It was forty years ago today

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>Forty years ago, I was a freshly minted high graduate preparing to enter college and become a Biomedical Engineer. Having saved up working part time at McDonalds thru my senior year; I convinced my Dad to drive from my home on Long Island to Trenton NJ to buy my first ‘modern’ SLR (I had an Exacta VX-500 I used in high school, not state of the art by then).</p>

<p>I saw an ad, most likely in Modern Photography (or was it Popular Photo?), advertising the Canon FTb with 50mm f1.8 for $199.99, which was a princely sum for a part time burger flipper, but it was the best price advertised. The package included the Eveready case and four rolls of Kodacolor-X with processing. This was the first big purchase of my life with money I earned myself.</p>

<p>While I wanted the F-1 and EF, the FTb was the practical choice for me as the others were out of reach, but I knew that the Canon system was the one for me. This has been born out over the last four decades, recently I have been collecting Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Minolta. All are worthy cameras with great lenses, each has its good points and bad, but I am very happy I started with my FTb . I eventually added an EF and FTbn and several years later a New F-1.</p>

<p>But it was on July 10^th, 1973 I became a Canonista and I was hardly ever caught without my FTb for the next 10 years. Throughout college, I carried that FTb in my briefcase, for several semesters, I was the photo editor for the campus paper. I took it on vacation trips, family events, car accidents and to fires or whatever was worth photographing. It never failed me and borrow a phrase “it takes a licking and keeps on ticking” day in and day out. It still works today.</p>

<p>My FTb has weather these years well as the photos show, mostly because it was in the case (at least the bottom part) for most of the first 10 - 20 years. Unfortunately, the case hasn’t lasted and has deteriorated as most of the economy cases of that era have. Amazingly, the ‘Anytime Baby’ sticker has held up well. For those of you who may not know the reference, it is the unofficial motto for the F-14 Tomcat, built by Grumman in Bethpage Long Island. Growing up on Long Island in the 60’s and 70’s you either worked for Grumman, were related to someone who worked for Grumman or knew about a dozen people who worked for Grumman. I felt at the time, it was a good way to express myself and I thought was cool.</p>

<p>I’m going to run a roll of film thru my old baby to celebrate 40 years of my membership into the ranks the Canonistas.</p>

<p>Thanks for reading my ramble.</p>

<p>Ed</p><div></div>

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>Top view, yes that is the original hot shoe protector!</p><div></div>

[marc_bergman1]

<p>Ed,</p>

<p>You got yourself a great camera at a great price. I got my Canon FTb in 1972. I kept it for 30 years and then it went to a friend whose FTb had bit the dust.</p>

<p>I looked through my old photo magazines and found this ad for Camera Hut. It was in the August 1973 issue of Popular Photography. Unfortunately the condition of the magazine made it hard to get a complete scan but I thought you would like to see it.</p><div></div>

[bill_force]

<p>Nice nostalgia post but fairly new for me. I was in my sophmore year of high school and worked the entire summer as a "gopher" for my Dad who was a building contractor in Central California in 1947 so I could buy my first real camera for the following years Photography class, a 35mm Perfex with a Wollensach F3.5 lens. I kept that old camera until I became a Navy Photog and bought several cameras in Japan and gave it to my sister.</p><div></div>

[rick_janes]

Ed, that's a cool story...and it seems your FTb rather handily outlasted the F-14s!

[User_4136860]

<p>I bought my FTbn thirty eight years ago second hand and it has given my trouble free service for all that time it still works perfectly, all I have done is replace the light seals and mirror bumper. It makes me wonder where all the current all singing all dancing digital S.L.R.s will be in thirty eight years.</p>

<p>slrs</p>

[andy_burkholder]

<p>Great story! My first Canon SLR was an AT-1 handed down from my Dad (for about $150) in 1979 when I was not quite 13 and he upgraded to an A-1. I still have it and it works flawlessly. I've been offered about what I paid for it, but the sentimental value is far greater. Despite how fantastic newer cameras are as of late, I still love to pick up my old match-needle Canon. Incidentally, my Dad now shoots a T1i and is giving me all of his old Canon film gear including the 1968 FT-QL he used to shoot a lot of my toddler pictures. I'll never sell any of it.</p>

[mike_pearson]

<p>I wish I could show you a picture of my original Ftb, but it, along with a sweet black AE1, the wife's TX and 28, 100 and 200 Canon FD lenses all got stolen from the boot of my car when we were on holiday in Arcachon France in 1985. Ironically I bought into Canon when the insurance company sent me a cheque when my original camera, a Petriflex V6, was stolen along with a rag bag of off-brand lenses, when my house in Nottingham was burgled in around 1978. I recall paying around 150GBP for the Ftb with 1.8 lens, which was around a month's salary for me, a graduate town planner.<br>

