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HAVE three older all-mechanical Canon SLRs, two of which were very kindly given to me by friends who had moved up to fully automatic Canons, and one which I bought in a flea market. I also have some later Canon SLRs, A1, AV1, and the latest a T70. I did have an AE1 which served me well, but I traded it in against an A1. I also have several Canonets and an all-plastic point and shoot Snappy. As you may gather, I rather like Canons.

Canonflex RP

THE oldest of the three mechanical SLRs is a Canonflex RP introduced in 1960. It’s very similar to Canon’s first SLR, the Canonflex which appeared a year earlier, but the RP was a slightly cheaper version. So far as I know, the only differences between the Canonflex and the Canonflex RP is that the Canonflex has a detachable pentaprism which can be changed for a waist-level reflex finder, whereas the Canonflex RP has a fixed pentaprism, and a different type of delayed action setting.
The lens is a 50mm f/1.8 Super-Canomatic

The second of Canon's SLRs, the Canonflex RP with its chunky clip-on selenium meter.

R series which has a breech lock fixing but it isn’t interchangeable with the later FL or FD series lenses because the stop-down mechanism is completely different. It doesn’t have the familiar two levers of the later lenses, it has two pins. One moves sideways, and the other moves radially inwards towards the centre of the lens.
     When you wind on, a lever inside the lens mounting on the camera pushes the sideways-moving pin to ‘arm’ the automatic stop down. You focus at full aperture then, when you press the shutter release, another small lever inside the lens housing flicks the radial-moving pin on the lens to close the iris to whatever aperture you’ve set while the exposure is being made. There are two aperture rings on the lens, one to pre-set the aperture you want to use, and the other, just behind it, closes the iris manually so you can judge the depth of field.
     Unlike later Canon SLRs which have the wind-on lever in the usual place on the top plate, this has the lever on the baseplate with a little folding ‘foot’ by which you push it round. The shutter has the usual run of speeds from 1 to 1/1000 sec plus B, and an X setting for flash which, I’ve found by trial and error, is the same as 1/60 sec. As usual, the flash also synchronises at any speed slower than 1/60 sec. There isn’t a locking collar on the shutter release button. The frame counter is under a tiny round window on the top plate with a magnifying lens to help you read it.
     With the camera came a quite chunky selenium meter which clips on to a bracket on the front of the camera and is geared to the shutter speed dial. When you clip it on you have to be careful to set the speed on the meter to the same speed as on the shutter dial. The meter seems reasonably accurate, but for me it gets in the way of my natural right-hand hold. You can, if you want, unclip it and use it as a hand-held meter, which I did after the first few pictures, after which I left the meter at home and used a much more convenient Weston. The results from the R series lens show very little difference so far as I can judge from those taken with later FL and FD lenses except, perhaps, that they haven't got quite the same biting contrast.
     The camera isn’t in mint condition, it’s got the usual signs of fairly hard use (the original owner travelled all over the world with it), but everything works just as Canon said it would 45 years ago except that I suspect the 1/2 sec and 1 sec speeds are a shade slow.

THE FX replaced the Canonflex in April 1964 and was the first of the F series, bringing in a new lens mount and stop down mechanism designed with an eye to the future and TTL metering. One of the nice things about

