In Search of the Best Vintage Canon Rangefinder 35, Part 2
Back-loading Canons of 1956-1968: Going up against the Leica M’s
By Jason Schneider
When Leica unleashed the landmark Leica M3 in 1954, its leading Japanese competitors were caught flatfooted by the numerous technical challenges it posed. Indeed, the new Leica incorporated a host of refinements, such as auto-indexing, parallax-compensating projected viewfinder frame lines for different focal length lenses, that neither Nikon nor Canon ever fully duplicated, though both came close in their very last models. Even as the last of the bottom-loading Barnack-Leica-inspired Canons rolled off the production line in 1956, Canon had already developed the Canon V prototype that reached production as the Canon VT in April 1956. The VT was produced with 3 small variants in eyepiece construction and 2 types of body shells, but all are essentially the same in terms of basic features.
Canon VT body showing permanently mounted trigger wind baseplate.
The Canon VT looks like a revolutionary departure from its bottom-loading predecessors, and in many ways it is. While it incorporated the same improved shutter mechanism that had debuted in the Canon IVSB2, the iconic side flash rail was replaced by a PC outlet with a bayonet lock ring, on the side of the top below the rewind knob. The bottom loading system was scrapped in favor of a hinged door for more convenient loading, and a non-removable rapid trigger wind unit was built into the baseplate. But the VT’s most significant innovation was its vastly improved, enlarged version of Canon’s venerable 3-magnification viewfinder that provides a minified full coverage view for 35mm lenses, a 0.7x view for 50mm lenses, and a circular 1.5x view to maximize rangefinder focusing accuracy. There are no frame lines or parallax compensation, but Canon devised in ingenious workaround—a small domed pin in the front of accessory shoe moves up and down as the lens is focused to provide accurate automatic parallax compensation by differentially tilting any V-type accessory viewfinder mounted atop the camera. This remained a signature feature of all subsequent V- and VI-series Canons, and nobody—not even Leica—ever duplicated it.
The VT incorporated many other refinements, such as a built-in self-timer, a rewind knob that remained flush with the top cover in retracted position and popped up by pushing on an elegant spring-loaded “wing” lever, a rewind clutch controlled by a collar around the shutter release, and an unusual way to bypass the trigger wind when, for example, the camera is mounted on a tripod or copy stand. To raise the flat wind knob to operating position you align 2 dots on its inner ring with a third dot on the central wind shaft and pull it upward until it locks in place. You can now wind the film conventionally by turning the wind knob clockwise until it stops, and then fire the shutter. To return the wind knob to its flush, non-operational position, press a small button on the back of the camera right below the wind knob, and it drops back down, instantly. Amazing!
The Canon VT is readily available at online auctions and retail sites at $150-$250, body only, in chrome, and $350 and up in black.
Canon L1, top view, showing rewind crank, 1/1000 sec on fast shutter speed dial, flash sync selector tab behind it, and classic wind lever.
Hiroshi Suzukawa, who headed up the Canon V design team, was obviously a huge trigger wind fan, and he thought this would be a key selling point for the new VT. However, building a non-removable trigger wind permanently into the camera makes the body taller, heavier, and more expensive to manufacture, and many Canon fans clamored for a lighter, more compact V-series Canon with a conventional lever wind. The result was the Canon L2 released on December 1956—basically a VT with lever wind, a 1/500 sec top shutter speed (one step down from the VT’s 1/1000 sec), M (flashbulb) sync only, and no self-timer. It was succeeded by the Canon L1 of 1957 that added a 1/1000 sec top speed, an MX flash sync selector, and a rewind crank. The L1 and its cousin the Canon VL, are the finest, most elegant lever wind V-series Canons.
Canon VL: My favorite V-series lever wind Canon has metal shutter curtains, 1/100 sec top shutter speed, and built=in self-timer.
