It was the year that saw the launch of the Hubble space telescope, Microsoft launches Windows 3, Ayrton Senna wins the F1 championship and the Simpsons makes its apperance on TV. What was the year?
It was also the year that the Canon EOS 10QD arrived on the scene.
In reviewing the camera, Popular Photography started by saying
“We are awed at the multitude of features when we first examined the Canon 10S(Its designation in the USA) But after spending several months testing this camera in the lab and in the field, our overall respect for its abilities, if anything increased”
You can find the full report here but no looking at the date😁
Putting one roll of film in a camera so full of features, clearly I was never going to try them all. However I did get to try a few☺️
One that impressed me was the autofocus. The 10QD only has three but three good ones. Even from the standpoint of 2022 are quick to lock on to your subject or even track it. A nice feature is that the focus point will briefly go red telling you that it is the active focus point. In addition to the camera, I was gifted with the EF 35-135mm f4-5.6 along with the EF 100-300mm 4.5-5.6 lenses. Both were so quiet and quick in focussing that I initially thought that they were broken!
Having used a couple of the EOS bodies before, everything is right where you would expect them to be. This continuity certainly helps in giving you confidence and enjoyment when using it. Too often, when a camera has this many features, you can get lost and spend too long searching for what you know is there and then the moment has gone.😞
One other stand out feature I did get to try was the bar code reader that extends the number of picture modes. Not content to provide you with portrait, landscapes, close-up and sports modes the camera can be configured to a further 23. Clicking on the image below shows the bar code reader in action.
Here is a photo created with program 20, Landscapes . The camera chose f32 and 1/8 sec.
How useful is this?? I’m not sure. As demonstrated it isn’t a quick process. However, I can see it being useful to someone who wants to learn about the relationship between shutter speed and aperture and their impact on the final image. Also if you know beforehand that you are going to a wedding, for example, setting the camera to one of these modes could increase the likelihood of returning home with some good results, without the disappointment. A wedding is a particularly good place to try the near whisper focussing of the 10QD.
The following images were taken while on a stroll along the Wey navigation, near Guildford, Surrey.
Popular photography magazine concluded its review;
“We’ve never used an SLR with more convenience, produced better pictures, or enjoyed any other camera more”
It is definitely a camera that I will be returning to with a view to trying out some of its other features. The built in intervalometer being one of them.
What was the year ?…1990
arhphotographic 