I have to admit that when I got the insurance cheque for the Ftb I was surprised to find |I could not get anything like the equivalent of the stuff stolen in Canon gear, so switched to brand new Lympus OM1s with 24, 100 and 200mm lenses. Whilst I loved the feel and lightness of the Olympus, we could never get on with them. Shutter speeds around the lens???? I never could get the right exposure with the TTL metering on the OM1 (I should have had the meters recalibrated I guess), but also i never felt that Olympus slides had the impact I had got with Canon.<br>

So after a couple of years when The Olmypuses languished, around 1990 we decided to offload and go back to Canon.I got good prices for the OM1 gear as it was mint, and armed with a wodge of cash descended on the several camera shops then trading in Nottingham. I found a mint EF witha 55mm f1.2 for 199 GBP which had to be an error - it's what you would have expected to pay for an EF with 1.8, or maybe a 1.4. I gradually put my Canon gear back in place and then went for the big one - a brand new 35mm Tilt Shift at around £600. It was essential for my work as a planner ( or that's what I told the wife) but was soon made obsolescent by the shift to EOS. I decided at that point that Canon could carry on it's own sweet way and I would stick with FD.<br>

I have amassed a tidy collection of FD glass and Canon bodies (Black Ftb, TX, AE1 and Programme, A1 ( x2) , T70 ( x 3)etc, all bought at knock down prices, and I have a Lumix G which I can fit them to for digital. I miss the wide angle of the Canon 17mm and 20mm on the Lumix, but maybe if they produce a FD to4/3 Speed Booster that issue may be resolved. <br>

I have bought several other systems over the years at knock down prices - Kiev, Contax G, Mamiya 220, Canon 7, but the Canon FD stuff is the system I keep returning to as it is just so versatile and rewarding.</p>

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>Marc,<br>

<strong>WOW!</strong> How did you find that? That’s the place! Holy Cow! I searched the net and could not come up with anything. You nailed it! Thanks.</p>

<p>Bill,<br>

That’s sure a neat Perfex, you never forget your first girl…</p>

<p>Rick,<br>

Thanks. Yeah, I’m bummed out that the fleet is no longer being protected by the Tomcat. I bet if they dusted them off, replaced the seals and bumper foam, wait second.... and put them back out there, they could hold their own today.</p>

<p>Ben,<br>

I agree, will the 30D, 40D and 1D MkIII still be useable in 10 years? Bet you my FTb will!</p>

<p>Andy,<br>

I too have an AT-1, bought it thru the ‘Bay about 3 years ago. It is a neat camera, although it is often over looked as the ‘Red Headed step child’ to the AE-1.</p>

<p>Mike,<br>

Sorry to hear about your loss of your FTb. The sentimental value is hard to replace. Nice find on the EF, WOW a 55mm f1.2! What a deal! I too have amassed an OM-1 and 2n, nice cameras, but I always come back to my Canons. I almost gave up on Canon in 200 when I was in the market for a new Autofocus SLR, I even considered going to the darkside (Nikon, horrors!), but came back to Canon afterall.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for letting me share.</p>

<p>Ed</p>

[chuck -]

<p>Great memories, Ed-<br>

I bought my first Canon in 1973 also, and it was also a FTbQL - but I got the f1.4 50mm chrome-nose. Otherwise, the camera is identical to your photos. I still have the camera, and yes, the original hot shoe protector! Unfortunately, the last time I used it (17 years ago), the negatives were pretty much blown out - suggesting a light leak or a dragging shutter... I don't remember my diagnosis. Maybe someday I will clean her up and try again.</p>

[Bettendorf]

<p> Thanks for the story Ed. It made me think of my own first one, about 6 months after you. It was an FTb also, with a 50/1.4 S.S.C.. I paid about $299 for it if I remember right. The FTBn was already out for a while, and probably the salesman of the small St. Louis area camera store took advantage of an 18 year old kid and got some old stock cleared out at premium prices! Unfortunately this January I can't celebrate 40 years because it is long gone. A few years later though, I bought a new A-1 and have been buying and shooting FD ever since.<br>

Ben, I think that in 38 years they will have long since been turned into milk jugs and flip-flops!</p>

 

[steve_mareno1]

<p>The Canon FT QL that I gave away here was one of my all time favorite cameras, except for the eye relief, which made shooting it w/ glasses nearly impossible. There was no way to see the whole frame, so I just centered things up and hoped for the best when I used it. It had a very high build quality, and fit my hands like a glove. If it hadn't been for that viewfinder I'd still have it.</p>

