Canon EOS 10 /10S
"Good while it lasted". Or "A midsummer night's dream". Or a fantastic camera that went wrong. The EOS 10/10S was a groundbreaking camera at its time, really a step ahead from competitors, offering superior AF speed / accuracy and overall performance that only cameras costing twice the money (mainly Minolta 9Xi) could offer.But unfortunately those great cameras suffered from a major drawback, a shutter susceptible to malfunction due to the shutter bump foam getting deteriorating and eventually seeping through the shutter blades in the form of a tar-like oil, causing a "lazy shutter", i.e. a sticky shutter. This affects the 6XX / 10(s) / 100 EOS camera series, the bumper was replaced with a rubber one on the EOS 5 but it seems that in the case of 10/10s the problem is more prominent. You can actually bet that at some point the camera will suffer from a lazy shutter. You can always open the back and try to remove it yourself (be very careful) or give it in for an expensive repair and then you have a fantastic camera that will work reliably and take wonderful pictures. Ohh.. that is when you get used to some annoying user-interface buttons (AF, -/+, cf) that are small and difficult to press plus the lack of the rear control wheel on the back, introduced on the latter EOS 100 model. It is also much lighter than it's predecessor by almost 100 gr (EOS 10 - 580gr / EOS 630 - 670gr). Canon made this turn on the way they constructed the cameras from then on, a more polycarbonate approach to construction, saving the heavy materials for the EOS 1 series. If you are one of those guys who likes bashing cameras on the pavements, then get a Nikon. I take good care of my cameras so I stick with Canon.
I got my camera in a car boot sale, it was laying in a box with digital cameras. Mine seems to have had more than just a sticky shutter. I dropped a fresh battery in and cleaned the shutter blades but when i switched the camera on, it completely drained my battery. Grrrr.... a 2CR5 battery costs almost £5. I took the top and bottom off and there seemed to have been some water inside the camera. Probably the camera had been laying in water or something. I left it on the windowsill to dry and now it seems to be working fine again. The camera fits quite well in the hand, it is the same width and depth but noticeably shorter than the EOS 5. It also offered a bar code reading function, something like Minolta's expansion cards but more practical, since everything was stored in the camera. Never bothered with that feature so I might be wrong. My impression is that the miror is much smoother, less vibrations and shorter black out time than the EOS 5 but i might be also wrong. The 8-zone metering system is accurate as you would expect it to be. Viewfinder nice and bright.
Conclusion
The EOS 10(s) is one of those few cameras that I really like a lot but unfortunately cannot recommend buying. Most of them suffer already from sticky shutters and if they don't, they soon will. Which is such a shame really because this is a great camera to have. Fast AF, 5 frames per second motor drive, accurate light meter and silent operation are just some of the features of the camera but they are all overshadowed by the sticky shutter problem. And, ok, you might think, "i can always clean it by myself" but then you wonder if it isn't a better idea to give £10- £20 more and get an EOS 50 or an EOS 5 that do not suffer from it and have a better user interface. If you get one like I did (for a couple of quids), go ahead and you've got a great camera. But don't pay £30 to buy it, pay £10 more and get a EOS 50 or £20 more and get an EOS 5 which will serve you well for the years to come.
Digg great
ReplyDeleteBlack Friday S95
Yep, free camera and first roll though...not a single exposure. Pity, as I liked the camera a lot, and the 24mm lens. Guess I'll see what's what before wasting more film. Or stick to my FE.
ReplyDeleteI cleaned the shutter with Bushmills whiskey and it worked! I was desperate to get this camera going again as it is one of the few that will fully operate the fabulously sharp little Sigma Superwide 11 24/2.8 lens that is classed as 4.0 in sharpness.
ReplyDeleteI bought an EOS 10s back in 1993 and loved it. The A2(e)/5 was too expensive and I wasn't thrilled about its bigger size. The Elan/100 had less custom functions and only had one AF sensor (although truth be told I usually set my 10s to just use the center one also .. but it was a factor in my descision matrix). Of course I gave up having the "Quick Control Dial (QCD)" (as Canon calls in the manuals of those bodies that had it) but pressing the "*" and main dial worked well enough.
ReplyDeleteI really liked it at the time. I got one cheap in "untested" condition, and I have a "platiunum" one ("to commemorate Canon's total production of 60 million 35mm full-size still cameras since the company's establishment" as the global Canon site explains) and matching 35-135 USM lens in the same color. I have not tried to shoot with them. I bought an Elan(100) with 28-105mm USM zoom lens for a song at a charity shop and I have a roll of film in it that I've been meaning to finish for the past 2+ years. I guess I will find out if that has the sticky shutter! Luckily the pictures are not important - just to test the camera.
I almost wish I bought an EOS 630 back then. I like the blue backlighting of the external LCD. I LOVE the 650/620/630/600/RT grip. And there would be no streaking of Kodak HIE like there is in the plasticy EOS bodies that use an IR frame detector (luckily it only intrudes into the frame a tiny bit on the 10s and it fits ethereal look of b&w infrared film).