Canon EF camera

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The Canon EF is a manual focus 35mm single-lens reflex camera produced by Canon between 1973 and 1978. It was compatible with Canon's FD-mount lenses. The EF was built as an electronic version of Canon's top-of-the line F-1 camera. Because of this, the EF shares the F-1's rugged construction and tough metal body.

The Canon EF contained a silicon photocell light meter with a range of EV 18 to EV -2 which measured light in a "central emphasis metering" pattern (also called center weighted average metering) with a bias against the top of the frame, to minimize underexposure due to a bright skyline. The Canon EF could operate "Variable Aperture AE" mode (commonly called shutter priority) or full manual mode, where the operator would control both the shutter speed and the aperture.

The EF used a unique shutter among Canon's 35mm SLRs: a Copal Square vertical-travel metal blade focal plane shutter. Unusually, long exposures (from 1 second to 30 seconds) were electronically controlled, while shorter ones (1/1000 second to 1/2 second) were mechanically controlled. This was very useful in conserving battery power, and allowed one to use the camera even with dead batteries. The metering system could also be turned off, e.g. when using flash, or at night, to preserve battery life.

Powering the electro-mechanical shutter and light meter were two PX 625 1.35 volt mercury batteries. Because the EF contains a unique voltage control system, common 1.5 volt alkaline batteries can be used in lieu of the now-unavailable mercury ones.

[Update from current Canon EF owner, 11/10/06: Please note that, after reading the previous revision of this article, I purchased PX 625A 1.5 volt alkaline batteries for my camera, and this type of battery caused wild fluctuations by the camera's metering needle. As a result, I do not recommend the 1.5 volt alkaline batteries for this camera. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON THIS TOPIC ARE WELCOME.]

The EF is the only camera in the manual focus Canon line of the 1960s and 1970s (which includes the FTb, the F-1, and the FT) that can be used with common 1.5 volt batteries without modification to the internal electronics. Like all pre-1987 Canon SLR's, the EF accepted Canon FD mount lenses. The shutter speed range was 1/1000th of a second to 30 seconds (in a beautifully pedantic touch, the 15 & 30 second settings actually give 16 and 32 seconds, thus preserving the doubling sequence), plus bulb. The X-sync was 1/125th of a second. The camera included setting for film speeds of 12 ASA to 3200 ASA.

The EF also featured a mirror-locking self-timer and a stop-down metering mode which could also be used for depth-of-field preview. The mirror can also be locked up independently of the self-timer for long exposures when the self-timer is not desired.

[edit] References

• Canon, Inc. Canon EF. Part of Canon's online Camera Museum.
• Canon, Inc. Canon EF User Manual. Retrieved from The Canon FD Documentation Project on September 21, 2005.
• Canon, Inc. Canon EF Service Manual. Retrieved from The Canon FD Documentation Project on September 21, 2005.

Canon SLR cameras
Mount Type	Series	Model
FL		FX (1964), FP (1964), Pellix (1965), FT QL (1966), Pellix QL (1966), TL (1968)
FD		FTb (1971), EF (1973), TLb (1974), TX (1975)
	F	F-1(1971), F-1n (1976), New F-1 (1982)
	A	AV-1 (1979), AT-1 (1978), A-1 (1978), AL-1 (1982), AE-1 (1976), AE-1 Program (1981)
	T	T50 (1983), T60 (1990), T70 (1984), T80 (1985), T90 (1986)
EOS	1	EOS-1 (1989), EOS-1N (1994), EOS-1N RS (1995), EOS-1V (2001),
		EOS 650 (1987), EOS 620 (1987), EOS 750QD (1988), EOS 850QD (1988), EOS 630QD (1989), EOS RT (1989), EOS 700QD (1989), EOS 10sQD (1990), EOS 1000F (1990), EOS 100 (1991), EOS EF-M (1991), EOS 5/5QD/A2/A2e (1992), EOS 1000FN (1992), EOS 500 (1993), EOS 888 (1993), EOS 50 (1995), EOS 500N (1996), EOS 3 (1998), EOS 88 (1999), EOS 300 (1999), EOS 30 (2000), EOS 3000N (2002), EOS 300V (2002), EOS 3000V (2003), EOS 30V (2004), EOS 300X (2004)
		Canon DSLR cameras
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