The mid 1980s was a time of transition in photography. Many companies were adopting autofocus systems. It seemed as though Canon was taking a more traditional approach. They were producing and releasing what is arguably the most advanced manual focus camera ever made: The Canon T90.

The Canon T90 was released in 1986, and is a 35mm multi program manual focus SLR. It is the fourth and last of the T series of cameras beginning with the T50 in 1983. Its ascetics were created by German industrial designer Luigi Colani, who received the Golden Camera Award in 1986 as a result. This marvel of invention marks the peak as well as the end of Canon FD mounted cameras.

First Mentions

The first mention I could find of the Canon T90 was in December 1985’s issue of Popular Photography. Norman Goldberg states:

“In a surprisingly detailed rumor from a usually reliable Japanese source, we have learned about Canon’s plans to top off their highly automated “T” series of SLRs. The new model, probably called the T90, has a streamlined design, a powerful built in motor with autoload and autorewind, and all the programmed exposure automation you can use. This is a manual focusing SLR, which will accept all Canon lenses.”

The rumors stated here all turn out to be true actually. The 1/4000 max shutter speed and the flash sync speed. The max FPS, and the number of program modes.

The Earliest Review

The earliest review I found was that of a pre production model in the February 1986 issue of Modern Photography. In the article, “Keppler’s SLR Notebook” it’s mentioned that in 1981, Canon began to retire its mechanical engineers responsible for the A series cameras, and replace them with electronic engineers. “We knew something was afoot” said Keppler. “what was afoot became Canon’s new electronified T line of cameras starting with the T50 of 1983 followed by the T70 of 1984 and the T80 autofocus camera of 1985” The T80 was not actually autofocus in the strictest sense, but could mount a strange, limited, and short-lived line of autofocus lenses.

In the eyes of Modern Photography, it was a replacement of the much loved A-1, and priced similar to it, if you purchased the A-1 with a motor drive.

“The contours of the T90 are not, surprisingly similar to the other T cameras: rounded corners and edges, no attempt to disguise plastic as metal, right handed grip, built in auto load and wind, infrared autoflash sensing.”

That plastic, more specifically, was a hybrid glass fibre reinforced polycarbonate with bonded metal.

Users of other T series models will be aware of the size and that it takes 4 AA batteries. The reason for this is to “power the three built in micromotors which wind the film, activate the 8-duraluminum bladed Canon designed and made PMS which stands for “Permanent Magnet Shutter” as well as rewind and driving the camera forward at 4.5 frames per second.”

Other features notable at the time was a detailed top LCD panel and viewfinder, a maximum shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second, metered manual control, three metering modes including a spot that could be averaged with eight separate points, and a flash sync speed of 1/250. This was just scraping the surface of what the T90 was capable of.

Notable Features

A few of the features mentioned in this introductory review that stuck out to me were the following.

• That four AA batteries would last for up to 100 rolls of 36 exposure film.

• Additional controls hidden behind a cleverly placed panel on the side.

• A display in the viewfinder letting you know how many frames you have left in the roll.

• A multiple exposure mode.

• And multiple programs modes to favour wide and telephoto lenses.

A couple of T90’s accessories are also showcased including the fully compatible 300TL flash, and LC-2 wireless infrared shutter release.

Canon T90 Accessories

The article wraps up by saying that while they’ve never encountered a perfect camera what the T90 has is awesome. Though they wish it had a diopter adjustment in the eyepiece and a PC terminal.

Other Magazines Chime in on the T90

The very next month, American Photographer, announces the T90 in their column, Tech Notes, titled “Top of the line Canon”

The article is short but highlights many of the T90’s selling points, and includes the suggested retail price of $600 USD.

One of the new products announced in the April 1986 issue of Outdoor Photographer was the T90.

In a brief mention, they state:

“Canon USA announces a new 35mm product: the T90 SLR. The Canon T90 features a 4.5 frames per second motor drive, three metering patterns, 15 exposure modes (including two new computerized flash modes) and a 1/4000^th of a second shutter. It also contains automatic ISO setting (DX code), auto loading and film rewind, multiple spot exposure metering and capability, and two exposure adjustment controls for difficult lighting conditions or special effects.”

Also released in April was Photo Life magazine with their hot take on the new T series flagship. The same features are mentioned but one thing they touched on that the others didn’t was:

“It accepts all Canon FD lenses, FL lenses, and front-end accessories. For macro fans, the new Ring Macro Light ML2 is an accessory to look into, for the first TTL auto macro flash in Canon history.”

Written by Danny Biederman for the May 1986 issue of Outdoor Photographer was the feature “Super Bodies: A buyer’s guide to 35mm SLRs, armed with state of the art automation and trimmed for weight savings.” Included in the lineup, were cameras like the Konica FT-1, Nikon N2000 and Leica R4s.

Petersen’s Photographic writer David Brooks called the Canon T90 “A revolutionary package totally dedicated to photographic creativity” in his May 1986 user report.