The FX, first of the F-Series, introduced the new lens mounting

Canon SLRs is that from the FX right through to the EOS series all lenses, whether breech lock or the later quick-change button lock, fit all models. The FX is a little less chunky than the Canonflex, but still quite heavy. The lever wind is in the usual place on the top plate, it’s got a shutter release button lock, and there’s a built-in CdS meter on the other side of the top plate that couples to the shutter speed dial. The shutter speeds are the usual 1 to 1/1000 sec.
     There are two ranges for the meter, High and Low, set by a small lever under the rewind crank, and two series of f-stops, white for High and orange for Low, under a window by the side of the crank. After setting the ASA number on a window in the speed dial you point the meter and turn the speed dial until ther stop you want to use lines up with the needle in the meter window.
     It should have a mercury battery, but as I use print film pretty well all the time I tried it with a silver oxide cell. Within the limits of using a small meter attached to the camera the exposures agreeed well with my hand held meter and were well within the film's latitude.
     This one used to belong to a photojournalist who probably put more films through it in a month than the average amateur puts through in a year, but never used the meter so he took the battery out to avoid any chance of corroded contacts. He covered mainly motor racing and a lot of industrial exhibitions and was usually seen with the FX sitting on top of a big Schanski tripod slung over one shoulder. It worked hard for its living, and this shows in a couple of scuff marks on the top plate and the tripod marks on the baseplate. But, once again, everything works. Canon mechanical cameras sometimes go wrong, but do they ever wear out?
     It should be fitted with an FL series lens, but it’s got a later f/1.8 FD series lens which couples OK to everything. Until I got a later Canon with TTL metering I used the FX quite a lot, and really liked it. It’s got that solid, won’t let you down sort of feel about it.

THE FP appeared a few months after the FX,

The FP is the same as the FX but doesn't have a meter.

and was the same except that it hadn't got the built-in meter. According to Canon was aimed at the professional, many of whom either preferred to use a hand held meter for measuring the light on different parts of the subject and didn't want to wave the camera about, particularly if it was on a tripod or, if they were photojournalists, often hadn't got time to use a meter and judged exposures by eye and experience. It was also considerably cheaper.
     This is one I found in a flea market. When I go it evberything worked but the slower speeds got progressively slower until the 1 sec sped took nealy three seconds with the curtain crawling across the flim plane.
    I put just half a drop of Ronsonol on to the ends of the curtain spindles and exercised the shutter till the speeds came back as near as I could judge to about normal. I followed this up with just a spot of clock oil on each spindle pivot and exercised it again for about 50 winds.
    Now everything works beautifully apart from the focus ring on the FL lens. This is loose but works OK if you hold it back towards the camera. You can't use it use it for scale focusing because that’s way out. I haven't got around to fixing it, so if I feel like giving the cameera an airing I usually fit it with a later FD lens. Both the FX and the FP were available in an all black finish instead of sation chromium, but these seem to be relatively rare. I think I've seen only a couple over the years.

I LIKE the Canon A1. I traded in an AE1 to get my first one and never regretted it. I’ve since picked up two more, one is in perfect working order but the other out of service at the moment because although it works

This A1 was my main user camera for years. It worked hard and it never failed me once.

OK the battery lasts only a day or so. I’m told it’s most likely to be shorted contacts in the battery check switch but I haven‘t yet had the top off to have a look. When I do I'll probably disconnect the battery check switch and isolate it rather than play about trying to clean the contacts because all the time I was using my A1 as a main camera I can't remember ever using the battery check. Instead, about every six months I took the battery out and put a meter across it which I think is a lot more accurate than a go/no-go check light.
     The A1 first appeared in April 1978 and was the top of the range A series camera aimed at the professional. It was produced only in a black finish which, on the ones I have, is very durable. It’s all electronically controlled with TTL metering and three automatic exposure modes: speed priority, shutter priority and program commonly called the idiot’s setting.
     When program is selected you just focus and press the button leaving the camera to sort out what stop and speed it will use. Canon claims it was the first camera to have this system. I don’t know what criteria it uses to decide, and I haven’t used this setting much because I prefer to select my own speed or stop but on the few occasions I have used it for general family type shots it gave perfectly exposed pictures.
     The A1 was my main user camera for years. I took hundreds of pictures with it and it never failed me once. I got to know it so well I could almost use it blindfold (except for focusing). Whether I shall use it as much now I’ve got a T70 remains to be seen. I obviously won't use it as much, but it's been such an old and faithful friend I feel rather guilty when it sits on the shelf and just looks at me. I shall take it with me in the camera bag and probably use black and white in the A1 and colour in the T70. The A1's had a lot more black and white put through it than colour, so it ought to be happy. And the beauty of it is that on a day's outing I need take only one set of lenses.

