Template talk:Canon FD film cameras

Various problems
This table needs some help--it is unclear the beginning and end dates of most of the A series cameras--for example the chart makes it look like the AE1 and AT1 stopped in 1978, the A1 was only produced for 1 year,, the AV1 was the only A series available in 1980, etc. I don't believe the T series belong in the professional section. I'm unsure of the actual dates, so I can't really fix this myself. Sevesteen (talk) 21:24, 21 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your notes, I will check all off the informations. First I see the T50 was a beginner camera. ASAP I fix the mistakes. – kgyt (talk) 09:47, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Concurrence with the above, and some specific ideas
IMO, I would make the following changes:
 * A-1 belongs at the top of Amateur. It's a very high-end camera, almost professional, but Canon doesn't refer to it as "professional".
 * T70 and T80 belong in Amateur, after A-1. T90 should stay in Professional; it's the only T-series camera I see referred to as "professional" in Canon literature.
 * next tier down from those should be EF, AE-1, AE-1P
 * next after that, AV-1 and AL-1, as cheaper, feature-reduced variants of the other A-series cameras.
 * next down, FTb, FTb-N, AT-1, and T50 & T60 as these are entry-level cameras.
 * TLb and TX at the bottom.

It would be cool to show the full duration of the production runs of these cameras, but I think that's not possible. Firstly, there aren't sources I could find for discontinuation dates for most of these cameras. Also in the interest of saving space, it probably is fine to end some early as they are replaced by new cameras. Like for example, showing the AE-1 for its entire 9-year production run is probably not necessary, but only showing it for 2 years as it is now is understating its longevity too far.

Here's an implementation of the above: User:Nmw25/Template:Canon_FD_film_cameras

Thoughts? Nmw25 (talk) 21:52, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Major update, trying to take care of the problems and ideas mentioned above
I have tried to correct some of the aspects mentioned in previous entries in this discussion and also make the table a little more compact. In this way, I am introducing a few inaccuracies which I believe to be of minor importance; if you disagree, feel free to correct those things. The model lines and technologies of the first generation (FTb, EF, TLb, TX) were very different from the second generation (A-series) which in turn were very different from the third generation (T-series). In my version of this timeline, it looks like the A-1 was the successor of the EF which you might argue it wasn't. However, both were the respective top models during their time (apart from the F-1). The T70 gets its own row as the A-1 wasn't immediately discontinued when this camera was introduced – as far as I know.

Following the same idea, I put the FTb and the AE-1 models in one row. The TLb would be below the FTb, and the AV-1 was similar to, but a little simpler than the AE-1. The AL-1 and T80 would deserve their own row if it weren't for compactness of the table. TX, AT-1, T50 and T60 were the models at the bottom level. In fact, the TLb is even simpler than the TX; but as it was probably still produced after the AT-1 was introduced, that again would make the table less compact.

If you disagree on any of the above, please feel free to move the different models to their own table rows.

Also, I found a lot of diverging information on the end-of-production dates for quite a few of the cameras. I have included them as to the best of my knowledge or kept those that were entered in this table before; but if anyone has better information, please feel free to correct them. By trying to be compact, I also introduced some inaccuracies, like the AE-1 still being produced for quite some time after the AE-1 Program was introduced:

2003:E8:1716:A200:B8D6:F9FD:27AE:3543 (talk) 16:20, 27 December 2022 (UTC)
 * F-1: March 1971 – August 1976
 * FTb: March 1971 – June 1973
 * F-1 High Speed Motor Drive Camera: February 1972 – probably until the introduction of the New F-1 High Speed Motor Drive Camera
 * FTb-n: July 1973 – ?
 * EF: November 1973 – ?
 * TLb: September 1974 in countries other than Japan, April 1976 in Japan – ?
 * TX: March 1975 – ?
 * AE-1: April 1976 – 1984
 * F-1n: September 1976 – August 1981
 * AT-1: December 1976 – 1983?
 * A-1: April 1978 – offered at least until 1986
 * AV-1: June 1979 – according to different sources built until either 1981, 1982 or 1983
 * AE-1 Program: April 1981 – offered at least until 1986
 * New F-1: September 1981 – probably built until 1992, officially discontinued 1994
 * AL-1: March 1982 – probably until the introduction of the T80
 * T50: March 1983 – probably until the introduction of the T60
 * New F-1 High Speed Motor Drive Camera: February 1984 – ?
 * T70: April 1984 – ?
 * T80: April 1985 – June 1986
 * T90: February 1986 – ?
 * T60: April 1990 – ?