At the time, people thought that Canon had sat on a keg of cannon powder and dropped a match into it. The complaining at the time was ferocious. All of the grumbling you see about all of Canon's digital cameras put together is a fraction of the howling back then. People who proclaim loudly in this very forum that Canon is hopelessly doomed because it is supposedly clueless about marketing and technology and building and selling SLRs because of the 5D II are shown to be uneducated about the history of the company and the cameras they use.
Time has proven that Canon, moving at its own speed, not being first at much including Autofocus technology, made the wisest decision possible. Look at Nikon and all their fumbling around with kludgy tabs and doodads and an compatibility / incompatibility chart with 241 cases.
I have two lenses from 1989 and a camera from then. Don't know about the camera, but I still use the lenses.
At the time, people thought that Canon had sat on a keg of cannon powder and dropped a match into it. The complaining at the time was ferocious. All of the grumbling you see about all of Canon's digital cameras put together is a fraction of the howling back then. People who proclaim loudly in this very forum that Canon is hopelessly doomed because it is supposedly clueless about marketing and technology and building and selling SLRs because of the 5D II are shown to be uneducated about the history of the company and the cameras they use.
Time has proven that Canon, moving at its own speed, not being first at much including Autofocus technology, made the wisest decision possible. Look at Nikon and all their fumbling around with kludgy tabs and doodads and an compatibility / incompatibility chart with 241 cases.
I have two lenses from 1989 and a camera from then. Don't know about the camera, but I still use the lenses. ...Show more →
I disagree, the EOS showed them when they were daring and willing to move forward, now they are fat and slow the last number of years. Very different.
Sorry but Nikon approach was wiser.
History has proven that you can have G-lenses with all the bells whistles (just like Eos lenses) without reinventing the bayonet and declare the previous FD system DEAD, like it is now.
You can still use most Nikkor F manual lenses on the 2012 Nikon D800 and they can even show correct exif data.
This is sad also because many FD lenses were outstanding.
Sorry but Nikon approach was wiser. History has proven that you can have G-lenses with all the bells whistles (just like Eos lenses) without reinventing the bayonet and declare the previous FD system DEAD, like it is now. You can still use most Nikkor F manual lenses on the 2012 Nikon D800 and they can even show correct exif data. This is sad also because many FD lenses were outstanding.
Well this is just one opinion. Canon did a serious attempt to bring Af in the FD mount. Their T80 was a camera that tried to include AF in the FD system. However, the bulky size of the 35-70AF lens as well as the slow and relatively noisy AF could not match Minolta's successful 7000 AF system. Canon management realised that the mount needed to be bigger and provided with modern digital communcations to be ready for later progression in technology of electronics and optics (EOS). That's why they decided to start with a whole new system that rapidly proved to be better than any of it's competitors. Nikon's philosophy may have been the basis for a more versatile system for some time, but after the market adapted to the shift of paradigm that all cameras should be AF based, Nikon's system was caught in it's own limitations chosen for backward compatibility.
Today, I am one of the photographers who is amazed that none of the relatively newcomers in the market of DSLR's did not introduce completely new system elements because greenfield thinking is a possibility for those newcomers since they have no heritage to protect. My bet is that the road Sony went with their NEX system is an indication where the market is heading. A Korean or Chinese manufacturer that has the guts to bring revolutionary new designs based on out of the box thinking on a high quality level has good chances in a market where traditional photo manufacturers like Olympus, Pentax, Kodak, Hasselblad, Rollei, Mamiya and others have become in great trouble. Trouble that neither the current market leaders Nikon and Canon have been immune from. Nikon seems to come back with some interesting new models, but has some (financially) bad years behind them. They lost too much marketshare in the compact camera market where they once were very succesful with their Coolpix 900 swivel models, this, combined whith their dependency from technology from great competitors, makes them very vulnerable. Canon is not immune for future trouble either.
I was at the meeting from Canon when they introduced their EOS system march 2.nd 1987, a terrible winterday with ice rain that day. Within a few days it's exactly 25 years now. Critique from some visitor that meeting on the discontinuity with the FD system and scepsis about a complete new EOS system at the time have been proven wrong. But today Canon faces the challenge to make new great steps. If not, the end of EOSfun is around the corner. Some competitor will take the market overnight with a convincing new camera concept. Again this is just around the corner. The technology is available. The market potential is latent but overwhelming. The ideas and power for innovation are only limited by the power and courage of management of cameramanufacturers. somehow I have the impression they are in different boardrooms than Shimaruko along the Tamagawa river.
Enjoy the EOSfun at your birthday party! I'll ignite a candle for Canon
@ eosfun:
"I was at the meeting from Canon when they introduced their EOS system march 2.nd 1987, a terrible winterday with ice rain that day."
:-)
EOS does not really look like a fault:
Over 50 Millions EOS Cameras and 70 Million lenses in less then 25 years do not look like not beeing successful to me ...
Exactly 25 years ago to the day, February 17th, 1987: Canon USA launched the EOS 650, the very first camera in the world's best selling autofocus SLR system of all time. With cumulative sales of more than 50 million EOS cameras and 70 million EF lenses since then, Happy Birthday EOS!
It could be perfectly well that the meeting I attended then was just the Benelux intro a few weeks after some international introduction anywhere else at february 17th or so. It's just that I can remember that date of the second of march 1987 still perfectly well because it was related to a personal happening that day and the fact that a tree in my garden broke down as a result of an ice rain that day. Immediately after I had taken measures to have the tree removed later on that day I went to the meeting with my boss in the camerastore to attend the EOS introduction. It was the very first day of EOSfun in my life
eosfun wrote:
Nikon's philosophy may have been the basis for a more versatile system for some time, but after the market adapted to the shift of paradigm that all cameras should be AF based, Nikon's system was caught in it's own limitations chosen for backward compatibility.
What?! I agree that it was a good decision of Nikon to have 100% compatibility with the old lenses. C'on even in the 80s it would have been technically possible for Canon to find an adaptation for old FD lenses with the new EF mount. I am convinced that this was done just for marketing reasons and to enforce sales of new EF lenses. I don't see where Nikon's system should have limitations for backward compatibility. It is still funny to see that you can find adapters to mount pretty much any other brand lens on a Canon DSLR camera, but not the own older FD lenses without having a severe drawback in IQ (or by buying a $$$$ Canon adapter which is very hard to find) for infinity focus capabilities.
what a beauty.
