. These include the “III” camera equipped with a fast shutter speed of 1/1000 second, the first in Japan, and the “IV” camera that had a flash rail that enabled using a flash unit directly connected to the camera without a cable.

“IV Sb2”The first half of the 1950s was the years in which many new cameras were released one after another. These include the “III” camera equipped with a fast shutter speed of 1/1000 second, the first in Japan, and the “IV” camera that had a flash rail that enabled using a flash unit directly connected to the camera without a cable.

The first Canon SLR camera was the “Canonflex,” introduced in May 1959. With subsequent advances in SLR camera technology, SLR lenses also evolved, from R-series lenses to FL-series lenses, which incorporated a fully automatic aperture control mechanism. And with this progress, debuting along with FL-lens technology, was the “FX” camera, introduced in April 1964, which featured a built-in CdS exposure meter, ushering in the era of TTL (Through the Lens) metering with the launch of such successive cameras as the PELLIX and FTQL.

Since the fall of 1964, there had been growing calls from both inside and outside of the company that Canon should embark on production of a most advanced SLR camera to meet the requirements of professional photographers. After five years of development efforts, the “F-1″ camera was unveiled in March, 1971. The “F-1″ has left the most glorious footprints in the history of cameras.

Developed exclusively for professional photographers, the “F-1″ satisfied them with multiple functions and the systematic configuration. More than 180 accessories including lenses and filters were made available for this camera. It proved to be durable, highly reliable and performed well even under the harsh conditions professional photographers are often forced to confront. Thus, the camera gained wide popularity among professional photographers. The “F-1″ wasthe official 35mm camera for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, and the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, U.S.A.

Based on technology developed for the “F-1″ camera, in 1972 the company succeeded in producing the “High Speed Motor Drive Camera” having the shooting speed of 9 frames per second.

Sixteen new FD-series lens were introduced together with the “F-1.” To compliment the professional “F-1″ camera, its lens had been improved to ensure central resolution exceeding 100 lines per millimeter and to achieve high contrast. Good color balance throughout the series was achieved by careful selection of optimal glass materials and improved lens surface coating methods.

Unveiled in April 1976, the “AE-1″ camera was the world’s first 35 mm Auto-Exposure (AE) SLR camera equipped with a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The camera integrated the latest electronics and optics technologies. Together with the “A-1″ camera having five AE modes, which was introduced in April 1978

When the AE-1 came out, TTL manual-metering models (including the Canon FTb and FTb-N) were still the mainstream in the 35mm SLR market. Autoexposure models were still at the very top end of the SLR market. They were expensive and produced in small numbers.

The AE-1, however, was designed from the ground up with five major units and twenty-five minor units. They were centrally controlled by a microcomputer. By incorporating electronics, the parts count could be reduced by 300. The manufacturing of the camera was also highly automated. This made it possible to produce a low-cost camera having high-end features.

In March 1983, the company released the T-Series cameras, which realized high-cost-performance through employing various automated functions and competitive pricing. The T-Series cameras include “T50,” “T70″ and “T80,” culminating into the “T90,” which was marketed in February 1986 as a professional model.

The T90 is a multi-mode SLR with built-in motor drive. The form of the pentaprism hump is a distinct characteristic. Instead of being sharp-edged like on previous cameras, it is rounded with smooth curves. The camera was designed to lessen the picture-taking burden on the user via automation. It aimed for seamless operation to respond to the user’s will. A lot of top-notch technology and thought went into the camera.

The camera has three metering systems to suit diverse shooting conditions. Eight autoexposure modes and two manual exposure modes also make the camera highly versatile.

Under the development project called “EOS (Electro Optical System), ” Canon confirmed that “a highly-refined AF SLR model deserving Canon’s name should be developed with the target market release date of March 1, 1987, the year of Canon’s 50th anniversary. ” The EOS development efforts bore fruit with the introduction of the “EOS 650″ on March 1987 as scheduled

The EOS 650 boasted incomparable autofocusing. Each EF lens has its own optimum built-in motor for autofocusing

With the advent of the new millennium came groundbreaking new EOS-series digital camera products. Launched in 2000 was the EOS D30, a full-fledged AF digital SLR featuring a high-resolution CMOS sensor. In 2001, EOS-1D hit the market as a professional digital SLR targeted at sports and news photographers, while the EOS-1Ds featured an 11.1 megapixel sensor and was designed to be the perfect high-end photographic tool. Canon’s efforts to enhance functionality without compromising on cost performance were crystallized in the EOS D60 in 2002 and EOS 10D in 2003.

Premier AF Performance: The 45-point area AF gives predictive AI servo AF at about 9 fps (with the PB-E2 attached) for outstanding subject tracking and blazingly fast focusing, all automatically.

In 2005, Canon introduced the EOS 5D, a full-size 35mm digital SLR camera with a remarkably low price within reach of many consumers.