Canon L1: $250-$400 in chrome, body only; Canon L2, $125-$200 in chrome, body only; Canon VL (rare) $350-$450 body only, chrome Canon VL2 (Same as Canon VL but with 1/500 sec top shutter speed), $125-$250, body only, in chrome.
Whatever marketing issues the trigger-wind Canon VT faced, it was successful enough to have sired the much-admired Canon VT DeLuxe (VTD) that was produced in 3 slightly different variations, all marked “Model VT de luxe” in red or black letters on the front-facing part of the baseplate. All feature a Canon L1 style rewind crank in place of the VT’s pop-up rewind knob but are otherwise almost identical to the VT. The second version of the VTD has a Canon film magazine opening key in its baseplate, and the last version of 1958 has metal shutter curtains like those in the Canon VL, VL2, all subsequent VI- and 7-series Canon rangefinder 35s, and the Canon P.
Canon VT De Luxe (any version) $150-$300 body only, in chrome; $350-$500 and up in black, body only, in very clean condition.
Canon focal plane shutters: Cloth vs Metal
The traditional rubberized or “treated” cloth focal plane shutter curtains in all early Canon rangefinder cameras are commendably durable, and the shutter mechanisms themselves are well made, accurate, and hold their settings. The metal focal plane shutter curtains Canon introduced starting in 1957 are fabricated of very thin sheets of stainless-steel, coated on both sides with a semi-matte black chemical compound. Despite being made of metal these shutter curtains are lighter than cloth ones, potentially enhancing shutter speeds accuracy at the fastest shutter speeds, and of course they can’t burn through like cloth ones occasionally do when the camera is left out in the sun with its uncapped lens pointing upward.
The main problem with the metal shutter curtains in Canon rangefinder cameras is that they’re extremely delicate and susceptible to dents or dings even with the slightest impact from, say, an errant fingernail or a film leader end. To their credit these shutters usually continue to function perfectly even when they’re covered in creases and indentations, but many (including yours truly) find badly dinged in metal shutter curtains unsightly.
What can you do about it? You can have Canon metal shutter curtains replaced with cloth ones, but that may cost more than finding a similar Canon body with undamaged curtains. Unfortunately, parts are no longer available to replace the original metal shutter curtains in rangefinder Canons—though they could be cannibalized from an existing parts camera. Personally, I’ve learned to live with lightly dented curtains in otherwise pristine Canons. I treasure the few rangefinder Canons I have with flawless metal curtains, and I’m determined to keep them that way.
The Canon VI-series of 1958-1961 was Canon’s next attempt to upgrade the existing V-series Canon concept to compete with the Leica M3, M2, and the new Nikon SP of 1957. The Canon VI-L and VI-T debuted in June, 1958 and both feature metal-bladed focal plane shutter controlled by a single non-rotating shutter speed dial on top with geometric speeds of 1-1/1000 sec plus B and X (about 1/60 sec), and a higher-magnification version of Canon’s venerable 3-position (35mm, 50mm and Mg for 1.5x) viewfinder that displays reflected, parallax-compensating white frame lines for both 50mm and 100mm lenses at the 50mm setting. The serrated shutter speed dial allowed direct coupling to a shoe-mounted accessory selenium meter that Canon offered in several styles until about 1963, and both models featured a narrower version of Canon’s folding rewind crank.
According to the official stats, Canon turned out about 10,000 lever wind VI-L’s and a bit over 8,000 trigger wind VI-T’s, but the latter are more common in the U.S. These are rock solid, elegantly proportioned cameras that were manufactured to the highest standards and according to specialists in Canon repair their internals are more robust than those in the Canon P and their 7-series successors. Weak points: their reflected finder frame lines are not as easy to see as the true projected frame lines in 7-series Canons, and they tend to diminish with age. Also, Canon never achieved the crisply defined rangefinder patch that’s a hallmark of M-series Leicas, most likely due to Leitz patents.
