Canon Canonet Mk1 - 1960's Rangefinder Camera
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- In this video we're taking a look at my 1961 (or thereabouts) Canon Canonet rangefinder camera. My copy was a bit of a wreck when I first got it, but I couldn't resist the temptation of fixing it and putting it to use again.
The Canonet was introduced in 1961 with the first version (like mine) having a Selenium cell exposure meter and no indication of the selected aperture in the viewfinder. Versions of the Canonet continued to be produced right into the early 80s.
The film used for the test shots in the video was Kentmere 100 ISO.
Start 00:00
Repairs 00:52
History & Models 02:57
Gallery 1 04:16
Controls & How to use 05:17
Loading Film 11:32
Gallery 2 13:07
Summary 14:37
Outro 15:34
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Outro Music
"As Yet Untitled"
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Additional Music
"Acoustic Typewriter"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp Page)
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The production quality on those dramatic reconstructions had me pinned to my seat. 😁
I tried to fix one of these once but couldn't get the shutter blades to seat and the loose lens just made me give up. You're a brave man - lol
Merry Christmas, sir.
Hi Morris, ooh yes, the team put in lots of work to shoot those dramatic reconstructions!!!!
I think almost any camera is a bit daunting to fix, particularly the first time you dive into that particular model, and the Canonet is no exception. I always find when I'm reassembling aperture blades or shutter blades that I'm concentrating so hard, I forget to breathe. Then suddenly I need air, and have to try not to blow the blades out of position. In the case of the Canonet, getting the two halves of the shutter body back together is a horrible job, but it was worth the effort because it's a lovely little camera now it's working.
@@GrumpyTim I bow to your patience and perseverance. I do the 'forgetting to breathe' thing too :)
Cool I just saw one of these in an antique store, the later revision with the carrier
They're a lovely little camera to use - definitely worth picking one up if it's working - I'm really impressed with the lens, it's significantly better than some of my other old cameras.
thank you boss man
You're welcome
Amazing how you're always able to bring old camera's (or any old hardware back) to life! Merry Christmas
Cheers ohjajohh, and Happy Christmas to you too.
As soon as I saw the still picture in my feed on RUclips I knew what that was. I had one as my first camera, back in the late 1960, and it was a good introduction to ‘proper’ photography (as opposed to ‘point and shoot’). Your video certainly brought back some memories
Hi Simon, that would have been a really cool camera to have back then, what did you move onto after the Canonet? I'm really pleased that I rescued this one from it's sad looking state - it's a cracking little camera and it'll be getting another film put in it very soon.
@@GrumpyTim I've been trying to remember what came next. I think it was an SLR, from a Japanese manufacturer trading under a name beginning with 'M', but it wasn't Mamiya or Minolta. It had a Praktica lens mount. They were only sold in this country through the Dixon's chain, so it was just as well it had the Praktica mount. I think I may have lost interest in photography around this time, as the next camera was a Minolta, and it was one of those god-awful miniature cameras. Was it 126 film size? It came in a cassette. It didn't matter that the frame size was small, because the lenses were appalling. I didn't get another camera for many years until I bought a digital one.
I think a lot of people (myself included) got drawn down that rabbit hole of compact cameras with rubbish lenses - in my case, it was still using 35mm film, but it did rather take the love out of photography. I was still running a proper SLR along side the compact camera, but for most of my adventures I only took the compact. I'm generally happiest if I have some level of control over exposure and focus rather than letting the camera do it for me.
Merry Christmas and hope you have a good year. Cheers
Cheers Joseph, hope you're having a good Christmas. I'll hopefully catch up with a couple of your videos that I haven't seen yet later today.
@@GrumpyTim Not quit good as I wish, these times will be always lonely and sad for me. cheers
That's always a shame Joseph, hopefully you can distract yourself by working on an exciting project, and all your RUclips friends will be thinking about you.
Hi Tim, Great, clear and comprehensive video for this camera. The best I have come across. I got my mum's Canon Canonet Rangefinder serviced a couple of years ago and am now embarking on a visual arts photography course for 6 months. Would you know how I can get a lens cap for this camera? I'm in Australia. Thanks again.
Hi Dominique, glad you liked the video. If I remember correctly the Canonet uses a 55mm lens cap (I haven't got mine with me to measure at the moment), probably just worth measuring the inside diameter of your lens housing (the bit where there's a screw thread for a filter to be fitted) it should be around 55mm, then search Ebay or Amazon for something like "55mm Universal Centre Pinch Lens Cap" you should find a suitable lens cap for not a lot of money. I wouldn't try to get an original Canon lens cap because it will probably cost more and do exactly the same job.
Hi, do you have a link to the manual for the shutter by any chance?
Hi Ivanbogush, the manual I was using came from Learn Camera Repair dot com, and it's the "Canonet Repair Manual 1962" (it's on page 2 of their big list of Canon service manuals). It's not necessarily the easiest manual in the world to follow, but it had the bit of information that I needed regarding the orientation of those shutter blades, so it was worth having.
any advice on repairing one with a half depressed shutter button and a stuck film advance lever?
