First roll with Canon T90

I recently bought a Canon T90 SLR camera. Although I have a lot of FD lenses, I have never actually owned a camera compatible with them but have always used the lenses with adapters. FD lenses are my favorites, and I use them a lot.

The Canon T90 is a professional-grade SLR camera that was released in 1986 and was also the last FD-mount camera body manufactured by Canon. The Canon T60 was technically the last one, but it was not made by Canon itself—it was produced by a third party and branded under Canon's name.

The T90 is probably one of the most advanced, if not the most advanced, manual focus cameras and is the predecessor of the EOS-1 and the entire 1-series in terms of design. The camera is extremely versatile, yet also ergonomic and easy to use.

When I bought the camera, the seller threw in an extra body as a bonus. The second body doesn’t show any error codes, but it only makes a slight clicking sound when pressing the shutter. I haven’t looked into it closely yet, but I found some guides online on how to fix it. And even if I can’t get it working, at least I now have a spare battery holder and focusing screen.

Loading film into this camera turned out to be easy. Just open the back cover, pull the film leader to the orange line, close the cover, and the camera takes care of the rest! Once the film is loaded, set the correct ISO value using the dedicated ISO button and select the appropriate setting. Of course, if you're using DX-coded film, this step isn’t even necessary. Since I mainly shoot black-and-white film, DX coding is rarely present. For my test run, I loaded a roll of Fomapan 400 into the camera.

First shot from the roll

Fomapan 400 is a black-and-white film made by the Czech company Foma. It’s grainy, high-contrast, but also inexpensive, and I personally really like its distinctive look. Loading this film onto a development reel and processing it is also quite easy, but I’ll talk more about that sometime later.

I mounted the Canon FDn 50mm f/1.4 on the front of my T90, which is actually the first FD-mount lens I’ve ever bought. So now, the first and the first come together. Digitally, this lens renders excellently and has often been my companion with the A7 series.

Close-up of dead tree

For the first time ever, I got to set an FD lens aperture ring to the "A" position. I was a bit nervous about whether the aperture blades would work properly. Even though I’ve used the aperture ring before, the speed of the blades doesn’t really matter in digital photography. But no worries—everything seemed to work just as it should, and the exposures turned out perfectly.

Ferns

I compared this through test shots with my Nikon F3 from memory, though I didn’t have it with me at the time. Of course, the automatic film winding and advance are nice features, but one thing that slightly bothered me was that focusing felt easier for me on the Nikon F3. The Nikon’s viewfinder is simply more comfortable for my eyes—but it could also be that I’ve already gotten used to it. That said, I believe that with more practice, focusing with the T90 will start to feel more natural. Not that any of my shots were out of focus, but achieving focus just took me a bit longer compared to how it feels with the F3.

I can't think of anything else "bad" to say about the camera—just words of praise. And as a bonus, the T90 performed better in cold weather than my Nikon F3, where the AI ring always seems to slow down in freezing temperatures. While I can't get exact readings without proper tools, the exposures seemed to be correct based on my test shots, which is often a concern for me with old film cameras.

Boat and tree

Yes, this camera is staying with me, and I’m not planning to part with it anytime soon—if ever. I still have so many lenses to test with it. I just have to hope that the T90’s infamous EEE/HELP error doesn’t strike my camera. I read online that this issue often occurs if the camera sits unused for a long time. That’s why I’ve been firing off a few blank shots daily to keep the shutter moving.

Trees

Overall, shooting with this camera is so easy and effortless. The final result mostly depends on film development—which I’m definitely still a beginner at, as you can probably tell from the results. The test shots in this article were developed with Rodinal at a 1+25 ratio, 20°C, with a development time of 7.5 minutes.

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention! When the roll is finished, the camera automatically rewinds the film. However, it also winds the film leader completely inside the canister, which I’m not too fond of. Luckily, the leader can be easily retrieved using another film strip or a dedicated tool. Apparently, it’s also possible to modify the camera so that it leaves the leader outside the canister.

Sincerely -TS