“I believe it took some courage on Canon’s part not to slavishly succumb to a hodgepodge inclusion of every gimmick without apparent rhyme or reason, and instead produce a practical assembly of functions in a thoroughly revolutionary package design. In the face of an autofocus onslaught, the T90 is a fresh statement of belief in human intelligence and its application to photographic creativity.”

I would love to have seen his face when he found out Canon abandoned this whole line in a year.

Brooks provides us with some stunning photo examples taken with the T90 and I quite enjoyed his style of review.

Photo Examples By David Brooks

In terms of ergonomics, Brooks had this to say:

“The placement of the controls was based on a careful study of which controls will be used most with the camera held to the eye for shooting. Every facet of the T90’s operation is favored by designers who have made access as logical and easy as possible.”

Brooks calls using it “almost indecently pleasurable” and ends with “The Canon T90 camera body and flash reflect a high point in the progress of camera design. This would be less significant if there weren’t a superb selection of lenses available for use with the camera.”

Less known for photography reviews, but still relevant was Popular Science, who also had a few things to say in May of that year, suggesting “Even if you never take another photograph, you might want to own this extraordinarily sophisticated camera – just for the tech of it.”

Popular Science calls the camera “undeniably handsome” admitting “its sculptured curves are sleek, sinuous, sensual. In fact, Canon’s brochure for the T90 is lavishly illustrated with images of the camera body in a photographic style usually reserved for erotic portraits.”

Unique to Fisher’s review is the admittance that it’s a pretty complicated camera for the novice, highly recommending that you “read before you shoot” and recounts not being able to see anything in the viewfinder until he learned that he “had inadvertently nudged a little lever that closed a shutter over the viewfinder” as well as randomly pressing a button and “Presto! The rewind motor zipped back into the cassette a 36 exposure roll of film on which only three shots had been exposed. I had pressed the manual rewind button.”

Listed as a Yuppie, alongside cameras like the Olympus OM-2S and the Minolta Maxxum 7000, Popular Photography, in their June 1986 issue compared the T90 to a Porche.

“When Porche introduced the radically designed model 928, many fans of the venerable model 911 had trouble accepting the new car’s torpedo-shaped body and brutish power. The Canon T90 received a similar reception with its slick shape and nearly auto-everything features. But it’s beginning to grow on people, especially the pros, who admire its exposure accuracy and 4.5 frames per second motorized film advance.”

The Feature Reviews Roll In

In August, Outdoor Photographer did a full review of the T90, written by John Bailey.

“As a rule, sport and outdoor photographers gravitate toward those cameras that are generally thought of as light, simple and reliable. It seems that these attributes could not coexsist with the modern electronics of automation. The Canon T90 has done something remarkable. It has rolled eight exposure modes, selective metering, highlight/shadow control, a wide range of shutter speeds, a high speed motor drive and numerous other features into a compact package that weighs only 28 ounces and is little larger than the previous generation SLRs, body only.”

“In short, the T90 is fully automated in every way except focus, a control that many photographers still aren’t willing to relinquish to the computer chip.”

Bailey admits that it’s hard not to mention all the features of the T90 without just duplicating the 124 page manual, so he boiled it down to 12 reasons “why sport and outdoor photographers would be enthused by the Canon T90.” A few of those reasons include the reliable power of AA batteries, simple exposure compensation, and the auto flash fill capability of the 300TL.

Outdoor Photographer, would again, cover it a couple of months later in their feature “gadget bag” written by Ron Carroll.

The article features several cameras of the time like the Minolta Maxxum 5000, the Pentax A3000 and the Nikon N2020. The topic is automation. While it’s hard to imagine a camera today without it, this was a time of innovation. The target of this article are the program modes of the cameras.

“The T90 has a basic standard program in which the camera selects both the shutter speed and lens aperture. This mode works well under most situations.” Says Carroll. “In addition however, the sophisticated T90 also offers a choice of three wide programs for increasingly greater depth of field, and three tele programs for progressively higher shutter speeds.”

Carroll goes on to discuss the other cameras and how they handle program. The Maxxum 5000 for example can detect what kind of lens you’re attaching and adjust the program mode accordingly.

Pop Photos Super Detailed Review

The most detailed review of the T90 I came across in my research, unsurprisingly, was written by Popular Photography the same month. Pop Photo was known for their in depth reviews which include full lab tests and teardowns of the camera.

One of the more interesting features mentioned of the T90 was something called the safety switch.

“The ‘safety switch’ function, in aperture or shutter priority modes, makes sure the camera delivers properly exposed pictures even if the user makes a mistake. When lighting conditions are too bright or too dim for the chosen f-stop or shutter speed, the camera overrides that setting in favour of a more appropriate one.”

We get a great visual of each metering mode’s sensitivity pattern.

There is this rather ingenious exposure accuracy chart, which shows how the camera handles metering. You can see for the most part the exposure falls within half an EV. That it tends to overexpose in medium light and underexpose in dim light.

