The Canon T90, introduced in 1986, was the top of the line in Canon

Canon Inc.

is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan.-Origins:...

's T series

Canon T series

Canon's T series is Canon's final series of manual focus 35 mm single lens reflex cameras. The first camera, the T50, was introduced in March 1983 while the final camera, the T60, was released in April 1990. All have a Canon FD lens mount compatible with Canon's extensive range of manual-focus...

of 35 mm

135 film

The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...

 Single-lens reflex (SLR) camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

s. It was the last professional-level manual-focus camera from Canon, and the last professional camera to use the Canon FD

Canon FD

The Canon FD lens mount is a physical standard for connecting a photographic lens to a single-lens reflex camera body. The standard was developed by Canon of Japan and was introduced in March 1971 with the Canon F-1 camera. It was the primary Canon SLR lens mounting system until 1987 when the...

 lens mount

Lens mount

A lens mount is an interface — mechanical and often also electrical — between a photographic camera body and a lens. It is confined to cameras where the body allows interchangeable lenses, most usually the single lens reflex type or any movie camera of 16 mm or higher gauge...

. Although it was overtaken by the autofocus

Autofocus

An autofocus optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication...

 revolution and Canon's new, incompatible EOS

Canon EOS

The Canon EOS autofocus 35 mm film and digital SLR camera system was introduced in 1987 with the Canon EOS 650 and is still in production as Canon's current DSLR system...

 (Electro-Optical System) after only a year in production, the T90 pioneered many concepts seen in high-end Canon cameras up to the present day, particularly the user interface

User interface

The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...

, industrial design

Industrial design

Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...

, and the high level of automation.

Due to its ruggedness, the T90 was nicknamed "the tank" by Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese photojournalists. Many still rate it highly even years after its introduction: camera collector and dealer Stephen Gandy states, "... the Canon T90 was years ahead of anything else on the market at that time. It is, quite simply, one of the best manual focus 35 mm SLR designs of all time." He goes on to conclude, "It gets my vote as the best Canon design ever." Similar sentiments can be found in many other users.

Design

Previous Canon cameras had been wholly in-house design projects. For the T90, Canon brought in German industrial designer Luigi Colani

Luigi Colani

Luigi Colani, , is a German industrial designer whose father came from Madulain near St. Moritz in Switzerland....

 in a collaboration with Canon's own designers. The final design was composed of Colani's ideas by Kunihisa Ito of ODS Co. Ltd., incorporating Colani's distinctive "bio-form" curvaceous shapes. Canon considered Colani's contribution important enough to present him with the first production T90 body, engraved with his name. Computer-aided design

Computer-aided design

Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...

 techniques were introduced to Canon for the T90, as well as the use of computer controlled (CNC) milling machine

Milling machine

A milling machine is a machine tool used to machine solid materials. Milling machines are often classed in two basic forms, horizontal and vertical, which refers to the orientation of the main spindle. Both types range in size from small, bench-mounted devices to room-sized machines...

s to make the molding

Molding (process)

Molding or moulding is the process of manufacturing by shaping pliable raw material using a rigid frame or model called a pattern....

 die

Die (manufacturing)

A die is a specialized tool used in manufacturing industries to cut or shape material using a press. Like molds, dies are generally customized to the item they are used to create...

s for the shell.

Much work went into human factors engineering

Human factors engineering

Human Factors Engineering is the discipline of applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments. It can be applied to the design of all systems having a human interface, including hardware and software...

 to create an ergonomic user interface

User interface

The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...

 for the camera. The form of previous cameras was largely dictated by the required locations of mechanical controls on the body, such as the film advance lever, rewind crank, shutter speed dial, shutter release, etc. On the T90, the film transport controls were no longer required, while the others were no longer mechanically linked. This gave the designers more freedom to shape the camera to make it easier to control and hold, and to place controls in a way that suited the user rather than a mechanical design.