Canon VI-L: $250-$400, body only, in chrome; Canon VI-T, $275-$375, body only, in chrome, $2,500 and up, body only, in factory black.
The Canon P of 1958-1961 was Canon’s last and best attempt to create a broad-spectrum, interchangeable lens, precision rangefinder 35. It was wildly successful—Canon sold twice as many Canon P (for “Populaire”) cameras as any previous model, turning out a total of 87,875 over 2-1/2 years of production. With roots going back to earlier “basic” models like the L2, L3, and IID, it’s essentially a simplified Canon VI-L that uses the same metal-bladed shutter, but in place of Canon’s classic 3-position viewfinder it has a big 1:1 viewfinder that simultaneously displays reflected, etched, parallax compensating frame lines for 35mm, 50mm, and 100mm focal lengths. The parallax compensating pin in the accessory shoe was also eliminated in favor of a new line of accessory “P” viewfinders that offered manual parallax correction.
Everybody loves the Canon P for its simple straightforward design, light weight, and bright 1:1 viewfinder. It’s a great user camera, but it’s not as robustly constructed or finely made as a V- or VI-series Canon, its viewfinder tends to flare in backlight, and its simplified viewfinder frame line system cannot compare to the individually selected, true projected frame lines built into 7-series Canons.
Canon P: $125-$250, body only, in chrome; $400-450, body only, in black.
The Canon 7-Series: The end of the line
The Canon 7 of 1961-1964 employs a reworked version of the same shutter mechanism and shutter speed dial (both with an added T setting) used on 6-series Canons, but its somewhat larger body and enhanced feature set represent a complete departure from previous models. The most obvious visual difference is the huge honeycomb grid for its built-in, coupled, selenium meter that occupies almost the entire front surface of the top cover on the film wind side. The meter has a high/low sensitivity switch and reads out directly in f/stops via an arcuate color-coded aperture scale to the left of the shutter speed dial. it’s remarkably accurate and sensitive for a built-in meter of its era, but like all selenium meters it has a very wide acceptance angle.
Perhaps even more important than the built-in meter is the Canon 7’s brilliant new range/viewfinder, which includes highly visible user-selected, true projected, parallax-compensating frame lines for 35mm, 50mm, 85/100mm and 135mm focal lengths, all presented at about 70% of life size. To enhance focusing accuracy, the rangefinder’s effective base length (EBL) was increased by about 50%, enabling the camera to precisely focus Canon’s remarkable new 50mm f/0.95 Canon “Dream Lens” that was released simultaneously. The Canon 7 was, not surprisingly, the first Canon with an external, 3-lug bayonet flange around the screw mount to provide precise, secure mounting of the humongous 50mm f/0.95 lens. Incredibly, the Canon 7 has no accessory shoe! A shoe adapter was available at the time, but they’re hard to find nowadays.
So what’s the best
Overall, the Canon 7 is a very competent, capable camera that’s a pleasure to shoot with, and it’s undervalued because many consider its great hulking front-mounted selenium cell ugly. Fortunately, you don’t see the front of a Canon 7 while you’re shooting with one, and its range/viewfinder is virtually identical to the one in the admittedly prettier, but much more expensive CdS metering Canon 7s. If you take the plunge, make sure the meter’s working—they’re generally reliable, but often unrepairable when they go south.
Canon 7: $100-$250, body only, in chrome; $700-$1,300, body only, in black.
Canon 7s: In 1965 Canon finally dispensed with the “ugly” selenium meter and brought forth the 7s, which has a much more discreet CdS meter cell located on the front, below the wind knob. While they were at it, they installed the “missing” accessory shoe on the top. The 7s meter has more clearly marked “H” and “L” sensitivity settings on the round meter port bezel, and the mercury battery to power it is nestled in a port on the bottom, below the film wind shaft. The meter needle appears in a rectangular readout window on top and points to the proper exposure aperture, which varies with the shutter speed in use—it other words, it’s a coupled transfer-the-setting system. The glorious multi-frame range/viewfinder with true projected, user-selected, parallax-compensating frame lines for 5 different focal lengths from 35-135mm (described above in the Canon 7 section) was thankfully retained and is one of the camera’s most endearing features. Like its illustrious predecessor, the Canon 7s has bayonet tabs around the lens mount for securing the 50mm f/0.95 Canon lens.