T70

THIS is my latest Canon, a Christmas present (Christmas 2005) from my son and daughter in law. The T70 was introduced in April 1984 and won the European Camera of the Year award. Mine is in really superb condition, the only thing that stops it being Mint is a slight mark less than half an inch long in the back of the top plate.
At the time of writing I've put only a couple of films

My latest Canon, A T70 fitted with my usual everyday lens, a 35-70 macro zoom.

through it but already I love it. It feels so right to handle. Everything is electronic with no knobs to turn on the body. Much as I like fully mechanical cameras I've got to say that the T70 is, at the moment, my favourite. It has an almost bewildering choice of systems including two metering modes, average and partial, which is centre weighted, and all the automatic exposure modes you can think of. All the functions are set by small button switches on the top plate and the mode you’re using appears in a quite large LCD screen also on the top plate.
There isn’t a wind on lever, it’s got a motor that winds on automatically after each exposure (or it will continue taking pictures if you keep your finger in the button). Film loading couldn’t be easier. You just pop in a cassette, lay the film across the film plane and close the back. It automatically loads and winds on to No 1 ready to take pictures. It also has power rewind.
I haven’t really got to grips with it all yet, but once I’m more familiar with it I’m sure I’ll love it even more. Maybe I’m just getting old and sybaritic, but it’s so easy and smooth to use. I like the easy film loading, just lay the film in and close the back. No fiddling about with cold fingers poking the film leader into a slot in the take-up spool, and when you close the back the camera it automatically winds on to No 1 ready to take a picture. I like having a built-in motor wind instead of having to screw a separate box on the bottom, and I like the power rewind. Yet with all its automatic features, I'm still in full control. Apart from using it, two more things I like already are that I can use all my Canon and Canon fit FD lenses on it, and it runs on two cheap alkaline AA batteries which you can get almost anywhere.

Canonets

THE Canonet range started in January 1961. It was something of a surprise that Canon, noted as a maker of top-end cameras, should launch something in the medium price range aimed purely at amateurs. The early Canonets were quite large and rather brick-like, but they handled nicely and had good clear rangefinders.

The Canonet with which John won a competition

Amateurs took to them and they were a huge success with a million sold in two and a half years.
     One of these large Canonets was my son John’s first ‘serious’ camera when he was still in Junior school, and we’ve both got a soft spot for it because one of the pictures he took with it when he was eight years old won first prize in the under-16 section of an Amateur Photographer national competition. The prizes were presented by comedian Ernie Wise, and the Daily Mirror featured a picture of John taking a photograph of Ernie’s “short, fat, hairy legs”.
     It’s one of the first model Canonets from the early 1960s. It’s quite heavy and chunky, but very neat and uncluttered with just the shutter release button on the top plate. The wind-on lever, rewind crank and rewind lever are all on the bottom plate. There’s one drawback to this. Unless you have a tripod with a very slim ball socket plate the wind-on lever won’t move through its full stroke and you have to unscrew the camera from the tripod to wind on.
     The lens is a Canon 45mm f/1.9, which gives excellent pictures. It should have a choice of speed priority automatic aperture via a selenium cell round the lens, or fully manual with choice of both speed and aperture. The fully manual operation still works fine, but the automatic operation has become rather hit or miss, possibly because the selenium cell is coming to the end of its life or, more likely, there’s a high resistance somewhere in the circuit. I haven’t investigated.
     The second large Canonet is a QL 25, the third in the QL series. When it

