Canon FX Camera

The Canon FX was the first camera in the F Series of Canon cameras and the beginning of Canon’s march to dominance in the camera industry.

The Fabulous F Series

When Canon came out with the Canonflex
in May of 1959 the Pentax SLR had already
been on the market for 2 years. It was a confusing time and no one knew if the
SLR would make serious inroads into the camera market. That is hard to imagine now.

Canon put a great deal of effort into the
development of the Canonflex which they
brought out in 1959. Unfortunately, the camera and its marketing had several deficiencies which resulted in very poor sales. At the same time, almost to the day, Nikon introduced the F-1 which was a far superior camera and it established Nikon 

as a power in the camera market for a decade. In view of the poor showing by the Canonflex, Canon re-thought its single lens reflex design and in 1965 brought out the Canon FX, this first of the F series.

With the FX Canon began a series of cameras that were eventually to recoup the loses of the Canonflex era. Names like F-1, AE-1, EOS 1 and a host of solid practical cameras made Canon the preeminent camera maker it is today. And it began with the Canon FX.

With the new “F” series came a new lens mount. The “R” mount of the “Flex” series gave way to the “FL” mount which was used on the FX, FP, Pellix, FTQL, PellixQL, and TL models.

In March of 1971 Canon came out with its flagship SLR, the F-1 and again the lens mount changed. The new mount was called the FD lens mount and it had sufficient communication between camera and body to allow for complete TTL metering.

All subsequent F series cameras used this new mount. The last camera of the F series was the New F-1 which came out in September 1981, unless one wanted to count the very specialized New F-1 High Speed Motor Drive Camera which was introduced in February of 1984.

1964 to 1984 was twenty years of development and innovation of the Canon camera which eventually led to the “A” series, the “T” series and finally the EOS cameras that are with us today. But it really all started with the Canon FX of the “F” series in 1964.

This is a selection of F Series cameras in The Collection. From the left in the front row are an FTb, FT, TX, and another FT. Behind is a black EF (I have only seen black ones), a Pellix in the back, then a TLb and an FX (both hard to identify in this image) and finally a New F-1 and an F-1n.

“F” Series Cameras with the FL Lens Mount

 Camera Year Camera Year
 Canon FX (Silver) 1964   Canon Pellix 1965
Canon FX (Black) 1964   Canon FT QL (Silver) 1966
B&H FX (Silver) 1964 Canon FT QL (Black) 1966
Canon FP (Silver) 1964   Canon Pellix QL 1966
B&H FP (Silver) 1964   Canon TL 1968
         

“F” Series Cameras with the FD Lens Mount

 Camera Year   Camera Year
         
 Canon F-1 1971   Canon EF 1973
Canon FTb QL (Chrome) 1971   Canon TLb 1974
Canon FTb QL (Black) 1971   Canon TX 1975
Canon FTb-n (Chrome) 1973   Canon F-1n 1976
Canon FTb-n (Black) 1973    New F-1 1981
         

Cameras in the Collection

C-69

Canon FX (SIlver)

Introduced April 64

Canon TX

C-166

Canon FP (SIlver)

Introduced October 64

Canon TX

C-167

B&H/Canon FP (SIlver)

Introduced October 64

C-113

Canon Pellix (SIlver)

Introduced April 65

C-68

Canon Pellix QL (SIlver)

C-01

Canon FT QL (Silver)

Introduced March 1966

C-157

Canon FT (Black)

Introduced March 66

Introduced March 66

C-38

Canon TL (Silver)

Introduced Feb 68

Canon FTb-n (Black)

C-175

Canon FTb-n QL (Black)

Introduced Mar 73

Canon TX

C-52
Canon TX (Silver)
Introduced March 1975

Canon F-1 Camera

C-281
Canon F-1 (Original Model)
Marketed March 1971

C-21

Canon FTb QL

Introduced Mar 71

C-81
Canon F-1n (Second Model)
Introduced September 1981

C-72

Canon TLb

Introduced Sep 74

Canon EF Camera

C-83
Canon EF
Introduced November 1973

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