<p>40 years ago my life was all about cars and motorcycles, along w/ a wife and kids. There was also all the cultural stuff that was happening in the 60's, and it was still going on in 1971. I was a true blue hippie (but a working class hippie), w/ a direct connection to Owsley's mind expanding products. Those were some times! When I later moved to the left coast I had nothing in common w/ those hippies, except the music and the, um, chemicals. Actually, we didn't agree on the music either in many cases. I didn't get the Dead shows (all that strumming!), and they didn't have much exposure to The Allman Brothers, Black Oak Arkansas, or the Meters, so that didn't really work. That scene had gone very bad anyway w/ all the wrong people being attracted for all the wrong reasons. All things must end, but I've retained my working class views and my hippie ethics. Strange mix, but it works.</p>

<p> </p>

[jodys]

<p>I have my father's FTb with the 1.4 chrome nose, that he bought new about that time. He also bought a crap Soligor zoom, a 2x extender, and a Bushnell 24mm wide angle. I carried all of that in his leather camera bag on a rack on my bicycle for several hundred miles, while a teenager. He never asked to have his camera back; it's still upstairs in a slightly more modern case. </p>

[railphotog]

<p>I got my black FTb QL with a 50mm f/1.4 lens probably around 1971-72. Believe it cost me around $325.00, Canadian prices were (and still are) always higher than those in the U.S. Through the years since then I traded my current camera(s) for newer models, so my FTb is long gone.<br>

<br />I've recently been scanning color slides I took at drag races near Montreal with this camera in 1973, and I've been quite pleased at their quality. Especially so since my other lenses were cheap pre-set ones from Hanimex, a 135mm and a 300mm.</p>

<p>Several years ago I had the thought of re-acquiring some of the camera models I had owned in the past. Since they were and are fairly cheap, I've done well. One deal I got through a local online selling site included a chrome FTb QL with a 50mm f/1.8 lens. While I would have preferred to have a black model, this one will do. What struck me the most was the weight of the FTb! I don't recall it being that heavy. </p>

<p>I don't have any intention of using my FTb, nor the other 7 FD and 7 EOS film bodies in my collection. But it is nice just to have them as reminders of days passed.</p>

<p><br /><br /><br /> </p>

[dennis_kushner2]

30 years for my first Canon body. A T70 with 35-105/ 3.5 zoom. Still have the T70 but left it in CA with my

sister & haven't used it in 7 years.

[grey_rogacion]

<p>I'm still using a Canon Ftb ever since I downgraded myself into a mechanical manual camera. I'm enjoying photography more going back to basics since i have slowed down. I just needed an old reliable that is built to last and could get the job done.<br>

<br /> Getting used to the focusing, sunny 16 or metering, hyperfocusing and zone focusing knowledge really help speed things up.<br>

<br /> The Ftb's easy to open, top to bottom to blow clean, lubricate, replace the seals and damper. At the bottom of the camera is a rubber pad, that absorbes the vibration and sound of the shutter you can replace with a better one, if ever, if when it falls off....................</p>

[Alex_Es]

A well cared for baby.

[mwmcbroom]

<p>Ed, that was a very cool story to read. My first "real" camera was an FTbn that I bought in 1984. I had been a Canon user for a couple of years by then, starting off with an AE-1 and about a year later buying an A-1. But I was getting frustrated with all the automation and lack of robust manual control. Plus I really wanted mirror lock-up. So I took a big step backward chronologically, but to me it was a big step forward in my bid to understand photography better.</p>

<p>About a year or so after buying my FTbn, I bought an F-1 (original) and a couple years after that, I bought another F-1. Then motor drives for both. I was in my element at last and the FTb was the camera that paved the way.</p>

<p>My FTbn with FL 35mm f/2.5 attached. Taken in about 1986, Canon F-1, FD 50mm f/3.5 macro, Kodachrome 64.<br>

<img src="http://michaelmcbroom.com/images/canon_ftb_35fl_1.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="619" /></p>

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>Thank you all for your responses, it made this otherwise unimportant (in the big picture of life) anniversary special.</p>

<p>Ed</p>

 

[t._kim]

<blockquote>

<p>But it was on July 10^th, 1973 I became a Canonista and I was hardly ever caught without my FTb for the next 10 years.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Nice story Ed. Enough pics <em>of</em> the camera. How about pics taken <em>with</em> the camera - especially in those 10 years?</p>

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>OK T.</p>

<p>I'll have to find some, I think I can, but after several moves the oldest negs are buried. </p>

<p>I just ran a roll of color film thru the FTb and I will post some when I get it developed. It's getting harder and harder to find local photo processing.</p>

<p>Ed</p>

 

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>OK, I found some photos from the FTb. All are from the early to mid 70's, except the XP-1 that is from 86.</p><div></div>

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>another shot</p><div></div>

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>Ilford XP-1 April 1986</p><div></div>

[ed_k__north_carolina_]

<p>self portrait</p><div></div>