The T90 introduced features still used on SLR cameras today. While the use of a LCD screen

Liquid crystal display

A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....

 on the top of the camera's right hand side was not new for the T90 - it was introduced on the T70

Canon T70

The Canon T70 was a 35mm FD-mount single-lens reflex camera introduced in April 1984 as the second in Canon's T series. The T70 started with the concepts explored in 1983's T50, took them further, and applied them to a more sophisticated camera...

 - the T90 refined it to show even more camera information. A control wheel located behind the shutter release and convenient for the right index finger was used to adjust most camera settings in conjunction with other buttons located for the right thumb and on the left-hand side of the camera; again, this design is still seen today.

Power features

The T90 came with an integral motor drive

Motor drive

A motor drive, in the field of photography, is a powered film transport mechanism. Historically, film loading, advancing, and rewinding were all manually driven functions...

n film advance, focal plane shutter, mirror and aperture cocking and rewind functions. Canon broke new ground with the powered features of the camera. Previously, cameras used one powerful electric motor

Electric motor

An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...

 geared to all functions. Instead, the T90 had three coreless micromotors within the body, close to the functions they drove, for maximum mechanical advantage. One was used to wind the film, achieving a high-speed rate of 4.5 frames per second. A second prepared the shutter, mirror etc. for the next shot. A third motor powered the rewind function. All of this was driven by four AA batteries in the base of the camera.

To control the camera's systems, the T90 used a dual CPU

Central processing unit

The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...

 architecture. The main, low-power CPU ran at 32 kHz while the sub-CPU ran at 1 MHz, and was powered down when not needed. The main CPU handled the LCD display and overall state, while the sub-CPU handled exposure calculations, viewfinder display, and control of the camera's motors. This architecture provided for lower power usage. Both CPUs, plus other integrated circuit

Integrated circuit

An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...

s and components, were mounted on several flexible circuit boards that fitted around the camera's structure.

A coin-type lithium battery

Lithium battery

Lithium batteries are disposable batteries that have lithium metal or lithium compounds as an anode. Depending on the design and chemical compounds used, lithium cells can produce voltages from 1.5 V to about 3.7 V, over twice the voltage of an ordinary zinc–carbon battery or alkaline battery...

 on the main circuit board retained camera settings with the AA batteries removed. This was not a user-serviceable part, and when it failed the camera had to be brought to a service center where the battery could be replaced by a Canon technician. Expected battery life was on the order of five years, although this depended on a variety of factors including how long the periods were of being without main battery power.

Metering

For the T90, Canon developed their most sophisticated light-metering

Light meter

A light meter is a device used to measure the amount of light. In photography, a light meter is often used to determine the proper exposure for a photograph...

 system yet. Although it introduced no novel metering techniques, it assembled the majority of the metering techniques then developed into one easy-to-use system. First, it took the metering options from the New F-1

Canon New F-1

The Canon New F-1 replaced the F-1n as Canon's top-of-the-line 35mm single-lens reflex camera in 1981. Like the earlier models, the New F-1 takes FD-mount lenses. Although no date has ever been confirmed, it is thought that the last New F-1 was made in 1992...

—center-weighted average metering, partial area metering, and spot metering—and made them available with a press of a button and a turn of the command dial. The New F-1 required a focusing screen

Focusing screen

A focusing screen is a flat translucent material, usually ground glass, found in a system camera that allows the user of the camera to preview the framed image in a viewfinder. Often, focusing screens are available in variants with different etched markings for various purposes...

 change to switch metering patterns. On the T90, partial area metering used the center 13% of the picture area, while spot metering used the center 2.7%.

To these, Canon copied the metering options found on Olympus' OM-4

Olympus OM-4

The Olympus OM-4 is an interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, single lens reflex camera; manufactured by Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. in Japan and sold as OM-4 from 1983 to 1987 and as OM-4Ti from 1986 to 2002....

. Multi-spot metering allowed the photographer to average up to eight spot meter readings from different parts of the scene. In another feature borrowed from Olympus, separate Highlight and Shadow spot readings could be taken. These adjusted the camera's metering decisions to ensure extremes of tonal range were not muted and grey in the final exposure.

