![]() The top plate also houses the shutter speed/iso dial, the frame lines selector, and the rest of the usual suspects – a rewind crank, film advance lever and shutter release button, film release and shutter lock on the collar. It works, but I never relied on it – I’m pretty comfortable with my external Sekonic l-308s. It’s a classic rangefinder with all the usual buttons and dials, the only somewhat unusual piece being the old school selenium light meter. ![]() Functionally, the Canon 7 is a pretty simple camera. After unwrapping my new old camera, I immediately popped one of the gifted rolls of Tri-X into the Canon 7 and started blasting, learning the thing on the go. Well, I should’ve noticed the unusual level of interest shown by my girlfriend for all the details and specs of the camera. But I didn’t know she was just dissuading me so that she could surprise me with such a great gift. Her argument was fair – with winter months coming and practically nothing to shoot anyways, this was not the perfect time to buy a new camera. Long story short, she talked me out of it. I decided on getting a Canon 7, and was left with only one question how the hell are these cameras so cheap? Of course, being a passionate enthusiast (nerd) I immediately told my girlfriend about the Canon 7 and my sudden urge to buy it. Yet the Canon 7 still succeeded despite being old tech released at the dawn of the era of the SLR, selling well more than 100,000 units. One very interesting thing about the Canon 7 is that it was first released in 1961, which is after the debut of the Nikon F, the SLR camera which basically toppled rangefinders from the peak of photographic Everest. That’s what they did with Toyota, and Suntory whisky, anyway. Even better than the original, sometimes. And there is one thing I know for sure about the Japanese – if they copy something, they do it pretty damn good. Just like every other camera manufacturer at that time, Canon wanted a piece of the Leica rangefinder glory. The story behind these cameras is simple. I started researching the full-size Canon rangefinder cameras – including the Canon P, Canon 7 and Canon 7s. But I wanted the first rangefinder experience to be something more unique, if that makes sense. I don’t mind those, and I probably will buy one at some point and hopefully get to review it for Casual Photophile. I didn’t want to settle on a compact rangefinder, the form factor which was very popular in the 1970s. So were Voigtlanders, Zeisses and other machines which some (myself included) would consider luxurious. For obvious reasons, Leicas were out of the question. As any other retro camera geek prone to severe collector’s syndrome, I decided that I needed a rangefinder because… well, because I’d never actually used one. She knew that I’d had my eyes on this camera for over a year. Opening it up, I discovered a ton of film rolls scattered amidst paper stuffing, a US Polo shirt which I’m still too fat to fit in, and most important of all, a bubble-wrapped Canon 7 rangefinder camera. The gift box was clearly too big for the film I saw in her fridge – more than twenty rolls of film would fit, and judging by the feel of it, something chunky was in there as well. But this is not a hot sauce story.įast forward to New Year’s Eve and I’m standing there with a box in my hands and an expectant girlfriend watching. Same applied to the Sriracha bottle placed with the rolls of film (she can’t tolerate the hot stuff). I knew for sure that the box of Portra and a few foiled up Vision 3 rolls inside were not for her. I’m not big on spoiling surprise gifts for myself, but I accidentally found a package in my girlfriend’s fridge a few weeks earlier while grabbing some eggs and bacon for breakfast. “Come on! Open it,” she said, nodding at the gift-wrapped box which I was holding in my arms.
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