Canon EOS A2E

The Canon A2E (AKA the Canon EOS 5) was the professionals second body in the mid 90s. Smaller than the 1 series, it was lighter as a second or third body in a camera bag, and, it offered most of the features at a fraction of the cost.

That’s not that different from the role the 5D/7D plays in Canon’s current lineup. But: the A2E is special for a new feature: Eye Control.

Eye control follows where the photographer’s eye is looking through the viewfinder to choose a focus point to lock focus on. It was the first camera to offer the feature, but, it’s not a feature that survives today.

Eye control only worked in landscape, and, only featured five horizontally arranged focus points. In my testing, it didn’t seem to be all that useful, as those points tended to not hit where I wanted the focus to land.

However, it is a very solid, very flexible EOS film camera. And it’s very similar in design to modern EOS bodies- particularly the 30D/50D/7D/5D.

It was succeeded by the EOS 3 in 1998.

About the Shoot

I’m was born in 1985. But, despite growing up in the 1990s, it seems nearly reduced to a few cultural cliches, so, when shooting the A2E, I wanted to do it cheesy, with garishly coloured gels, the way I think of the late 80s and the early 90s.

I tried using a series of different gels on hot shoe flashes coming from all angles, but, it really didn’t get the feel I was looking for, so, I went for strong highlights out of a magenta gel, which seemed closer to what I’d imagine a young marketing executive at Canon thought was cool in 1994.