So the history of Canon from 1936 to today has been a road of innovation. Here we have only looked at the pivotal moments in that history and only at the more serious cameras so there are a wealth of compact cameras and video cameras as well in the Canon archive. If you want a more detailed history go here

A Brief History of Nikon

Today, we are spoilt for choice – there are an incredible number cameras for us to choose from. What has remained fairly constant however is the manufacturers of those cameras. Although there are a few newer players, mainly from the consumer electronics  industry, there is still a hard core of the well known tr1aditional camera makers in any top ten list of photographic companies. Over the next few months we are going to take brief look at the history of some of the most iconic camera makers around today, starting with Nikon…..writes Jason Row is a British born travel photographer now living in Ukraine. You can follow him on The Odessa Files. on Lightstalking

Click Here: A Brief History of Nikon

Time Lapse Photography – Podcast with Dave Delnea

In this month’s podcast, Matt Brandon speaks with Vancouver-based photographer Dave Delnea about his newest Craft & Vision eBook, Timelapse: An Introduction to Still Photographs in Motion. Matt & Dave discuss the details of timelapse photography, and the nuances of stitching those still images together to create a movie. Hear the podcast here

Pentax offers K-30 in a variety of colors and finishes

Oh yuk!

Pentax has announced a wide range of new colors options for its K-30 weather-sealed mid-level DSLR. Available in either a shiny ‘Crystal’ or matte ‘Silky’ finish, the 16MP DSLR now comes in dramatic tones like orange, yellow and blue. The cameras are available for pre-order at a retail price of $799.95, including the 18-55 kit lens. See below for a complete list of available color options. If you are tempted there is more information here

 

Cameras vs the human eye

I was teaching the first session of our Understanding Your DSLR Camera last night and in encouraging the students to explore their subjects and not to just take a picture from their standing position set me thinking about the difference between the human eye and a camera. Why can’t we just point a camera and capture what we see, how hard can it be? I am often told by those new to photography that what their cameras reproduce is not what they see so why is that. Doing a bit of research I found my way back to the ever excellent Cambridge in Colour website. This has to be the most technically correct site on photography, the detail and explanations are precise as a very precise thing, say an atomic clock….Here is a short bit of what is explained, go here for the full detail with pictures and diagrams, it is interesting

Portrait of Dennis Stock by Andreas Feininger

Our eyes are able to look around a scene and dynamically adjust based on subject matter, whereas cameras capture a single still image. This trait accounts for many of our commonly understood advantages over cameras. For example, our eyes can compensate as we focus on regions of varying brightness, can look around to encompass a broader angle of view, or can alternately focus on objects at a variety of distances…….

Our central angle of view — around 40-60° — is what most impacts our perception. Subjectively, this would correspond with the angle over which you could recall objects without moving your eyes. Incidentally, this is close to a 50 mm “normal” focal length lens on a full frame camera (43 mm to be precise), or a 27 mm focal length on a camera with a 1.6X crop factor. Although this doesn’t reproduce the full angle of view at which we see, it does correspond well with what we perceive as having the best trade-off between different types of distortion:…….

Most current digital cameras have 5-20 megapixels, which is often cited as falling far short of our own visual system. This is based on the fact that at 20/20 vision, the human eye is able to resolve the equivalent of a 52 megapixel camera (assuming a 60° angle of view)……

Taking the above into account, a single glance by our eyes is therefore only capable of perceiving detail comparable to a 5-15 megapixel camera….

Overall, most of the advantages of our visual system stem from the fact that our mind is able to intelligently interpret the information from our eyes, whereas with a camera, all we have is the raw image. Even so, current digital cameras fare surprisingly well, and surpass our own eyes for several visual capabilities. The real winner is the photographer who is able to intelligently assemble multiple camera images — thereby surpassing even our own mental image.  Go here for the full article on Cambridge in Colour

How To Choose the Best Monitor for Photography

When you have a camera that can produce images of a really good quality then viewing those images becomes important. Many people buy the monitor that came recommended for their computer without considering if it is most suitable for viewing images. If image making is the most important thing you do on a computer then choosing the best monitor for your purposes and budget is extremely important.

Jason Row over at Lightstalking addresses this in an article here. Jason says: If there is one piece of equipment often overlooked by many photographers, it is the monitor. Whilst we may spend thousands on cameras, lenses and upgraded computers, we often “make do” with our computer’s screen or buy a cheap one to get a larger size…….buying a monitor should be given as much consideration as buying a new camera or lens. After all, why invest all those thousands of dollars in top photographic equipment, if in the end you are viewing the images on a poor, low contrast and limited gamut monitor? 

Perhaps we are blinded by acronyms when buying our screens, after all there are so many, LCD, LED, TN, IPS, the list goes on. So what should we buy to suit our needs. Well let start with screen type. The cheapest monitors are based on twisted nematic (TN). Whilst having a fast response time, they have limited color reproduction, poor black levels and narrow viewing angles. They are fine for word processing but not for serious photographic work.

