Hierarchy of Canon rangefinders

[rbsinto]

You'll have to bear with me me, but I'm a Stranger in a Strange Land.
I hang around in the first forum north of this one with the Nikon people, and I know nothing about Canon rangefinder cameras or their lenses.
My question: did Canon produce a rangefinder model that is agreed upon as The Best of the Best (moreso in terms of features and ruggedness as opposed to price) when new? In other words, did they produce a camera that would be their version of the Nikon SP, which was the "Pro" model?
Please and thank you.

 

[back alley]

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/index.html

 

[xayraa33]

the closest would be the Canon VIL, the Canon P and the final RF ltm Canon, the 7sz.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

The QL17 GIII, of course. ;-)

 

[xayraa33]

the Last LTM Canon, the 7s (z) is a far more user friendly, almost superior camera to the Nikon SP in my opinion.

 

[raid]

I had the VI-L in mint condition, and I traded it off for a Standard Leica. The VI-L was too pretty for me.

 

[dexdog]

In the Canon line-up, it is hard to beat the Canon P, VI-L or 7, 7s, or 7sZ. Pay no attention to that man speaking of Nikons. As an aside, I have a Canon P, 7sZ and VI-L that were purchased off eBay, and to the best of my knowledge, have never been overhauled/CLA'd, etc. All expose Fuji Velvia 50 perfectly, even at 1/1000 shutter speed.

 

[airds]

I'm with dexdog, but the VI-L is tops for me. And it is still a better, simplier, and more elegant looking camera than that rather ugly metering window of the 7 series. Check them in my album.

The reference book/bible is 'Canon Rangefinder Cameras 1933-1968 by Peter Dechert' and see his forum in 'Coffee With the Experts'

 

[xayraa33]

Yeah! That was exactly what I was shooting for in that post. I was wondering if anyone would recognize the inference.

For the record, I prefer Contax and Canon products as a whole, although I readily embrace the fine quality Nikkor lenses made in LTM, as well as those compatible with the Contax mount. Also, the Nikon SP and various Contax wides, i.e. the 35s and 21mm Biogon, are among my favorite rigs for carry-around cameras.

I recognized it.
it had to come from the Wizard of Oz movie originally.
I find it odd that Fred thinks only Nikon could make a camera with a reliable 1/1000 of a second shutter speed.

 

[xayraa33]

I wonder what the tolerance % for the Canon 7 shutter is at 1/1000 of a second?

 

[dexdog]

same question applies to both Nikon and Canon cameras. I would be glad to send a few Canons to the nikonwebmaster guy for sampling, although based on his previous posts, he appears to be fairly familiar with Canon products, and probably has easy access to any number of potential test samples. One of the things that I have appreciated about the nikonwebmaster guy in the past is his knowledge of Canon stuff. I guess that he cannot be all bad...

 

[xayraa33]

I think Fred owns some black paint Canon LTM RF cameras.
Probably like the title of a Phil Ochs song," He Ain't Marchin With Em Anymore ".

 

[xayraa33]

A black Canon L1 with a late chrome ltm Nikkor 50/f1.4 lens is a sight to behold.

 

[David Murphy]

I agree that the VI-L might be the closest "pro-quality" Canon RF - good ones are getting ridiculously expensive now however. I've been using a VT lately and I find it's growing on me. There's a solid feel to it that the trigger wind lends -- the process of deploying the trigger arm sort-of forces one to pause and think before shooting - a good thing with manual cameras, especially rangefinders.

 

[dexdog]

A black Canon L1 with a late chrome ltm Nikkor 50/f1.4 lens is a sight to behold.

Dude, time to shut this thread down. Any further posts would cross into Oprah-style group hugs.

 

[xayraa33]

Dude, time to shut this thread down. Any further posts would cross into Oprah-style group hugs.

Oh Yeah, and Oprah-style too.
shut her down.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Oprah style hugs only if Joe breaks into tears and buys a Canon P.

I like the viewfinder of the Canon P- easier to see the 50mm frame lines with glasses, auto-parallax corrected, and a 1x finder.

I also have the Canon 7, VI-T, V-T, and IIf. The positioning of the RF window on the Canons up to the Canon 7 requires some care about selecting a lens-hood for telephotos, it can block the secondary image. The Selenium meter in both Canon 7 's are accurate.

 

[Bill58]

The Head Bartender regards the L1 as his favorite. I hope he's right since I've got one coming from D. Murphy. It will replace my two Ps.

 

[rogue_designer]

Didn't the parallax correction on the finders require cooperation with the camera (I think a small metal pin that was tied to the mechanism?

I never did figure out how it all worked.

 

[rbsinto]

Now that you've all taken that leisurely stroll down Canon Rangefinder Memory Lane, the concensus of opinion is, that there is no concensus of opinion.
So am I correct in assuming that Canon never produced a clear-cut model or models that was (were) more or less universally embraced by pros?
As an aside, I did not realize that Canon made so many different models over the entire lifespan of their rangefinder production.