Canon LTM the risks of using rare vintage gear

Canon M39 M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
dexdog

dexdog

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The risk is that sometimes you lose something not easily replaced. I was out shooting at noon today in D.C. Chinatown with my Canon L1 and 19/3.5 lens. I was changing over to the 35/2, and dropped my Canon 19mm finder on the sidewalk, shattering the front lens.

Events like this help me understand/appreciate the shelf-queen status of much vintage camera gear. Needless to say, if anyone has a Canon 19mm finder to sell, please contact me.

The broken front element does not seem to be especially complicated, and I am wondering whether I could find a local telescope maker to reconstruct the lens element for me. If anyone has a lead, please let me know.
 
You're about 5 years late...LOL My 19mm Canon lens was stolen but not the finder. I finally found a buyer for it, then I bought a 21/3.4 Super Angulon. Now I'm thinking about getting a CV 21 finder. I doubt that you'll have a problem using a 21 finder with the lens. Nobody expects perfect framing with a rangefinder camera. It's no different than using the cameras 90mm frame lines for an 85mm lens. It's close enough.
 
Yes, there are risks, but the pure joy of old equipment vs new stuff definetly outwieghs. Would you rather drop a DSLR or an old folder (which could be repaired at less cost)? As long as there is EBAY, you will be able to find 'stuff.' I just got a portrait lens for my Polaroid Automatic100 (#581) for $6.99 on the bay, but the shipping was $7.00.
 
Al Kaplan said:
You're about 5 years late...LOL My 19mm Canon lens was stolen but not the finder. I finally found a buyer for it, then I bought a 21/3.4 Super Angulon. Now I'm thinking about getting a CV 21 finder. I doubt that you'll have a problem using a 21 finder with the lens. Nobody expects perfect framing with a rangefinder camera. It's no different than using the cameras 90mm frame lines for an 85mm lens. It's close enough.
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Al, thanks for the suggestion. I have a CV 21 finder, and will use it until I can obtain a new finder. Odd- formerly, I had two 19mm lenses, and only one finder, and now have two 19mm lenses, and no finder.

Five years ago, we could have done a great trade 😀
 
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Sorry to hear about your loss of finder, Mark.

How do you like the 19mm Canon lens? I have never used such a lens before. My widest lens is a CV 25mm/4.
 
raid said:
Sorry to hear about your loss of finder, Mark.

How do you like the 19mm Canon lens? I have never used such a lens before. My widest lens is a CV 25mm/4.
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Raid, I really like the Canon 19/3.5. The performance exhibits some of the aspects of a vintage lens, especially vignetting/darkening of the corners wide open, but very good image resolution in the center, and better than I expected in the corners. The color rendition is also pretty pleasing, favoring the warm tones somewhat, but not too severely.

Raid, I would be happy to send you a lens to experiment with- I have both the LTM version and Canon FL version (with lens converter B for use on LTM mounts). Unfortunately, I can't lend you a finder at the moment.
 
Mark,

I would love to try out the LTM version. I could use the 25mm finder with it,and guess the coverage that is left out. I have the converter B, but I don't have the 19mm lens. I do have the 17mm SLR lens. Is your 19mm LTM very similar in performance to the 19mm Canon FL lens?
 
raid said:
Mark,

I would love to try out the LTM version. I could use the 25mm finder with it,and guess the coverage that is left out. I have the converter B, but I don't have the 19mm lens. I do have the 17mm SLR lens. Is your 19mm LTM very similar in performance to the 19mm Canon FL lens?
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Raid, from what I have read, the 19 LTM and the 19 in FL mount are identical in formula. I have also run a side-by-side test using the LTM and the FL/converter B setup, and could not tell any difference in performance.

Send me a PM with your address, and I will mail you whichever lens that you would like to try out. I could also include my CV21mm finder, which would be a bit better than your 25mm finder. BTW, my 19mm LTM is the highest serial number that Peter Kitchingman has recorded for this lens. Kewl, eh?
 
I`m so sorry to hear this Mark, I have been there and done it before, here`s some helpful tips.....

Buy Insurance! *My IIIC K Grey`s going up insured for at least $6k replacement costs and I DON`T think I could ever find one with a Dark Red K curtain again anyway*

Never change gear, parts or lenses without a support table, or sitting in the grass about 2 two feet (OR LESS) off the ground, I learned my lesson back in Germany, with dropping a MINT Leitz Elmar f2.8 50mm LTM from my old IIIG on the concrete at the Nuremberg Coliseum next to Soldiers Field while I was stationed in the US Army there....