Two built-in sensors were used to implement all these metering options. Center-weighted and partial area metering were performed by a double-area silicon photocell (SPC) in Canon's standard location above the eyepiece, while spot metering was performed by another SPC located at the bottom of the mirror box. Light reached that sensor via a half-silvered area of the main mirror and a secondary mirror located beneath it. The spot metering cell also allowed for automatic TTL

Through-the-lens

Through-the-lens metering is a photographic term describing a feature of cameras capable of measuring light levels in a scene through their taking lenses, as opposed to a separate metering window...

 "off-the-film" flash metering, again borrowed from Olympus.

Notably lacking was what is now the most common metering mode on SLR cameras, matrix metering. Nikon

Nikon

, also known as just Nikon, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which...

 had introduced this in the FA

Nikon FA

The Nikon FA was an advanced amateur level, interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, single-lens reflex camera. It was manufactured by the Japanese optics company Nippon Kogaku K. K. in Japan from 1983 to 1987...

 in 1983, but Canon did not follow suit until 1987's EOS 650

Canon EOS 650

The Canon EOS 650 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera. It was introduced on 1 March 1987, Canon's 50th anniversary,and discontinued in February 1989....

.

Exposure

Eight exposure

Exposure (photography)

In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.In photographic jargon, an exposure...

 modes were available. Program AE (Auto-Exposure) mode put exposure control completely in the hands of the camera. Variable Shift Program AE allowed the photographer to bias the camera towards narrow aperture with three Wide Angle settings, or fast shutter speed with three Telephoto settings as well as the standard mode. For more manual control, Aperture Priority AE and Shutter-Speed Priority AE allowed the photographer to set one exposure variable manually while the camera chose the other.

In either of the latter two modes, a Safety Shift feature allowed the camera to adjust the "fixed" parameter if it could not obtain a correct exposure otherwise. For example, in Aperture Priority mode, if the photographer had the aperture fixed wide open to photograph a very bright scene, the correct shutter speed to expose correctly at that aperture might be faster than the camera was capable of. Safety Shift would let the camera reduce the aperture until it could achieve a correct exposure at maximum shutter speed. The Safety Shift feature could be turned on and off by pressing two buttons on the back of the camera near the base.

If no automation of exposure was desired, a Manual mode was available. In this, the camera's metering acted as a sophisticated light-meter, but all decisions were made by the photographer. For use with older lenses that did not have an automated aperture

Aperture

In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. The aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,...

 diaphragm

Diaphragm (optics)

In optics, a diaphragm is a thin opaque structure with an opening at its center. The role of the diaphragm is to stop the passage of light, except for the light passing through the aperture...

, Stopped-down Aperture Priority AE or Stopped-down Manual could be used; these instructed the camera that the currently set aperture would be the taking aperture, and to therefore adjust the metering calculations accordingly. Finally, a Flash AE mode was available for flash photography.

Flash

The T90 was the first Canon camera to support through-the-lens

Through-the-lens

Through-the-lens metering is a photographic term describing a feature of cameras capable of measuring light levels in a scene through their taking lenses, as opposed to a separate metering window...

 (TTL

TTL

TTL may refer to:* Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor, a state-owned manufacturer of cigarettes and alcohol in Taiwan* Through-the-lens metering, a feature of cameras capable of measuring light levels in a scene through their lens...

) flash

Flash (photography)

A flash is a device used in photography producing a flash of artificial light at a color temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene. A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a dark scene. Other uses are capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light...

 metering. This measured the actual light levels reaching the film by measuring reflected light off the film (OTF), shutting down the flash unit once the film was sufficiently exposed. The measurement was calculated using the average reflectivity of color negative film. This system was also used on Canon's new EOS system, making the T90 the only non-EOS Canon body compatible with TTL Canon flashes. The T90's X-sync speed of 1/250 second was the fastest Canon had achieved and was better than most other cameras available at the time.

A new, dedicated flash unit, the Speedlite 300TL, was launched alongside the T90 to support its new flash modes. It had a zoomable head, capable of adjustment (by moving the head in and out) to cover the fields of view of 24, 35, 50 and 85 mm lenses. For bounce flash, the head could be rotated up to 90° vertically, 180° to the left, and 90° to the right. As well as the plain TTL mode, the 300TL supported A-TTL (Advanced TTL); here, the flash-to-subject distance was calculated using an infrared pulse with a detector mounted on the flash body. In bounce mode, however, it used a 1/20th power pre-flash instead.