The Canonet QL25 was cheaper, but still gave excellent quality pictures

appeared towards the end of 1965 it was the cheapest QL with the price cut to 60% of the first QL17. This was done by cutting out the slow speeds below 1/15sec and fitting an SE f/2.5 five element lens in place of the SE f/1.7 with six elements. Apart from the smaller maximum aperture I can’t detect any difference in use, and none in quality of the results, and it brought Canon quality to a wider middle market. The QL, or quick loading, feature works very well. You lead the film across the film plane and, when you close the back, a plate attached to the back comes over and takes the end of the film down to the take-up spool. All you do them is wind on to number 1 and you’re away. You still have speed priority automatic exposure via a CdS cell in the front of the lens housing, or fully manual, which is handy if you run out of mercury batteries. It will give auto exposure on a 1.5 alkaline battery, but I’m not sure whether or not the metering has a bridge circuit so I’m unsure about the accuracy.
A year or so ago I picked up two more Canonets, both Canonet 28s, but very different. The first one, launched in December 1968, was a cheap mass produced mass-market automatic exposure camera, quite light with a body made of plastic with thin metal top and bottom plates, and uncompromisingly styled with a body like a small brick. Both the Seiko LA shutter and the aperture iris are goverened by a large selenuim cell mounted round the lens which measires EV (exposure value). The lens is f/2.8, 40mm, four glasses inh three groups, so I assume it's based on a Tessar design.
All the user has to do is focus and press the button. There's a focus scale in both meters and feet on the lens, or you can focus through the viewfinder. On the right hand side of the meter is a needle that moves when you turn the lens focus to point at a series of pictographs, symbols in other words, indicating close up, groups or mountains. Another needle moves along the bottom of the viewfinder to tell what shutter speed the camera has selected from 1/30 sec

The original Canonet 28 was quite basic and aimed at the mass market

to 1/250 sec. You can't select speeds or stops manually. The only other setting is a lever to select automatic or flash, but there isn't a flash socket or hot shoe, just a socket for flash cubes on the top plate. It's very simple for a novice to use, and though I haven't put a film through it everything seems to work OK.
The second 28, launched in 1971 as the New Canonette 28, is a rangefinder camera much smaller than the others. It hasn’t got a large selenium cell round the lens, it’s got a small CdS cell in a window just above the f/2.8 five element lens. On automatic setting this gives fully programmed auto exposure, the camera choosing both speed and aperture. It showed similar symptoms as the larger QL 25, OK

The New Canonet 28 was a rangefinder, more compact, better styled and had a better lens.

on manual but dead on automatic. This time, though, I suspected it was because the battery contacts, in a tiny compartment in the bottom plate, were corroded A dead mercury cell was quite firmly stuck in there and took quite a lot of fiddling and drips of vinegar to get out because it drops in sideways, not flat, and you can’t get hold of it. I cleaned the contacts and tried it with a 1.5 volt alkaline cell. It operates OK but, as with the QL 25 I’m not sure about auto exposure accuracy. Manual exposure doesn’t give you full control, as you can’t select a shutter speed, only an aperture, so I assume it may be intended only for use with flash but I’m not sure what the shutter speed is on this setting. There isn't a co-axial flash socket, just a hot shoe on the top plate. It's supposed to use a mercury battery, but I tried it using an alkaline and it gave quite well judged exposures, within the wide tolerance of colour print film.

Snappy LX

THIS is somewhere near the bottom of the

The Snappy LXII, near the bottom of Canon's point and shoot range.

range of Canon's plastic point and shoots from the 1990s. It's fixed focus, fully automatic with a 35mm triplet lens. There's a turn button on the front with an OFF position which brings a cover over the lens, and four other positions - auto, permanent flash, flash when the camera thinks there's not enough light and self timer or delayed action. Apart from that you just point and shoot. It's quite nicely styled, light, pocketable and aimed purely at the happy snapper. I found it at a flea market in a box with a lot of cheap Instamatics and own-brand 110 cameras, and gave 50p for it just because it's a Canon - or at least it's got Canon's name on it. It was rather dirty, but it's cleaned up OK with a spot of window cleaner and a touch of wax polish.
It runs on a couple of AA batteries. I haven't put a film through it except for the old cassette of film I keep for test loading, but everything seems to work OK. One day, perhaps.