Since the CdS metering system in the Canon 7s was designed to be powered by a 1.3v mercury cell, it must be modified to give correct readings with currently available 1.5v alkaline or silver-oxide cells. This entails permanently installing a diode in the circuitry which costs about 100 bucks. Another annoyance: the film speed window inset in the shutter speed dial tops out at ASA 400 so if you use faster films you’ve got to interpolate. Withal, the Canon 7s is one of the great rangefinder 35s of the ‘60s and it’s a joy to shoot with. It may not exude the sheer mechanical finesse and solidity of a V- or VI-series Canon but it’s superior viewfinder may be more important in day-to-day shooting.
Canon 7s: $275-$450, body only, in chrome.
Canon 7sZ: In 1967, as the Canon 7s was still in its final year of production, Canon stealthily released a revised model with the same markings and improved viewfinder optics designed to enhance clarity and minimize the flare and ghosting users occasionally experienced. The new model also has the larger rewind knob found on the late standard production Canon 7s, but the round rangefinder adjustment port was moved from in front of the shutter speed dial to in front of the final “n” in Canon engraved on the top plate. This is the defining feature that determines whether the camera is a 7s or a 7sZ. This last and greatest member of the Canon 7 series is certainly a desirable user-collectible with an awesome viewfinder, and, as the very last of the Canon screw-mount rangefinder cameras, it’s also a piece of history. Since no more than 25% of the roughly 16,000 cameras marked Canon 7s is truly a 7sZ, the latter commands a premium price and is a Canon collector’s prize.
Canon 7sZ (unofficial designation, not marked as such), $450-650, body only, in chrome.
Back-loading Canons of 1956-1968: Going up against the Leica M’s
By Jason Schneider
When Leica unleashed the landmark Leica M3 in 1954, its leading Japanese competitors were caught flatfooted by the numerous technical challenges it posed. Indeed, the new Leica incorporated a host of refinements, such as auto-indexing, parallax-compensating projected viewfinder frame lines for different focal length lenses, that neither Nikon nor Canon ever fully duplicated, though both came close in their very last models. Even as the last of the bottom-loading Barnack-Leica-inspired Canons rolled off the production line in 1956, Canon had already developed the Canon V prototype that reached production as the Canon VT in April 1956. The VT was produced with 3 small variants in eyepiece construction and 2 types of body shells, but all are essentially the same in terms of basic features.
Canon VT body showing permanently mounted trigger wind baseplate.
The Canon VT looks like a revolutionary departure from its bottom-loading predecessors, and in many ways it is. While it incorporated the same improved shutter mechanism that had debuted in the Canon IVSB2, the iconic side flash rail was replaced by a PC outlet with a bayonet lock ring, on the side of the top below the rewind knob. The bottom loading system was scrapped in favor of a hinged door for more convenient loading, and a non-removable rapid trigger wind unit was built into the baseplate. But the VT’s most significant innovation was its vastly improved, enlarged version of Canon’s venerable 3-magnification viewfinder that provides a minified full coverage view for 35mm lenses, a 0.7x view for 50mm lenses, and a circular 1.5x view to maximize rangefinder focusing accuracy. There are no frame lines or parallax compensation, but Canon devised in ingenious workaround—a small domed pin in the front of accessory shoe moves up and down as the lens is focused to provide accurate automatic parallax compensation by differentially tilting any V-type accessory viewfinder mounted atop the camera. This remained a signature feature of all subsequent V- and VI-series Canons, and nobody—not even Leica—ever duplicated it.
