Some time ago I bought a Canon EOS 1N, their second one series flagship 35mm camera. If you’re not familiar with the intricacies of the 1 series, they were aimed at professionals and especially those who worked in sports photography and photo journalism. They were system cameras that came in a number of configurations. The base model EOS 1N is a fairly standard looking 35mm camera body and ran off a single 2CR5 battery and could achieve three frames per second continuous shooting, a respectable if not mind blowing figure for the time.
There were two grips available for the EOS 1N, one simply contained AA batteries and added no other functionality to the camera – Canon called this the EOS 1N-BP for quite obvious reasons. The second grip was a “power booster” which meant that not only did it house AA batteries but also a power winder which connected to the film winding gear in the camera and doubled the continuous shooting capability to a very impressive six frames per second. When sold with this grip, Canon called it the EOS 1N-HS.
If you are looking to buy an EOS 1N today you will be extremely lucky to find a vanilla body without one of the grips attached. Oddly those that come with the power booster are not only more freely available, they are cheaper than those without. If you do try to buy a plain old EOS 1N, you will struggle to get past the numerous for sale that have lost their grip and are effectively useless. Why are these grips missing? There’s a story…
The EOS1N-hs has one fault – it is heavy. Really heavy. Carrying one round all day is not nice in the slightest and therefore the lighter 1N without a battery grip is far more desirable. To convert an EOS 1N-hs into a 1N you need the removable finger grip (called GR-E1 or GR-E2). That can’t be too much of a problem, can it? Oh you optimist, you!
Let’s go on a camera conversion journey.
- Finding a GR-E1
- Not the end of the expense…
- The BC error generator
- What difference does it really make?
- Conclusions
Finding a GR-E1
The first time I searched eBay for a GR-E1 I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were asking anything between £75 and £100 for the grip alone. This is madness, you can absolutely win an EOS 1 or 1N for the same money (the grip on the 1 and 1N is identical) – so why not just buy another camera? Well, this completely defeats the point doesn’t it, I don’t need a new camera.
What about buying a new one? That was a long shot that I ploughed a decent amount of time into. There are one or two sellers who still list the part on their websites, but everywhere is out of stock. I contacted a couple of larger online resellers of Canon parts and spares and in fairness to them they did get back to me, but with the expected negative response. As far as I’m aware, no one has access to new stock of these grips.
That leaves either getting lucky or buying a spares or repairs camera just for the grip. Guess what? Sellers have realised that people want these grips and are prepared to pay more than the camera is worth to get hold of one. At a rough estimate, I’d say at least 90% of all broken EOS 1N’s available have had their grips stripped out as you can see from the auctions in the screenshot above.
The final issue is that most of the worlds stock of EOS 1 bodies, spares and grips appear to be in Japan. There’s nothing wrong with buying from Japan and I’ve had some reasonable experiences in the past when I used to collect old Nintendo consoles to repair or modify for the UK market. However, times have changed and sellers are no longer prepared to send you items as “gifts” and at that point our friends in the UK Customs office step in and whack massive import charges on your gear that suddenly is more expensive than if you’d just gone to a high street shop.
Admittedly, I gave up for quite some time after going down these dead end streets and getting nowhere near an affordable solution. I considered selling my 1N-hs and buying another 1N with the right grip, but again prices were prohibitive and it seemed like a lot of effort just to experience a camera which probably just felt an awful lot like a 5D. I’d search every now and again to see if there was any UK stock and nothing appeared until about a month ago when this happened:
The auction had been online for about an hour when I found it and, although still stupidly expensive, this was cheaper than a new camera, in the UK and had the magical best offer button. I immediately offered £50 and within 5 minutes I’d bought myself the fabled GR-E1. Sorted! I was happy, but questioning my own sanity at spending so much money on a chunk of plastic.
Not the end of the expense…
The grip arrived and that’s where the story ends, or rather it doesn’t at all. Nothing is simple, is it? I’ll get to the fact that my camera tried to die with the grip fitted later and move on to an unforeseen issue – a big hole.
I’m so used to using battery grips with digital cameras that it never crossed my mind that there was a connection for the film winder on the bottom of the camera body. The HS grip physically drives the winding mechanism to enable the ludicrous 6fps continuous shooting and to make that connection you have to remove a little metal cover. I’ve seen replacements for missing winder covers for the A series cameras and usually they’re a few quid, perhaps ten at most to replace. You can guess where this is going, can’t you?
Not for the first time, my eyes watered when I saw the search results. There were a few European sellers who had knocked up 3D printed plastic caps to fit the hole. My experience with 3D printed parts is that they’re usually absolute garbage and at almost £18 including delivery that wasn’t an option. I had to resort to the great camera retirement home that is Japan and, brace yourself, it wasn’t cheap but I’d gone so far there was no point turning back now. At least that’s how I justified yet more ludicrous spending to myself.
Including postage, I spent the disgraceful sum of £27 getting hold of a genuine winder cover – but trust me, this was the only available option. At least the seller came across as a lovely person – Arigatou to you too Kato, you’re welcome.
The BC error generator
So that’s it then, isn’t it? Of course it isn’t. Having worked perfectly for the whole time I’ve owned it, putting the smaller grip on immediately generated the dreaded flashing BC error. This is the EOS 1’s cry for help and is a nondescript, generic “something went wrong and I can’t fire the shutter” error. Although in 99% of cases, everything points to a shutter issue. Sadly the T90 suffers from the exact same problem, these cameras require regular use to be happy.
