The Canon FX is a
35 mm SLR manufactured by
Canon Inc.
Canon Inc. (; Hepburn: ) is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manu ...
of
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and introduced in April 1964. It introduced the
Canon FL
Canon FL refers to a lens mount standard for 35mm single-lens reflex cameras from Canon. It was introduced in April 1964 with the Canon FX camera, replacing the previous Canon R lens mount. The FL mount was in turn replaced in 1971 by the Can ...
lens mount, the successor to the
Canon R
The Canon R lens mount is a physical standard for connecting a camera lens to a 35mm single-lens reflex camera body. It was introduced in March 1959 along with the Canon Canonflex.
Design and history
The R mount was used on Canon's first singl ...
.
The camera has a built-in
lightmeter using a
CdS
CDS, CDs, Cds, etc. may refer to:
Finance
* Canadian Depository for Securities, Canadian post-trade financial services company
* Certificate of deposit (CDs)
* Counterfeit Deterrence System, developed by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence ...
photocell
Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are devices that detect light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation and convert it into an electrical signal. They are essential in a wide range of applications, from digital imaging and optical c ...
mounted on the photographer's left-hand side; unlike later cameras, it does not meter through the taking lens. A lever switched between low sensitivity for bright subjects (
EV 9–18) and high sensitivity for dark subjects (EV 1-10) (at ISO 100). Film speeds supported are ISO 10 through 800.
The shutter is a horizontally-traveling
focal plane shutter
In camera design, a focal-plane shutter (FPS) is a type of photographic shutter (photography), shutter that is positioned immediately in front of the focal plane of the camera, that is, right in front of the photographic film or image sensor.
...
supporting speeds between 1/1000 and 1 second in full stop increments, selected by a dial on the top plate on the photographer's right. The
X-sync
In photography, flash synchronization or flash sync is the synchronizing the firing of a Flash (photography), photographic flash with the opening of the Shutter (photography), shutter admitting light to photographic film or electronic image se ...
speed for flash is 1/55 sec.; flash support was through a PC socket on the front of the body.
The viewfinder uses a glass pentaprism and gives coverage of 90% of the frame vertically and 93% horizontally, with a 0.9× magnification (with a 50 mm standard lens).
The FX was available with either silver or black metal parts. Black versions are exceedingly rare, there were only two known all-black models until November 2014 when a third was found. Two are owned by a private collector in Pennsylvania, USA and another one by a private collector in Koromilia, Kilkis, Greece.
References
Canon's new Museum site is https://global.canon/en/c-museum/ and the link to the Canon FX is https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/film49.html
{{Table of Canon SLR
Canon FL cameras