The sickening sound it made hitting the hard concrete I`ll NEVER forget as long as I live.....I think I cursed in four different languages that day and any German that was 50 feet away from me might have thought WW3 had started, but I learned a big lesion that day. 🙁

Never switch gear while standing up, take a BREAK and switch and switch someplace where it`s safe too....

Secure gear in a really really good padded and tight bag so that NOTHING can fall out or slip out of it while your not looking, I dropped a Canon F-1 Mech out of a 3 story window that way once too over there and it BOUNCED off the grass under the window, I was very lucky!

That f2.8 Elmar 50 was well, beaten bad on one side, mint went to "user" grade in 2 seconds!!!! What was worth $400 went sold to a friend for $75, I could`nt even look at it anymore it made me sick.

Well, another alternative is to buy RARE gear that`s well used, I`ve done that by buying my 1945 Leica IIIC K to IIIFBD conversion, or my dented rim 1950 Nikkor SC f1.4 50mm, sadly this is not possibly for everybody to do, while the rare "user" grade gear sells sometimes for as much as mint stuff, because people are so crazy!

All I can say is......"Be Careful It`s a Madhouse Out There."

Tom
 
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Tom,

I insure my SLR gear plus the M3 gear.

When will you travel over to the Panhandle for some shoots? The weather is awesome here since a few weeks. 60F in the morning, with 80-86 as a high. It is purr-fect for beach photography.
 
Youxin`s going to do his "magic" on my 1943 IIIC K soon, while the shutters capping at all speeds and it needs some TLC to get it back to "shooting" condition, while it will be used every now and then for some very limited shoots, (mostly indoor for now) I`m even going to strip another pre 1947 IIIC baseplate and colormatch some RLM Grey to use as a stand-in base bottom, while I don`t want to use the original anymore (it has too much wear as it is) but this camera will see some use, just like all the other Kuglelager Leica`s I have.

My Dented 1950 Nikkor #5005 series SC f1.4 50mm, will be repaired by Essex (special thx to Brian Sweeny for sending me to them) for like $60, so a Korean War veteran lens will be back where she belongs on my darling, dinged up and dented 1945 IIIC K to IIIFBD conversion (which is also going to Youxin for some colmanation adjustments)

The rare "used" stuff is fun....who the hell cared in 1952 if their Leica IIIC K was mint or a collectors item, it paid the damm bills....which it STILL does for me now, it`s exciting to use this kind of gear and if anyone tells you your crazy, tell them their crazy, a china cabinet is for your Rosentahl not your Leica`s, somewhere they got their collectibles mixed up 😀

Enjoy! And Happy Shooting 🙂

Tom
 
raid said:
Tom,

I insure my SLR gear plus the M3 gear.

When will you travel over to the Panhandle for some shoots? The weather is awesome here since a few weeks. 60F in the morning, with 80-86 as a high. It is purr-fect for beach photography.
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Raid,

I swear I will get up there to see you!!!!! I`m still looking for that perfect Germanic looking blonde to do the artistic nudes, so that those grassy high sand dunes will look like Nordeney 1940 instead of Florida 2009 🙂


Tom
 
Tom,
My official response: Of course, I know nothing of that nude model; I am looking forward to drink some coffee with you!
 
If I hadn't sold my grey III-CK to a collector in the late 1960's by now it would be a brass III-CK. The vulcanite was starting to chip anyway. They weren't worth much back then. I paid about $40 in '63 used it for 5 or 6 years, and more thn tripled my money. The FL version 19 Canon was brand new with case, finder, and caps for $100. The dealer threw in the Converter B and an M adapter. Canon had just introduced the retrofocus 19 and that's what the Canonflex users wanted. A lot of my best work from that period was with that 19, and that was true up until the lens was stolen about 35 years later. I guess I'll get used to the 21/3.4 S.A.
 
LeicaTom said:
All I can say is......"Be Careful It`s a Madhouse Out There."
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Ha, ha, funny! One tip I read for preserving your external VFs is light tethering so that when they (inevitably) launch into space, nothing happens. The biggest risk of using rare vintage gear is having your good taste go forever unrecognized. 🙂
 
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