Canon Reference books

CanonRFinder

CanonRFinder

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HI Peter,

Finally got a spare night to rehash the subject I placed on your forum back in July. It is times like this I wish I had placed a copy of my question in a draft. Anyway what I can remember it was a welcome to the forum and a list of five books which I thought should be in any Canon aficionado bookshelf. Here they are in no particular order of importance.
  1. Your book, "Canon Rangefinder Cameras 1933-68", c 1985
  2. Hayato Ueyama, "Canon" book. All in Japanese and deals with S-K era between 1933-47. Great pics of early S-K gear and an informative list of camera and lens serial # in the back of his book. c 1990.
  3. Yoji Miyazaki, "Canon Rangefinder Camera" book. Mainly in Japanese but a small section on the cameras in English. Some great pics of cameras, lenses and accessories. c 1996.
  4. John Baird book, "The History of the Japanese Camera". A must for any Japanese camera historian. c 1990.
  5. Jacob Deschin book, "Canon Photography". Included for the simple reason that Deschin had access to quite a few Prototype lenses which are pictured in his book. c 1957.
  6. Jim McKeown's "Price guide to Antique and Classic Cameras". If you don't have it then your not a DINKY DI camera nut.
Both #3 and #4 are becoming hard to find which is a pity and hope with your contact with John Baird his book can be resurrected.

Appreciate your opinion and maybe you can add to the list.

Cheers Peter K.
 
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Hi Peter,

Books 2, 3 and 4 are difficult to find here in the US. I did find and buy a copy of 4, and own 1 and 5. Do you have any contacts in Japan that may be able to locate copies of 2 and 3?

I'll have to take another look at Deschin's book. The item about the prototype lenses is interesting. He, of course, wrote other guides, including an excellent one on the Rolleiflex. He probably had manufacturer support, which has to be a major asset.

Hope to see you add to the list, and soon....

Harry
 
Browsing through some book dealer offers, I found a copy of the 2nd printing that was being offered for almost $100. And this by a dealer in books....

The book is good, and that pricing is what the person who puts off buying a copy for their library may be forced to pay. If you "need" a book, buy it early, OOP is not good for the wallet.

Harry
 
Hope to see you add to the list, and soon....

Harry[/quote]

Joel is back from China, has picked up all the manuscript from my computer on Monday and hope next week to be sitting down to place pics in the correct spots. SO it is on the move again after four months of frustration. Peter K
 
The book being offered in the eBay auction is published by the Eastman Kodak Museum, and is a series of articles by a number of authors on various aspects of the Japanese camera industry from mid-1800's to fairly modern times. I have a copy. It's not especially informative in any depth, more of a quick survey. I don't use mine for much except to keep the bookends apart......

Harry
 
CanonRFinder said:
Hope to see you add to the list, and soon....

Harry
Click to expand...

Joel is back from China, has picked up all the manuscript from my computer on Monday and hope next week to be sitting down to place pics in the correct spots. SO it is on the move again after four months of frustration. Peter K[/QUOTE]

Great news for a lot of us, I would think. We'll excuse you for being a bit tardy.

Harry
 
Books

Books

And hi again to you, Peter K!
Sorry not to have gotten back to you sooner. I was heavily occupied getting a new manuscript (not at all photography-related) to a publisher this week, and haven't kept up on moderating as I should.
My reaction to your list (which was eaten up shortly after having been posted by a general glitch in the rangefinderforum website that lost about a day and a half's worth of input) was generally positive, though Deschin's book is largely puffery other than the illustrations: not much dependable history in it. He did have Canon's full support and cooperation when he wrote it, but Canon themselves at that time had no firm grasp on their own historical background. They didn't get active on that front until after my book was published. I believe that he himself probably never saw the lenses in question; Canon simply provided the illustrations.
I suggested adding a recent edition of Jim McKeown's directory, not just for Canon history but also because from it you can derive a frame of reference for any time period. In camera history, I think it's important to know what the other guy was doing as well as what your own special guy was. That would make six references altogether.
Hayato's book has splendid illustrations, and I can't read the Japanese text either. My feeling after all these years back-and-forth with Hayato is that his personal opinions sometimes color his presentation of fact, but for the illustrations alone his book deserves praise.
Hove has declared bankruptcy but before doing so sold its "assets" to the couple that had been operating it. My book, I'm told by Petra, is being heavily discounted in England right now (left-overs of the third printing, apparently), and shouldn't cost anything like $100 to acquire; Petra was selling it on her website not many weeks ago for about $30, brand-new. Hove hasn't been paying royalties for a long while, and there's question about whether what the owners sold to themselves included "intellectual property rights" to the books they had published in the past: a group of us Hove writers are investigating possible legal action in the matter, but trans-Atlantic lawsuits are expensive and hard to consummate, so who knows what the future may bring?
Recently I've been talking with John Baird about adding his book to those on my area of the songofsnow.com website: we are in the process of making this a reality, I believe, sometime in the near future. John really spent a lot of time and effort on this one and, like my four monographs, it was printed in relative small quantity and never reissued. It deserves whatever attention we can give it, so I hope it works out.
Glad your book is progressing! Keep in touch,
Peter D
 
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Touché on McKeowns and have added it to the list above. Just presumed that everyone owned one. Deschin's book as you mention has little historical fact but I suppose from my point of view the number of Prototype lenses featured in the book is quite a lot. You’re correct in that Canon probably did supply the pics as some are featured in official Canon literature from that era. John Baird’s book is as dog eared as yours as I refer to that book quite often and not just for Canon material. His research into his subject really does stagger me considering the language difficulties and I do hope that you can get it up on “SongofSnow” site sometime.


Hope things clear up with Hove. One of the reasons why I went down the "Self Publishing" track was because I think a few pics may have been dropped by a publisher as being irrelevant or too many (422). My intension I hope, is that the book can also be followed by the picture content to someone who’s English let alone Aussie/English is nonexistence.

Cheers Peter
 
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pdek said:
... My book, I'm told by Petra, is being heavily discounted in England right now (left-overs of the third printing, apparently), and shouldn't cost anything like $100 to acquire; Petra was selling it on her website not many weeks ago for about $30, brand-new. ...
Click to expand...
Peter,

I got the impression that your book was hard to find and so was surprised when I found it on Amazon's website in Canada. They quoted 4-6 weeks for delivery so I ordered it with another book. It actually arrived first after 6 weeks and was the third edition. Amazon.ca still lists it as does the US site which claims to have stock though the Canadian price is less 😱

Lovely book - too bad you're getting stiffed for the Royalties.
 
the best book on Canon RF lenses is Peter Kitchingman's "Canon Rangefinder Lenses" book. You can order directly from Peter K, or look for his listing on eBay.
 
A second strong recommendation for Peter Kitchingman's absolutely definitive reference on the Canon RF lenses. Many of us waited patiently (?) through the 6 years or so that the book took to fruition. Fabulous illustrations, careful research, and a well designed layout make for a great standard text on the lenses. Can be ordered, as mentioned, through ebay, or better yet direct from Peter on his website at http://www.canonrangefinder.servehttp.com

The book is a bargain now for US customers, because of the exchange rate.

Harry
 
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