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Partial Evolution of the F-1 drives


ed_kubacki

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<p>You are correct Jim! I am happy I found these over the last few years. All of them are in very good to excellent condition. I used to look at the Canon catalog as a kid and dream of owning an F-1 with a motor drive, now 45 years later,,,,,,</p>

<p>I'm attaching individual shots.</p>

<p>Ed</p>

<div>00e7WU-565159284.JPG.87cda7849e105820bb751972a5d7a8df.JPG</div>

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<p>Now the F-1n. The Power Winder F was probably the most practical of the bunch. I think nothing of 10 fps on my EOS 1D Mk III, cause I don't have to change film. The 2.5 to 3 fps of the power winder is more than enough for 36 exposures! But the best featureis it uses the same battery pack as the Power winder A from the AE-1! Compared to the 10 loose batteries in the Motor Drive F or the 4 loose batteries in the Power Winder FN,it is brilliant! </p>

<p>Ed</p><div>00e7WV-565159384.JPG.522f78ca66755aa0e925289d5a812552.JPG</div>

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<p>Lastly, the New F-1. Not to beat a dead horse, but maybe they could have put a little more thought into naming it? NF-1 or even FA-1 would have been a better choice!</p>

<p>The Power Winder FN is a step backwards with the loose batteries and rather flimsy battery cover. They should have stuck with the Battery Pack A. Anyway, it was the the least expensive way to get aperture priority feature in the camera.</p>

<p>Ed</p><div>00e7Wg-565160084.JPG.f8b81324eed6af924e7b6b996a979d77.JPG</div>

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<blockquote>

<p>Now the F-1n. The Power Winder F was probably the most practical of the bunch.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Agreed. I picked up a Power Winder F for my original F-1 and it's a beautiful accessory. I use it on "Single" mode whenever I take pictures of people. You can concentrate on taking pics and not worry about advancing film. Plus it's small and light (especially compared to the Motor Drive MF). The only drawback (if you want to call it that) is that it's noisy. But most motor drives are.</p>

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<p>I also have all three of my F-1s equipped with motor accessories -- similar to Ed, in fact. I have two F-1n's, one with the MD-MF and one with the Power Winder F. My New F-1 has the AE Motor Drive FN attached. Unlike the winder, it is robust in every way.</p>

<p>I agree with Jim about the Power Winder F's noise level. It isn't so much the volume, I think, as it is the rather lazy wind speed while it's being noisy. In other words, it's noisy for a longer period of time than it is with one of the motors.</p>

<p>And yes, I too am glad to see the classic site back. Honestly, I don't see why they feel the need to custom code a new site -- well, for the forums, at least. There are a number of mature forum software packages out there, any of which would be able to handle this place's requirements easily.</p>

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<blockquote>

<p>And yes, I too am glad to see the classic site back. Honestly, I don't see why they feel the need to custom code a new site -- well, for the forums, at least. There are a number of mature forum software packages out there, any of which would be able to handle this place's requirements easily.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>I suspect this isn’t the last we’ll hear from the people who run Photo.net. They seem to think a site redesign is necessary. All things change, I get that, but at least change the site to something that is easy to look at and easy to use. And please keep the FD group separate from the Canon EOS group.</p>

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<p>This thread made me think of this fun story from my trip to Belize in January. I took only Canon FD gear using an F1N and four lenses (backup body was an EF). I had the smaller winder on the F1N. I was shooting on the beach one morning and I heard a small laugh behind me. I turn around and there's a guy -- probably mid 50s -- relaxing on one of the rental beach chairs. Before I can say anything, he remarks "I haven't heard THAT sound in over 15 years!". I hadn't really connected the dots on where he was going -- it must've showed. "Your camera -- I'm a professional photographer and I hadn't heard a film winder in years but I recognized the sound immediately!" </p>

<p>We talked for about 20 minutes. He used to shoot Canon and, indeed, the F1 (we didn't discuss which variant). He went on to explain some of his past shooting gigs and we parted with a handshake.</p>

<p>I shot 13 rolls of Ektar and Portra 400 that trip and, except for watching an ant cross the reflex mirror at one point while shooting and running a battery on the F1N dead, it was a pleasant trip for FD photography.</p>

<p>I do pledge to put some photos up. I got busy and forgot all about it. AND broke up with the woman I went with so didn't want to revisit it with photos ... </p>

<p>(I'll post one image for now with a promise to add more later.)</p><div>00e7dd-565177584.jpg.d5a92591f83a5b4d42ef05e5c19fa0e0.jpg</div>

