A few years ago I acquired the marvelous Canon EOS 1nRS. There was not too much information online about this glorious marvel of a camera. This review aims to change that. At least there'll be one more review than there was...
This, like my other reviews, will be a user's experience of the camera. Specs are out there if you want em. Google is your friend.
As you might have correctly guessed by now, I friggen love this camera. It is unique and has character - buckets full. The first thing that sets this camera apart is that it has a pellicle mirror, something Canon (I believe) first introduced into the world of photography with the Pellix back in the day and what Sony is now calling it's Translucent Mirror technology in it's new SLT cameras like the A99. It is part of the EOS 1n series of professional cameras. There were a few models, some without a grip some with it as an option. This, with the designation RS, was the only model with both the grip permanently attached and with the pellicle mirror.
The reason for this was to allow the 1nRS to shoot at a blistering 10 frames per second. In other words, if you are a film masochist, you can blaze though a roll of 36 exposures in a little over 3 seconds. Wowsers. I've needed and used this feature once.
The lovely side effects of this technology gave us what is a gem of a camera: no shutter black-out and no mirror-slap. These are, aside from the lack of previewing the depth of field and having more of the image than is captured in view, the things that people cite when explaining/waxing lyrical about the advantages of rangefinders. Also, rangefinders are teeny-tiny compared to the 1nRS. It's a hulk. So with no mirror slap you are able to hand-hold this bad-boy at shutter-speeds you really shouldn't be able to and the fact that the viewfinder doen not black out during exposure lets you actually see what you are capturing. As it happens. Wowsers number 2. Add to this the advantages of an SLR - seeing what is in focus, seeing what your lens choice is doing to the scene, seeing the actual framing, long lenses etc - and you have a truly wonderful tool.
As a portrait shooter, this is a dream camera. The built-in grip makes portrait orientation a natural change in grip rather than sticking your elbow out in the air (waving it around like ya just don't care), the shutter is soooo quiet and discreet, and you can see your subjects expressions change and quickly grab another shot with the stupid-sensitive shutter, which by the way has one of the lowest lag-times of any camera. Wowsers number 3. Plus, I get to use my dream portrait lens, the Canon 100mm F2, on this and make utter magic.
The best part of this camera is that it shoots film. you know, that stuff that you used to squeeze into cameras? Kinda smells funny? Colours and contrast and grain that makes you want to do a jig? That's the stuff. With some of the finest lenses on the planet in full autofocus. It's almost strange to have this level of refinement in a film camera - we are led to believe that film = old and crusty. Well I got news for you, I sometimes just take out this camera just to touch and caress it. Not so much with my 5D mark 2... The 1nRS is beautiful. Beautiful to hold, a seamless joy to shoot and a pleasure to own.
Enough talkin'. Here's some photographs taken with my 1nRS whose name, I should add, is Betty. I call her Big Betty. But not to her face.
I love you Betty. <3 p="p">
The Revolution Will Not be Televised, Jaffa, Israel. Canon 35mm 1.4L
Hardware Strore Man, Israel. Canon 35mm 1.4L
Wedding Prep, Canon 50mm 1.4
Johan, Canon 50mm 1,4
The Flower with the Hard-to-Spell Name, Canon 50mm 1.4
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