The VT incorporated many other refinements, such as a built-in self-timer, a rewind knob that remained flush with the top cover in retracted position and popped up by pushing on an elegant spring-loaded “wing” lever, a rewind clutch controlled by a collar around the shutter release, and an unusual way to bypass the trigger wind when, for example, the camera is mounted on a tripod or copy stand. To raise the flat wind knob to operating position you align 2 dots on its inner ring with a third dot on the central wind shaft and pull it upward until it locks in place. You can now wind the film conventionally by turning the wind knob clockwise until it stops, and then fire the shutter. To return the wind knob to its flush, non-operational position, press a small button on the back of the camera right below the wind knob, and it drops back down, instantly. Amazing!
The Canon VT is readily available at online auctions and retail sites at $150-$250, body only, in chrome, and $350 and up in black.
Canon L1, top view, showing rewind crank, 1/1000 sec on fast shutter speed dial, flash sync selector tab behind it, and classic wind lever.
Hiroshi Suzukawa, who headed up the Canon V design team, was obviously a huge trigger wind fan, and he thought this would be a key selling point for the new VT. However, building a non-removable trigger wind permanently into the camera makes the body taller, heavier, and more expensive to manufacture, and many Canon fans clamored for a lighter, more compact V-series Canon with a conventional lever wind. The result was the Canon L2 released on December 1956—basically a VT with lever wind, a 1/500 sec top shutter speed (one step down from the VT’s 1/1000 sec), M (flashbulb) sync only, and no self-timer. It was succeeded by the Canon L1 of 1957 that added a 1/1000 sec top speed, an MX flash sync selector, and a rewind crank. The L1 and its cousin the Canon VL, are the finest, most elegant lever wind V-series Canons.
Canon VL: My favorite V-series lever wind Canon has metal shutter curtains, 1/100 sec top shutter speed, and built=in self-timer.
Canon L1: $250-$400 in chrome, body only; Canon L2, $125-$200 in chrome, body only; Canon VL (rare) $350-$450 body only, chrome Canon VL2 (Same as Canon VL but with 1/500 sec top shutter speed), $125-$250, body only, in chrome.
Whatever marketing issues the trigger-wind Canon VT faced, it was successful enough to have sired the much-admired Canon VT DeLuxe (VTD) that was produced in 3 slightly different variations, all marked “Model VT de luxe” in red or black letters on the front-facing part of the baseplate. All feature a Canon L1 style rewind crank in place of the VT’s pop-up rewind knob but are otherwise almost identical to the VT. The second version of the VTD has a Canon film magazine opening key in its baseplate, and the last version of 1958 has metal shutter curtains like those in the Canon VL, VL2, all subsequent VI- and 7-series Canon rangefinder 35s, and the Canon P.
Canon VT De Luxe (any version) $150-$300 body only, in chrome; $350-$500 and up in black, body only, in very clean condition.
Canon focal plane shutters: Cloth vs Metal
The traditional rubberized or “treated” cloth focal plane shutter curtains in all early Canon rangefinder cameras are commendably durable, and the shutter mechanisms themselves are well made, accurate, and hold their settings. The metal focal plane shutter curtains Canon introduced starting in 1957 are fabricated of very thin sheets of stainless-steel, coated on both sides with a semi-matte black chemical compound. Despite being made of metal these shutter curtains are lighter than cloth ones, potentially enhancing shutter speeds accuracy at the fastest shutter speeds, and of course they can’t burn through like cloth ones occasionally do when the camera is left out in the sun with its uncapped lens pointing upward.
The main problem with the metal shutter curtains in Canon rangefinder cameras is that they’re extremely delicate and susceptible to dents or dings even with the slightest impact from, say, an errant fingernail or a film leader end. To their credit these shutters usually continue to function perfectly even when they’re covered in creases and indentations, but many (including yours truly) find badly dinged in metal shutter curtains unsightly.
