The Canon EOS camera - history

Under the umbrella of a development project called EOS - Electro Optical System - Canon produced its first auto focus 35mm film stills camera for the amateur photography market in March 1987. Designed by the celebrated Italian industrial designer Luigi Colani who had also drawn the award winning Canon T-90, the EOS 650 AF single lens reflex model used a new EF lens mount for a range of ultrasonic motor driven auto focus lenses.

This new system replaced Canon's earlier manual focus FD breechlock lenses. Professional photographers requested a suitable auto focus model and this soon came in the shape of another Colani masterpiece called EOS 1. The camera embodied the best features of the T-90 and the first EOS cameras; it took micro processor technology and auto focus innovations to a new level housed in a tough, ergonomically shaped, glass fiber reinforced polycarbonate body.

A major step forward for digital imaging came in 1998 when a prototype Kodak Canon EOS-1 based DCS 520 camera was trialled at the 1998 Nagano winter Olympics. Canon launched its EOS D2000 in the same year.

Now, the professional level 21megapixel EOS-1Ds MkIII and the high speed EOS 1D MkIII head a list of full frame and APS-C sensor format digital cameras aimed at photography enthusiasts. Amongst them are the popular EOS 5D MkII, EOS 50D, EOS 40D and 450D, EOS Rebel T1i, EOS Rebel Xti and EOS Rebel XS.