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<p>Dang - you forced me to hook up my old Motor Drive MD. After cleaning the contacts several times, it still works after sitting collecting dust for ten years. The real beast was when I coupled it with the film chamber 250 to shoot races. Ah, the 250 is long gone. I sold it off just before Ektachrome in 100' rolls died.</p>
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<p>I have two Canon motor drives FN that I use very seldom since I retired from professional work, I love the F1 I have five of them, but it's a heavy camera and adding the weight of the motor drive that takes twelve AA batteries doesn't help and if I don't expect to be shooting anything for which I think it will be absolutely necessary I leave it at home, there was a time that I uses to lug three F1's two of them with motor drives attached but I was much younger then and needed to for my job, these days I try to carry the minimum of equipment since I'm only shooting for my personal work I try to make my pictures fit the equipment I have with me. </p>
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<p>I feel Ben's pain, but the solution to the weight of the N F1 plus the Motor Drive FN with all those batteries is to have my wife carry it until I'm ready to shoot. I'll be shooting my nephew's wedding with it this weekend, so with Carol carrying the camera until needed, I'll be able to eat more cake. Oh yeah, I'll be having her carry it with the 577G flash, too. </p>
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<p>Charles, you made me laugh. I could probably get my wife to do something like that, but there would probably be hell to pay afterward.</p>

<p>Carl, your comments reminded me of a certain familiarity I have with the sound of motor drives. The way you describe it, it seems this fellow identified with the specific motor drive you were using.</p>

<p>How often do you watch TV and hear the added in sound of motor drives, even when the photographers are most likely shooting digital? It's still pretty prevalent. And those who add in the sound of motor drives tend to stick to a few "favorites." I've used several different motor drives a <em>lot</em> over the years, and I can pretty much spot just by sound the Canon Motor Drive MA (used with the A-1 and AE-1P), the Nikon MD-12 (used with the FE and FM series), and the Nikon F4 (used on the F3). These are the sounds I most often hear when I'm watching a TV program, so immediately I'm seeing if I can identify an A-1 or FE or FM or F3 after I've heard their distinctive motor drive sounds. </p>

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<p>The first drive I ever bought was a Power Winder F for my then-new F-1n. I couldn't afford the full blown Motor Drive MF so there was always a twinge of jealously whenever I saw one. However, I found that the Power Winder did exactly what I needed: advance ONE frame (on the "S" setting) after taking a shot. So I "justified" to myself that I really didn't need 3.5fps since I didn't even need 2fps. But the MF looked so cool...<br>

<br /> Fast forward 25 years or so when I bought my New F-1. I saw that used Motor Drive FN were relatively inexpensive so I bought one as well as the Power Winder FN. Man, that combo is HEAVY with its 12 batteries! So, in retrospect, I was glad I never could afford a Motor Drive MF because I suspect that combo is even worse (weight-wise) and it would have just sat in the storage box, just like my Motor Drive FN mostly does...<br>

<br /> One last point: I wish Canon had stuck with keeping the Power Winder FN an amateur level accessory. The Power Winder F uses the low torque of the winder motor to stop the winder when the film reaches the end of the roll. The Winder FN uses the reverse frame counter countdown like the motor drives and I find it to be a PITA and time consuming since the winder FN has to be "set up" when a new roll is inserted in the camera.</p>

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<p>Wow,this has been a bigger thread than I could expected. I just wanted to find a subject to use my new backdrop.<br>

<br />The Motor Drive MF was a recent acquisition and I had 3 drives and 3 F-1s, so......</p>

<p>Of all of the designs, the Power Winder F is the most practical. I believe this is true for not only for Canon, but others as well. The ergonomics as well as the use of the Battery Pack A,make it the overall best design.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the responses.</p>

<p>Ed</p>

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<p>I agree; the F-1 with Power Winder F is the best, most comfortable setup.<br /> Regarding your question about the naming convention, I think it was in the Canon Cameras book by Carl Shipley or in a Popular Photography magazine equipment review that explained why Canon called the second generation F-1, "just" New F-1. Unlike Nikon (F, F2, F3, F4...) who used the number part of their F-series camera to count off each subsequent generation, the F-1 had a specific meaning from the beginning at Canon: Flex #1. As in, the #1 reFlex camera in the world. So, any other name would be a step down or away from #1. I don't know how true that is or if he had some internal sources that told him so but that is what he wrote...</p>
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<p>Regarding Canon's naming conventions, I've always reasoned it differently. And it had to do with Nikon. Nikon came out with the F in 1959 and Canon came out with the F-1 in 1971, the same year that Nikon came out with the F2. Well, this pretty much precluded Canon from naming its next pro camera the F-2, which would seem to be a logical step. So by 1980 or 1981 when Canon came out with its New F-1, it had a track record with the original F-1 already, so they just decided to keep this name, and gave it the "New" affix, and put a lot of emphasis on the newness of the "New" model. It was an evolution of the original -- a rather radical evolution (the only item the two cameras share is the eyepiece ring), but at least that was the intended perception. So I think this is why Canon decided against giving it a completely new name.</p>

<p>Oh, and I have to mention a typo in my earlier post. I wrote "F4" for the Nikon F3's motor drive, when I should have written "MD4".</p>

 

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<p>I used to lug about on a daily basis for my job for more than twenty years two Canon F1N-N's with Motor Drive FN 's attached and several lenses, I need a a very good specific reason to carry one these days, I do occasionally shoot my grandchildren running about using one from time to time.</p>
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<p>A design fault with the New F1 and the Motor Drive FN is that if the camera battery fails while you are out shooting with the drive attached you can't remove it to shoot with the purely manual shutter speeds, and you can't replace the battery without exposing the film, I used to always carry a changing bag for that reason.</p>
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