Shutter accuracy is also charted out, and most speeds fall within .2 EV, with the exception of the much promoted 1/4000^th of a second, which drops to almost .6 EV.

Both Popular and Modern Photography would wrap up their year by listing the T90 as a recommended camera for 1987.

Canon T90 Advertising

Let’s switch gears for a moment and talk about advertising.

The earliest ad I could find for the T90 was a three page spread in the February 1986 issue of Modern Photography. Titled The Incredible Canon T90: A catalyst for the creative mind. The ad promises that “With the T90, you can photograph anything you can imagine, from high speed action to special effects like combination flash/time exposures.” And assures the reader that “There isn’t a situation it can’t handle.”

The second page showcases the professional built in motor drive, the world’s most versatile exposure control system, three metering patterns, multi spot metering, advanced TTL control and dual information displays.

The third page gives us an x ray like illustration of the T90’s guts and ends with “The new vision of photography”

The only other print ad I could find was a two page variation. I’m not saying other ads for the T90 didn’t exist, but I searched through almost 100 issues spanning several publications.

I did come across a link to a T90 brochure through the Wikipedia page (which is now gone). Several pages were broken links unfortunately but used the same phrasing as the ad, as well as the same photo. The inside cover reads as follows.

“Innovation. The soul of the photographer, The heart of the Canon T90. The creation of the T90 was very much like the creative process of photography itself. Like any good photographer, Canon looked on its task as a relentless pursuit of innovation, a search for new and striking images, a fresh way of seeing. Canon looked for innovative new solutions to many old problems and limitations of SLR photography – and found them. Entirely new systems were designed for exposure, metering, film transport, information input and display, flash photography, and microcircuitry. The result of Canon’s effort is a remarkably versatile photographic tool. Never has a camera been more closely tuned to the experienced photographers needs, or more helpful in surpassing the photographer’s own limitations. And never has a camera been designed to so completely satisfy the photographer’s feel for quality, or eye for beauty. The Canon T90: the photographer’s vision is now a reality.”

Beyond that we see much of what the reviews have already covered. The metering modes, exposure control, TTL flash control, and details on its features.

Unhappy Customers

By now it’s plain to see the T90 is an amazing camera and arguably the peak of the manual focus SLR. At some point, probably before the T90 was even released, Canon must have realized that they would need an entirely new lens mount to properly introduce autofocus. I say this because by April 1987, Canon was already advertising the EOS 650 and 620, and starting to abandon their FD lens customer base. Don’t take my word for it, here’s a letter to the editors of Popular Photography, published in April 1990.

“Canon has abandoned all its customers who purchased Canon FD lenses. The Canon EOS cameras and the new EOS-1 pro camera are totally incompatible with the older Canon FD lenses. I am a Canon user who has five Canon FD lenses and a Canon T90 body…I am very disappointed in Canon.”

Here’s another example of an unhappy T90 user who wrote in to complain in 1993.

“Whatever happened to the Canon T90? Seven years ago I purchased one brand new and have loved using it since day one. The camera has it all, plus some, and is an outstanding performer. Then Canon introduced the EOS line and the T90 just died? Why? Why are places selling it for twice what I paid? Is it still being made? Is it in high demand on the used market? Or is it a great camera that died a useless death?”

Popular Photography replied saying it was discontinued as of 1991, and that continuing production was too expensive.

I was curious if the T90 was actually more expensive in 1993 and checked the used camera listings. At the back of the very same issue, sure enough, KEH camera had a Like New used T90 listed for $751 USD. Just over $150 than the retail of a new one seven years previous. While it’s not double the price as accused, this was a surprising find.

Canon would eventually cease supporting the camera altogether in 1998 by no longer providing spare parts.

Love it or hate it, the T90 marks a fascinating time in Canon’s history.

FIELD TEST

For my field test I used Kentmere 100 film and went out to rural Alberta. I’ve been working on a project, capturing grain elevators.

Pros

Features: For me, there is no question. This is, in my opinion, the most sophisticated manual focus SLR ever made. It has more features than I’d ever used, and if you’re new to film photography, this is a camera that can grow with you.

Design: Despite being a little on the heavy side it feels remarkable in the hands, and button placement is fairly intuitive.

Viewfinder: one of the best viewfinder displays I’ve come across in a 35mm camera of this era. Gives a great readout of your spot readings, how many frames you have left as well as shutter and aperture settings.

Cons

Oddly Specific: This camera is meant for a very specific type of photographer. One who a) wants a buttload of features, but no autofocus and b) doesn’t mind a heavy and loud body. This is for the user who wants to get the most out of their FD glass. Due to its strange nature, many will either prefer a more mechanical model like the A-1, or an autofocus model.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to get the most out of your FD lens collection, this is it. If you’re a collector it is a fascinating piece to own. The ergonomics scream 1980s and it marks a very interesting time in the history of photography.