The shutter in the EOS 1N is controlled via electromagnets and if these start to stick, fail or stop functioning perfectly to any degree, the camera won’t fire. It appears that with the power winder and AA batteries, there is enough power to overcome any hesitancy that the shutter may have. With just a 2CR5 battery and no power winder, the shutter is much more sensitive and will throw BC errors with abandon. I managed to apply the widely accepted “wave a powerful magnet” at it trick and that works if you fire the shutter every day or so to keep it happy. That’s fine – but with a film in the camera you can’t just keep firing off blank frames to keep the shutter going.
It died a second time after not being used for a couple of days and didn’t respond to the magnet trick initially. I’m not sure what I did in the end, but it came back to life. This doesn’t bode well, but is so common on these cameras that I fear it is the fate of nearly all of them. I’m not actually sure what the long term fix for this problem is – whether the shutter ends up being replaced or there is some form of maintenance you can perform I don’t yet know, but it’s on my list of things to find out. I’ve come this far and spent way too much money to just accept that the camera I have is in failure mode.
And no, the solution cannot be to stick the old grip back on!
What difference does it really make?
Short answer? The world. It makes the world of difference.
When you first use the 1N with a battery grip it feels great, like you’re driving a tank – you are king of cameras and nothing can stand in your way. Then you notice the weight and after an hour you’re booking in a session with the physiotherapist to have your back straightened out. In the 1990’s I’d argue that this was almost an essential piece of kit for any serious 1N owner, they needed the extra performance and the use of AA batteries would’ve been a real cost saving and very convenient in many situations. The vertical shutter control is occasionally useful, but the omission of a second control wheel on the grip has always baffled me as you can’t make simple changes when holding the camera in portrait orientation.
Does the film user of 2024 need a battery grip? Almost certainly not. Gone are the days of smashing through 36 exposure rolls in a matter of seconds, the high FPS of these types of cameras is effectively depreciated – there are few people rich or mad enough for this kind of use case. There’s one single reason I can think of to use the grip and that is to overcome the dreaded BC error.
Without the grip, the EOS 1N is transformed. It’s unexpectedly lightweight and retains the beautiful handling and ergonomics that you’ve been used to. The finger grip is perfectly shaped to your hand and the balance with heavier lenses is still good. Suddenly, you have a camera that can happily be carried around all day without needing to have the wrists of an Adonis, whilst performance remains the same in every other area.
In terms of Canon cameras, there are three EOS models that can be considered “the ultimate” camera. Those are the 1N, 1V and 3. If you want the best there ever was, you buy a 1V but you’re going to need to be prepared to pay large chunks of cash to get it and the same is true for the 3 – good examples fetch a minimum of £250. The 1N, therefore, represents quite the balance between ultimate performance and cost/benefit ratio. When configured without a battery grip, the 1N does everything you could ever want a film camera to do. Whilst a 1v may give you 45 auto focus points, the truth is they’re definitely nice to have, but you don’t need them and you won’t feel let down by the performance of the auto focus in the 1N.
This poses a question – if you were going to buy one Canon film SLR and you wanted it to do absolutely everything, should it be the 1N without the battery grip? I think the answer is a quite clear yes.
A 1V will set you back an absolute minimum of £300 right now and commonly over £400. I know that for some people that’s not a problem, but for the majority of us out there it really is. Justifying that kind of money on a film camera is quite the commitment. I’m not stupid, I know that people think nothing of investing £3000 or more in a Leica. However, as I’ve often said here, if money is no object to you then there’s no decision to make – you always just buy the best there ever was and off you go with your 1V.
For the rest of us I think the 1N without the battery grip is totally perfect. For around £100 you get a camera built like a tank, hopefully without a BC shutter error, and the option to add a very cheap battery grip that will ramp up performance to insane levels should you ever want to give it a go. If you own a 1N without any kind of grip then honestly, you don’t need another Canon EOS film camera and any others you own are just… collecting.
Why haven’t I sold off all of my other EOS film cameras then? The answer is BC errors! If my 1N was flawless in every way, I probably would now consolidate my collection and just use that one camera. As it stands, I’ll keep the EOS 50 for a small while yet.
Conclusions
Was this a worthwhile project? Yes, absolutely. Converting a 1N-hs to a bog standard 1N is probably one of the most sensible things you can do if you own one of these cameras. The 1N goes from an unnecessarily heavy, ex professional tool to an ergonomic, light weight delight that can be used anywhere and in pretty much any circumstance. You go from not wanting to use it because it’s “a bit too much” to being a go to, default choice.
Is this the most sensible way to go about things? No. I paid an absolute premium to convert my camera and it simply is not worth the money. The correct thing to do is to buy the camera in the correct configuration to begin with. This helps with two things – firstly you are more likely to avoid the shutter problems that were lurking in my camera (and countless others) and secondly, should you decide that you want to go the other way and turn the 1N into a 1N-hs, this is a far cheaper direction to go in.
My research of prices and availability is always anecdotal and of a snapshot in time when I write these articles. However, it does seem that the original EOS 1 tends to be mostly sold as a base configuration, the 1N appears to have sold with nothing but the battery grip and 1V’s, if you can afford them, are available fairly equally in grip and non grip variants. In other words, you may see a different picture to me when you go looking for your own copy, but it’s good to have a feel for the market and to be able to spot when you’re getting lucky with an absolute bargain – and they do pop up now and again.
I stand by everything I’ve said previously about the 1N. It is an absolute workhorse with some phenomenal performance and handling characteristics. All the stuff you’d expect from a camera that probably took some of the most famous images of the 1990’s. The bottom line is still clear – buy one if you have the luxury of £100 ish in your budget. However, for long term use, there is no denying that you need to make sure you buy the right variant. Remember, people like me exist to spend money they don’t really have and make silly mistakes so you don’t have to.
You’re welcome.
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