What can you do about it? You can have Canon metal shutter curtains replaced with cloth ones, but that may cost more than finding a similar Canon body with undamaged curtains. Unfortunately, parts are no longer available to replace the original metal shutter curtains in rangefinder Canons—though they could be cannibalized from an existing parts camera. Personally, I’ve learned to live with lightly dented curtains in otherwise pristine Canons. I treasure the few rangefinder Canons I have with flawless metal curtains, and I’m determined to keep them that way.
The Canon VI-series of 1958-1961 was Canon’s next attempt to upgrade the existing V-series Canon concept to compete with the Leica M3, M2, and the new Nikon SP of 1957. The Canon VI-L and VI-T debuted in June, 1958 and both feature metal-bladed focal plane shutter controlled by a single non-rotating shutter speed dial on top with geometric speeds of 1-1/1000 sec plus B and X (about 1/60 sec), and a higher-magnification version of Canon’s venerable 3-position (35mm, 50mm and Mg for 1.5x) viewfinder that displays reflected, parallax-compensating white frame lines for both 50mm and 100mm lenses at the 50mm setting. The serrated shutter speed dial allowed direct coupling to a shoe-mounted accessory selenium meter that Canon offered in several styles until about 1963, and both models featured a narrower version of Canon’s folding rewind crank.
According to the official stats, Canon turned out about 10,000 lever wind VI-L’s and a bit over 8,000 trigger wind VI-T’s, but the latter are more common in the U.S. These are rock solid, elegantly proportioned cameras that were manufactured to the highest standards and according to specialists in Canon repair their internals are more robust than those in the Canon P and their 7-series successors. Weak points: their reflected finder frame lines are not as easy to see as the true projected frame lines in 7-series Canons, and they tend to diminish with age. Also, Canon never achieved the crisply defined rangefinder patch that’s a hallmark of M-series Leicas, most likely due to Leitz patents.
Canon VI-L: $250-$400, body only, in chrome; Canon VI-T, $275-$375, body only, in chrome, $2,500 and up, body only, in factory black.
The Canon P of 1958-1961 was Canon’s last and best attempt to create a broad-spectrum, interchangeable lens, precision rangefinder 35. It was wildly successful—Canon sold twice as many Canon P (for “Populaire”) cameras as any previous model, turning out a total of 87,875 over 2-1/2 years of production. With roots going back to earlier “basic” models like the L2, L3, and IID, it’s essentially a simplified Canon VI-L that uses the same metal-bladed shutter, but in place of Canon’s classic 3-position viewfinder it has a big 1:1 viewfinder that simultaneously displays reflected, etched, parallax compensating frame lines for 35mm, 50mm, and 100mm focal lengths. The parallax compensating pin in the accessory shoe was also eliminated in favor of a new line of accessory “P” viewfinders that offered manual parallax correction.
Everybody loves the Canon P for its simple straightforward design, light weight, and bright 1:1 viewfinder. It’s a great user camera, but it’s not as robustly constructed or finely made as a V- or VI-series Canon, its viewfinder tends to flare in backlight, and its simplified viewfinder frame line system cannot compare to the individually selected, true projected frame lines built into 7-series Canons.
Canon P: $125-$250, body only, in chrome; $400-450, body only, in black.
The Canon 7-Series: The end of the line
The Canon 7 of 1961-1964 employs a reworked version of the same shutter mechanism and shutter speed dial (both with an added T setting) used on 6-series Canons, but its somewhat larger body and enhanced feature set represent a complete departure from previous models. The most obvious visual difference is the huge honeycomb grid for its built-in, coupled, selenium meter that occupies almost the entire front surface of the top cover on the film wind side. The meter has a high/low sensitivity switch and reads out directly in f/stops via an arcuate color-coded aperture scale to the left of the shutter speed dial. it’s remarkably accurate and sensitive for a built-in meter of its era, but like all selenium meters it has a very wide acceptance angle.