A pre-flash was also used in FE Lock mode (flash exposure lock). Here, the pre-flash was used in conjunction with spot metering to determine the correct exposure in advance of taking the picture. Thus, the camera could be moved to reframe the main subject off-center and still expose correctly.

For exposures slower than the X-sync speed, previous SLR flash systems triggered the flash at the start of the exposure, as soon as the first shutter curtain had finished its travel. However, for motion blurs and light trails in a longer exposure, this gives the impression of backwards movement, since the motion trails out in front of the moving object after the flash. The T90, for the first time in a mass-market camera, supported second-curtain flash, where the flash fires at the end of the exposure, just before the second shutter curtain starts to close.

Although not identical, the current (2009) Canon Speedlite 580 EX II supports the T90 as well.

Canon also produced a dedicated macro

Macro photography

Macrophotography is close-up photography, usually of very small subjects. Classically a macrophotograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative is greater than life size. However in modern use it refers to a finished photograph of a subject at greater than life size...

 ring flash

Ring flash

A ring flash, invented by Lester A. Dine in 1952, originally for use in dental photography, is a circular photographic flash that fits around the lens, especially for use in macro photography...

 for the camera, the ML-2. This supported TTL and manual models only, and contained two flash tubes, one on either side, which could be fired separately or together. The system consisted of the flash ring itself, which fitted onto the end of the lens, and a control unit which screwed into the hot shoe

Hot shoe

A hot shoe is a mounting point on the top of a camera to attach a flash unit.- Design :The hot shoe is shaped somewhat like an inverted, squared-off "U" of metal. The matching adapter on the bottom of the flash unit slides in from the back of the camera and is sometimes secured by a clamping screw...

 atop the camera. The later ML-3 ring flash, introduced for the EOS system cameras, also supported the T90.

Accessories

While the T90 did not support the vast range of accessories available for Canon's F-1

Canon F-1

The Canon F-1 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera produced by Canon of Japan from March 1971 until 1976's introduction of the mildly updated F-1n, while in 1981 a New F-1 was launched. The new Canon FD lens mount was introduced along with the F-1, but the previous Canon FL-mount lenses were...

, F-1n or New F-1

Canon New F-1

The Canon New F-1 replaced the F-1n as Canon's top-of-the-line 35mm single-lens reflex camera in 1981. Like the earlier models, the New F-1 takes FD-mount lenses. Although no date has ever been confirmed, it is thought that the last New F-1 was made in 1992...

, a number of significant accessories were available. The pentaprism

Pentaprism

A pentaprism is a five-sided reflecting prism used to deviate a beam of light by 90°. The beam reflects inside the prism twice, allowing the transmission of an image through a right angle without inverting it as an ordinary right-angle prism or mirror would.The reflections inside the prism are not...

 was not interchangeable, but the focusing screen

Focusing screen

A focusing screen is a flat translucent material, usually ground glass, found in a system camera that allows the user of the camera to preview the framed image in a viewfinder. Often, focusing screens are available in variants with different etched markings for various purposes...

 was; eight different screens were available for different applications. Standard was the New Split/Microprism screen, which offered three of the most common focusing aids simultaneously; the central circle was a split image prism, surrounded by a microprism ring; the rest of the screen was a laser matte.

Two optional data backs were available for the T90. The first, the Command Back 90, both allowed date and data imprinting on the photographs and also allowed various forms of time-lapse photography. The second, available only in certain markets, was the Data Memory Back 90, which stored 16 shot variables for up to 156 exposures, or six variables for up to 338 exposures. The computer interface to the Data Memory Back 90 supported only the MSX

MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...

 home computer

Home computer

Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...

 standard. Third parties have adapted connectors to other computer systems.

