Canon F-1 - Motor Drives

Motor Drives

The originally available Motor Drive was named the "Motor Drive Unit". It was commonly referred to as the Motor Drive MD – because all of the accessories had MD in their suffix, but that was not the official designation. The Motor Drive Unit originally required a corded battery pack (10 AAs) making it unwieldy for field or sports action use. A later battery pack that direct connected to the unit became available. The unit also contained a built intervalometer for delays up to 1 frame per minute. The maximum speed was 3 frames per second.

In 1972 Canon made a special Modification of the F-1 called the "High Speed Motor Drive Camera". It had a fixed pellicle (semi transparent) mirror, the motor drive motors were a permanent attachment (the camera's wind lever was removed – making it impossible to use without the motor drive) and was powered by 20 AA batteries! Maximum speed was 9 frame/sec – the fastest available at the time. Its use at the 1972 Olympics in Japan produced fantastic sequential shots that were previously impossible to achieve.

In 1973, Canon introduced the Motor Drive MF. The Motor Drive MF had its batteries (10 AAs) in a vertical grip that mounted to the front left (looking from the front). It had a maximum rate of 3.5 frame/sec and was much better suited to action / sports photography, especially when paired with the Speed Finder or Servo EE finder. A special cord allowed the Servo EE finder to draw its power from the Motor drive MF – thus making a much more compact setup than the original Motor Drive unit. The Motor Drive MF did not have a built in intervalometer, but the Interval Timer L (and later the Interval Timer TM-1 (Quartz) could be plugged into the remote control socket as could remote switches and a wireless conrtol unit, the Wireless Controller LC-1. These all allowed either remote and / or unattended use of the camera.

Later, Canon introduced the Power Winder F, a 2 frame/ sec power winder with a grip for ease of use. It used 4 AA batteries in the same battery magazine that the Canon A-series Power Winder A used. The Power winder F could use most of the remote switches that also fit the Motor Drive MF. The only two accessories that it could not use were the Interval Timer L and the Remote Switch 60-MF. While not as fast, The Power Winder F was smaller and lighter than the Motor Drive MF.

Unlike many other professional level cameras of the early 1970s, the F-1 required no modification or special custom fitting to attach the motor drives, one simply removed the bottom plate and screwed the motor drive in place.