The camera featured polycarbonate external construction with weather-resistant seals around buttons, dials, and its Canon EF lens mount.

Another option is Depth-of-field AE (DEP), an automatic mode that selects the focusing distance and aperture f-number to place the depth of field between two user-specified near and far points.

There are 14 custom functions to change the way the camera operates, which set options like exposure steps and mirror lock-up.

Other notable omissions are the eye-controlled focus feature of the EOS-5 and the bar code reader of the EOS-10, neither of which are professional-level cameras.

Another feature of the EOS-1N, and other professional models in the range, is the provision for a precise viewfinder indication of exposure in manual mode.

The EOS-1N provides a viewfinder readout similar to the old F-1's needle display, but in electronic LCD form showing steps in 0.3, 0.5 or 1 stops.

In addition to the standard EOS-1N there was another, specialized model in the range — the EOS-1N RS, introduced in 1995, with a permanently attached power drive booster.

The fixed mirror allows high-speed continuous shooting at a top speed of 10 frames per second, with a shutter release lag as low as 6 ms.

There is a cost to this however: slightly less light reaches the film, as some is always being directed up to the viewfinder and optical quality loss.

By the time of the release of the next generation EOS-1V, considerable technical improvements to the standard camera design meant that Canon no longer offered RS model variants.

The EOS-1N camera bodies were almost unmodified from stock configuration, and were mounted on a removable Kodak digital back.