For photography, the minimum level you should be looking for is an IPS screen..…..MORE

I use an Eizo Coloredge CG222W, although no longer available it was the best I could afford at the time, and it is excellent. I also have a monitor and printer calibration system. I bought all of this equipment from Colour Confidence Their website is perfectly laid out with a monitor showroom where you can choose between screens based on price and compatibility. If you live in the UK have a look at what they have on offer. They also give excellent advice so if you have doubts give them a call.

Click Here: How To Choose the Best Monitor for Photography

 

Photography is the art of our time

The old masters painted the drama of life and death. Today photography captures the human condition – better than any other artistic medium of our age

Jonathan Jones writes in the Guardian It has taken me a long time to see this, and you can laugh at me if you like. But here goes.

Photography is the serious art of our time. It also happens to be the most accessible and democratic way of making art that has ever been invented. But first, let’s define photography.

A photograph is an image captured on film, paper or – most commonly now – in digital memory. Photography also includes moving images captured on film or video. Moving or still, we all know a photograph is not a pure record of the visual world: it can be edited and transformed in infinite ways

OK you might agree or want to shout at the page but here is the rest of the article, I think it is worth reading

Photography is the successor to the great art of the past … an English lesson in Pakistan Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP

Jessops goes into administration

Is it camera phones, is it the wonder web, what has caused the death of the high street camera shop?

We learn today that Jessops has thrown in the towel and is in administration. The death of camera shops is a great loss to everyone interested in photography because where do you go now for personal advice and to get the chance to handle a camera you want to buy. I believe the fit of a camera to an individual is very important, I know that I cannot use small compact cameras because of the sausages on the ends of my hands which other people call fingers, that is important when buying a camera. I also know that I will never buy the Canon EOS 1D mk 3 because it is so heavy, how do I know, well because I had the chance to handle one in a camera shop. The internet has brought savings to our equipment buying but it has not brought a better service. Here in Oxford we used to have 5 camera shops, mostly staffed by knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff who wanted to help you buy the right camera for you, now we have none. The best Morris Photographic has moved to a small town about 20 miles away, to an industrial estate, still they exist, here is their web address in case you want to find them in the wilds of Oxfordshire

This article int The Telegraph tells the tale of Jessops demise, if you prefer the BBC go here

How to Keep Your Camera Running Perfectly in the Dead of a Cold Winter

I am sure today is the coldest day of the year here in Oxford, or maybe it is the coldest day of the week, whatever it is just too cold. Cold in Oxford is not like cold in other places where it can be really cold, our cold is just….well cold. Enough, shooting in the winter has it’s pleasures but for me mostly outweighed by it’s pain so getting yourself sorted and ready to go an shoot when it is cold is really important. Batteries have a much shorter life in the cold.

Jason Row at Lightstalking has an article on this here

For those of us that inhabit Northern climes, the winter is fast approaching. I am sure many may put their cameras into hibernation for the dark days, preferring the comfort of the digital darkroom to the harsh realities of the freezing conditions, for some, outside.

However, by putting your feet up and ploughing through the summers post production, you could be missing some of the most spectacular shots of the year. Time to wrap up warm, wake the camera from it’s well earned slumber and get cold, for today we are going to take a look at some tips for winter shooting. Click Here: How to Keep Your Camera Running Perfectly in the Dead of a Cold Winter

Lomography releases bellows film camera

As if by magic, one story about the Lomo comes along and then there is another. I had said that Lomo had invented and produced a number of funky odd cameras but they also have made some which are a bit more serious and this is clearly one from that stable. The article, by Ariane Osman in the BJP gives the information you are probably not completely interested in but also think it might be fun to engage with film either again or for the first time.

The Belair X 6-12 is a new 120 film camera that gives users the ability to switch between normal automatic shutter speed and long exposure. The camera can also shoot pictures in three formats – regular 6×9, square 6×6 or panoramic 6×12.
The new model is an interchangeable lens system that allows the attachment of a 90mm standard lens or a 58mm wide-angle lens. Lomography is said to be developing more lenses for the Belair X 6-12 in a bid to create an entire medium-format platform.
The camera is available in three models: the City Slicker Edition for £249; the Jetsetter Edition for £299; and the Globetrotter Edition for £244.

The Belair X 6-12 will be available in December. For more details, visit www.lomography.com.

Here are a selection of the Lomo cameras available from lomography.com there is the fish eye, the spinner, the multishot, the plastic, the gold, from humble beginnings there is now an empire, prices start from about £40, the shop sells cameras, accessories, film everything you need and the galleries have lashings of inspiration

Read more:
http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2219240/lomography-releases-bellows-film-camera#ixzz2D2fyQoLB

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