A wired 60T3 remote control unit plugged into a socket fitted beneath the right handgrip, while an infrared

Infrared

Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...

 remote control

Remote control

A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...

 kit was also available as the LC-2. This unit also supported an Auto Sensing mode for completely unmanned photography. This tripped the shutter whenever something blocked the path between transmitter and receiver—useful in wildlife photography, for example.

Modifications

A number of modifications to the T90 have been performed over the years, by Canon or third parties, in order to add features missing from the camera as-built:

• PC flash sync socket: The T90 lacked a separate flash sync socket. The addition of one could be performed by request by Canon support centers. It was fitted on the left-hand side of the prism housing, as seen by the user.
• Vertical shutter release: actually an accessory, since it required no camera modification. A vertical shutter release, convenient to the right index finger when holding the camera vertically, was available from Canon Professional. It fitted into the remote control socket on the camera at that location.
• Mirror lock-up: Canon considered the mirror in the T90 sufficiently damped as to need no mirror lock-up feature. Many users disagree, and instructions on how to modify the camera to add this feature are available.
• Leader-out film rewind: Photographers who like to change film mid-roll prefer the film leader to be left out when the film is rewound, so they do not have to fish for it with a leader retrieval tool. Instructions on how to perform a modification to enable this are detailed online. Since the modification consists only of connecting two solder pads on a circuit board with a wire, clearly the capability was built in to the camera's electronics but not enabled.

Use today

Canon ceased supporting the camera in 1998 and spare parts are no longer available from them. The subsequent difficulty in obtaining repair services is likely to discourage any remaining professional use of these cameras.

One issue is with LCD (liquid crystal display) life, a problem not unique to the T90. LCD displays age and wear out at a varying rate dependent on environmental conditions, use and other factors. Commonly quoted lifespans are about five to ten years; thus, many T90s will have displays nearing the end of their lives, even if they have been replaced. The spare part is no longer available and no third-party replacement has emerged.

The plastic battery holder on the T90 is somewhat susceptible to breakage, and can cause the camera to become inoperative. Used cameras should be carefully checked for broken/repaired battery holder compartments. Another common problem is failure of the second internal battery that retains frame number/ISO settings, replacement of which requires service by a person skilled in soldering techniques and camera disassembly.

Another, more serious, problem concerns the shutter. The T90's shutter appears to become "sticky" as the camera ages. It is prone to locking up, in which case the camera's LCD displays "EEE" and the message "HELP" appears in the viewfinder display. This is commonly called the "EEE syndrome" among users. The problem is most likely to crop up after the camera has been left unused for some time; thus, the best way to prevent it is regular use of the camera. It does not seem to cause inaccurate shutter speeds before failure. The problem can be corrected by a knowledgeable technician without replacing the shutter mechanism. It is reportedly caused by dirt on the shutter's magnets affecting their performance. But if left unused for an extended period of time the circuit will need replacing, an expensive and time-consuming proposition.

The sticky shutter problem relates to a rubber washer which is involved in the operation of the shutter. With age and atmospheric conditions, it tends to perish and become sticky, so that it impedes the operation of the shutter. Frequent use can delay the stickiness from 'glueing up' the shutter, but once started, the only long-term remedy is to have the shutter repaired, when the rubber washer is replaced, and so another 10 years or more can be enjoyed with the camera working correctly. A good short term solution is to lightly clean the shutter diaphragm with a cotton ball and lighter fluid.

As with some other electronically-controlled SLR film cameras, a working Canon T90 can be a bargain on the used market. Prices from used camera dealers providing warranties range from approximately US$120-140 for a camera in working condition to approximately US$240-260 for a camera body in mint condition with accessories, box and manual.

Canon FD lenses, however, remain quite affordable compared to their EF counterparts.

External links

• Canon Inc.
  Canon Inc.
  is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan.-Origins:...
  
   (1986). Canon T90 Service Manual. (PDF
  Portable Document Format
  Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
  
  ). Retrieved from the Canon FD Documentation Project.
• Canon Inc.
  Canon Inc.
  is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan.-Origins:...
  
  (1985). Canon Command Backs 70/80/90 Manual. Retrieved from the Canon FD Documentation Project.