Perhaps even more important than the built-in meter is the Canon 7’s brilliant new range/viewfinder, which includes highly visible user-selected, true projected, parallax-compensating frame lines for 35mm, 50mm, 85/100mm and 135mm focal lengths, all presented at about 70% of life size. To enhance focusing accuracy, the rangefinder’s effective base length (EBL) was increased by about 50%, enabling the camera to precisely focus Canon’s remarkable new 50mm f/0.95 Canon “Dream Lens” that was released simultaneously. The Canon 7 was, not surprisingly, the first Canon with an external, 3-lug bayonet flange around the screw mount to provide precise, secure mounting of the humongous 50mm f/0.95 lens. Incredibly, the Canon 7 has no accessory shoe! A shoe adapter was available at the time, but they’re hard to find nowadays.
So what’s the best
Overall, the Canon 7 is a very competent, capable camera that’s a pleasure to shoot with, and it’s undervalued because many consider its great hulking front-mounted selenium cell ugly. Fortunately, you don’t see the front of a Canon 7 while you’re shooting with one, and its range/viewfinder is virtually identical to the one in the admittedly prettier, but much more expensive CdS metering Canon 7s. If you take the plunge, make sure the meter’s working—they’re generally reliable, but often unrepairable when they go south.
Canon 7: $100-$250, body only, in chrome; $700-$1,300, body only, in black.
Canon 7s: In 1965 Canon finally dispensed with the “ugly” selenium meter and brought forth the 7s, which has a much more discreet CdS meter cell located on the front, below the wind knob. While they were at it, they installed the “missing” accessory shoe on the top. The 7s meter has more clearly marked “H” and “L” sensitivity settings on the round meter port bezel, and the mercury battery to power it is nestled in a port on the bottom, below the film wind shaft. The meter needle appears in a rectangular readout window on top and points to the proper exposure aperture, which varies with the shutter speed in use—it other words, it’s a coupled transfer-the-setting system. The glorious multi-frame range/viewfinder with true projected, user-selected, parallax-compensating frame lines for 5 different focal lengths from 35-135mm (described above in the Canon 7 section) was thankfully retained and is one of the camera’s most endearing features. Like its illustrious predecessor, the Canon 7s has bayonet tabs around the lens mount for securing the 50mm f/0.95 Canon lens.
Since the CdS metering system in the Canon 7s was designed to be powered by a 1.3v mercury cell, it must be modified to give correct readings with currently available 1.5v alkaline or silver-oxide cells. This entails permanently installing a diode in the circuitry which costs about 100 bucks. Another annoyance: the film speed window inset in the shutter speed dial tops out at ASA 400 so if you use faster films you’ve got to interpolate. Withal, the Canon 7s is one of the great rangefinder 35s of the ‘60s and it’s a joy to shoot with. It may not exude the sheer mechanical finesse and solidity of a V- or VI-series Canon but it’s superior viewfinder may be more important in day-to-day shooting.
Canon 7s: $275-$450, body only, in chrome.
Canon 7sZ: In 1967, as the Canon 7s was still in its final year of production, Canon stealthily released a revised model with the same markings and improved viewfinder optics designed to enhance clarity and minimize the flare and ghosting users occasionally experienced. The new model also has the larger rewind knob found on the late standard production Canon 7s, but the round rangefinder adjustment port was moved from in front of the shutter speed dial to in front of the final “n” in Canon engraved on the top plate. This is the defining feature that determines whether the camera is a 7s or a 7sZ. This last and greatest member of the Canon 7 series is certainly a desirable user-collectible with an awesome viewfinder, and, as the very last of the Canon screw-mount rangefinder cameras, it’s also a piece of history. Since no more than 25% of the roughly 16,000 cameras marked Canon 7s is truly a 7sZ, the latter commands a premium price and is a Canon collector’s prize.
Canon 7sZ (unofficial designation, not marked as such), $450-650, body only, in chrome.