Hi Ramie, without actually looking at the camera it's difficult to give an exact answer, but it's not uncommon for the shutter blades to stick in these cameras - if they're stuck halfway through the firing sequence, that will prevent using the advance lever. Assuming yours is a similar model of Canonet, there are all the linkages that make the auto exposure system operate, if those are sticking they can prevent the shutter button from working correctly. I don't suppose the entire lens unit seems loose does it - that was the case on both of my cameras, and that also prevents the linkages from lining up correctly, but even if that hadn't been the case, the shutter blades were stuck on both cameras anyway so they needed a complete strip down.
Cleaning stuck shutter blades is probably the one of the biggest repairs to undertake because it involves removing the lens and shutter unit from the camera body and completely dismantling the shutter - probably not the job to tackle if it's your first repair - if you had access to a similar (but very cheap) rangefinder camera that you could take apart first as a practice - they're not all the same, but they are surprisingly similar and the more you do, the easier it gets (in theory).
do you have a guide on how to disassemble it???
Hi Elijah, the best that I could find is the manual available on the Learn Camera Repair website - it's a little help, but it does expect a little (or a lot) of familiarity with general camera repairs, it definitely doesn't guide you seamlessly through the process. The exploded drawings at least give you a little bit of a heads up as to what you'll find inside.
Does newer Leicas have that fancy parallax correction? That sounds awesome
Hi Omar, I have a feeling that some of the Leica cameras have a similar parallax correction, I've certainly heard people talking about parallax correction on their Leicas, but I've never even held a Leica, they are way out of my price range, so I can't say for certain that they use the same, or a similar system.
i picked up one in seemingly good nic a few weeks back, only issue is the shutter speed dial seems to have become disconnected from the helicoid and the meter seems tempermental . while you had yours open, did it seem possible to re connect the shutter speec ring to the helicoid, also what tool do you use to open the lense, using the two notches.
Hi MrMofophill, did you mean the shutter speed dial/ring? The shutter speed dial or ring has a pin that drives the actual shutter speed setting disc within the shutter mechanism itself - you can see the shutter speed setting disc on my video at about 1 minute 10 seconds in - there's a notch that you can see at the 3 o'clock position on the outside of that disc - it's this notch that the shutter speed ring drives, and it shouldn't in theory become disconnected.
The focusing ring, which is the rear ring, against the body of the camera, is connected to the helicoid by three grub screws, but if the helicoid is seized from old dry grease, it won't help by tightening these screws.
On both copies of the camera that I have, the lockring that attaches the entire shutter and lens assembly to the helicoid had come loose, and this caused many of the linkages to not work properly.
To open the front of the lens and remove the selenium cell, on this camera, I used an old set of digital calipers that don't work any more - the pointed tips of the internal measuring side of the calipers worked perfectly for the job. It is important that the selenium cell doesn't rotate when you undo the lockring, otherwise the fine wire running to the cell van break. I can't remember exactly where, but the fine wire needs to be unsoldered carefully before proceeding any further into the lens.
@@GrumpyTim thanks for the info, ill be sure to attempt a repair once im done with my rescue of a cosina cx1. even though its a cheap camera im willing to put a few hours into repairing the canonet due to the rest of it being in almost imaculate condition.
ill try a pair of calipers first but i may buy the specific tool anyways since ive been having some fun buying up broken cameras and repairing them.
Cheers MrMofophill, I think any old camera is worth repairing, particularly the less popular stuff - if people only concentrated on the expensive ones we'd end up with a load of Leicas, Nikons, Canons and such and lose the interesting little guys.
If I remember correctly, the lens wrench I was using at the time I worked on the Canonet wouldn't work to remove the ring that secures the selenium cell - the slotted end was going to damage the bobbles on the glass (plastic) cover over the cell, and the pointed end wouldn't actually get to the slots on the securing ring - I only had a straight legged lens wrench at the time, I've since got a cranked one as well, which may well work on that job. That was why I picked the slightly unorthodox pair of calipers for the job instead. It's not unusual that I'll have to make a tool specifically to open a part of a camera, this isn't as glamorous as it sounds, it'll usually be something like a scrap of steel, filed to the right shape and the teeth filed slim enough to fit in the slots, it doesn't matter how crude it looks so long as it gets the job done successfully.
Glad you're having fun fixing some of the old cameras you get.
I wonder how long it took them to fit all that in to the camera. All those fiddly bits! Also must have taken quite a lot of assembly. Well done.
It would have been an amazingly fiddly assembly process even before they added features like the moving viewfinder frame lines and auto aperture linkages - pretty impressive stuff really.
@@GrumpyTim Yes, I wonder what the assembly workers made of the additions!
Is the selenium cell still working perfectly (in contrast to the Bessamatic)?
Yes, this time round the Selenium cell is just fine. I still tend to shoot using an external exposure meter because I like to stay in control - on the early Canonet like I have, you have no indication of what aperture it's picking. To check the accuracy of the meter and auto aperture, I was able to observe the aperture size by looking through the back of the camera (without a film in in), I adjusted the linkages to tune it so it works really well in various light conditions. I took a few shots using the auto exposure and they seem to have come out fine - the only one I can specifically remember was the one of the Tudor Rose Fish Bar, but the others must have worked, because the exposures all look ok.
This is a really nice photo of the Tudor Rose Fish Bar, I really like these half-timbered houses.
Yes, I love the timber framed buildings, I'd quite like to renovate one, but even if I did have one to renovate, it would be the sort of project that would take over my life!