It was introduced in April 1985 and discontinued in June 1986 and is part of the T series of FD mount cameras.

This leaves the top of the camera very clean, since there is no advance lever or rewind knob.

Indicators on the top LCD display the status of loading, winding and rewinding.

Each lens contains a motor to focus, unlike the body-integral AF system pioneered by Minolta.

All are readily identifiable by a boxy area on the upper left (viewed from the camera) containing the motor, and a red ring around the front lens element.

Canon, unlike Minolta and Nikon, was convinced that having the motor in the lens was the optimal approach; this line of thinking continued with the new EOS system in 1987, which remains Canon's standard mounting system for SLRs today.