----- Original Message -----
From: "Sylwester Pietrzyk"
Subject: Re: [OT] KM shows cheap DSLR with AS
mike wilson wrote on 15.07.05 13:12:
It will be interesting to see if Canon abandons the inlens IS and goes
for a
body system, leaving present users high and dry. I seem to remember it
has a
history of that sort of thing.
That's nothing new :-) Both Canon and Minolta dropped their FD and MD
mounts
in favour of cempletely new AF ones. But judging by the results that
wasn't
bad move at all. I think Minolta become much more popular than Pentax in
80'
thanks to new AF system.
Canon and Minotla did much the same thing that pentax did ten years earlier,
though Pentax did a better job of it, since they allowed continued use of
older lenses, albeit with many limitations.
The FD and MD mounts were not suited to AF cameras, the FD mount especially,
was too small to allow fast AF lenses.
Canon took a huge gamble, and it paid off handsomly for them. Minolta, I
believe, still offered an MD mount camera up until the Konica takeover.
Canon supported the FD mount for about 5 years after the introduction of the
EOS system as well, and I didn't hear much complaining when they finally
dropped support completely.
William Robb
