A few days after Leica announced the end of production of the M7, Canon has announced the discontinuation of the 1V, its last remaining film camera, after the last remaining stock was sold, bringing an end to the storied history of film cameras made by the industry giant.
I own a 1V, and it's by far one of my favorite cameras. Besides being a great performer and being able to use all of Canon's modern lenses, I think it's insanely impressive to watch it chew through a roll of film at 10 fps, something I find far more impressive than a fast modern digital camera considering it's moving physical media through there. Before the digital revolution, it was the camera of choice for many top photojournalists and sports shooters, and it still holds its own even today.
The 1V was the last in a line going back over 8 decades and represented the pinnacle of Canon's film cameras. In fact, its design would go on to be the basis for the digital version, the 1D, which continues as Canon's flagship digital camera today in the 1D X Mark II. Still, if you enjoy shooting film, I recommend grabbing a 1V off eBay and throwing a roll of Tri-X in it. It's an awesome experience.
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I was surprised they they just discontinued 1 v
Nikon please don't follow Leica and Canon discontinuing your film camera! The F6 is phenomenal!!
Yes, but who's buying one?
Every camera I've owned since my 16th birthday in 1980, when I received a Canon T50 has been a Canon. That T50 became my bread and butter until I moved onto moved to digital in the early 2000's.
And end of an era with film.
I used to own an EOS 3. It had features that my 5D MkIII doesn't: namely, it could focus where I was looking! I used to think that was awesome. But, when the price of DSLR's came down, I jumped ship.
ok, but this eos is so ugly that no film hipster would love to use it
For its day, it looked pretty good especially coming from an AE-1 Program.
I was torn between the 1V and EOS-3, ended up going with the 3 in the end. Has enough of the features of the 1V that I cared about such as weather sealing, and it had a better price point too. The Eye AF is pretty neat too (and it works!), something that the 1V never got.
I thought these were discontinued a decade ago.
Though sadly Canon is stopping film camera production that should not be too much of a concern. There are for sale many new and used Canon film cameras. Film cameras function for decades and can be CLA’d whereas digital cameras have a very short lifespan. Myself I am shooting with 50+ year old film cameras, Leica, Pentax, Minolta, and yes Canon. All have been CLA’d and perform as new. Now for film, that is also not a problem, there is plenty of film, and some discontinued films are being brought back into production. We can purchase film by the truckloads, not to worry.
I regret that I sold my 2 body couple of years ago
10 FPS is impressive with film. I can only get 6 FPS on me Canon A-1 and New F-1 with their respective motor drives.