Canon EOS-1V: overview

 

The new professional reflex Canon EOS-1V was planned for an extended use under hostile conditions.

Body. The EOS-1V body is made of aluminum and reinforced resin, while the caps - upper, bottom and dorsal - are in magnesium alloy. It turns out a light body, rigid, long-lasting, highly accurate and much technological. The 72 main joints and parts are sealed with silicone membranes, allowing the use of the camera also under rain, saltiness, sandy winds and high humidity.

Shutter. The magnetic shutter is under an electronic control and is projected in order to eliminate the operation problems and to assure an operativity and a precision constant in time. The system is constituted by a double curtain series made of super-duraluminium carbon fiber and governed by a magnet with no contacts, in order to delete the frictions caused from the powder. The energetic absorption is minimal and the optimal operating cycle of the shutter is of 150,000 releases.

Autofocus and exposure. The AF area contains 45 autofocus points, thickened in an area of 8 x 15 millimeters, and you can manually or automatically activate them regarding to the shooting situation. Each of the 45 AF points is constituted by a detector of horizontal lines, while 7 central points incorporate also a detector of vertical lines, rendering the firing extremely effective. The AIM system integrates the AF system with 6 exposure measurement modes, by measuring the exposure regarding to the position of the subject.

Functions. In order to personalize and to extend the functions of the EOS-1V, Canon released a software under Win98 and a connection between the camera and a modern computer through the USB door. Moreover, the EOS-1V feature an internal memory that stores the data belonging to 25 types of various information, among which the shutter speed, the diaphragm, the operating modes, on the base of a numerical index that the camera prints on the tail of each exposed film.

Flash. The autoflash E-TTL (Evaluative Through-The-Lens) system of the EOS-1V integrates itself with the environmental light, in order to gain optimal results, through a pre-flash shot which calculates the environmental light and corrects the flash emission for just each situation. With the dedicated Speedlite 550EX (guide number 55 / 100 ISO) the EOS-1V acquires an E-TTL control without cables even using many flash units, the modeling flash, the automatic zoom of the head from 17mm to 105mm, the manual flash, the flash exposure lock for decentralized subjects, etc. The new Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX (guide number 14 / 100 ISO) and the Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX (guide number 24 / 100 ISO) are planned for a radio control without cables, expose in E-TTL (control of the ambient light), feature Manual flash, High-Speed sync (FP flash), FEB and Modeling flash.

The EOS-1V equipped with the Power Drive Booster PB-E2 (with the Ni-MH Pack NP-E2) shots at the high speed of 10 photograms per second in AF One-Shot mode and of 9 fps in AF AI Servo mode. The booster offers a secondary button for vertical exposures, another for AE exposure lock, a focusing command and a lock button for FE/multi-spot exposure.

 

EOS-1V Technical report