Canon Accessories
A Description of Accessories for Canon Rangefinders 1936-1975
the Canon sport finder for action photography mounted on a 1952 Canon IVSB camera
Canon Accessories
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The Canon Camera Holder
The Canon Camera Holder seems at first glance a somewhat strange accessory. Its function is illustrated below.
It seems from literature that a good quantity of these Canon holders were sold in the 1950s for use on tripods for telephoto photography and for long exposures and other applications not practical for hand-held exposures. Again with most Canon accessories, the Canon Camera Holder came in beautiful, and also practical packaging.
With the black Camera Holder, the chrome steel backet in front contains a spirit level
the spirit level could be monted below the camera holder to determine when the camera was level
a 1950 Canon IIB with telephoto in a Canon Camera Holder
Canon-Meter
In June 1958, Canon released the Canon VI-L and VI-T. These cameras had a new shutter, featuring also a single shutter speed dial on the camera top - no more split high speed/low speed dials. A very useful accessory for this new single shutter speed dial was the Canon-Meter - a light meter which could be slipped into the accessory shoe and linked directly to the shutter speed dial. The light meter needle would then point to the correct f-stop for the particular shutter speed selected by the photographer. The front of the light meter had a large selenium cell for the light measurement. A small switch on the far side (away from the speed dial) could be switched to high or low light sensitivity.
a Canon-Meter mounted on a 1959 Canon P which also had the single shutter speed dial
The Canon-Meter also had two accessories which were described and illustrated by Peter Kitchingman. 12 There was a translucent panel which could slide onto the meter over the selenium cell. This would change the light meter from a reflected light measurement mode to incident light measurement, where the photographer would measure the incident light falling on the scene or face, etc. being photographed.
A second valuable accessory was a booster which could be slipped over the selenium cell, similarly to the incident light panel. This would allow the meter to make light measurements in very low-light situations.
the Canon-Meter booster attachement, with the incident light panel in front of it
this image was posted by Peter Kitchingman on his excellent website 12
The Canon Mirror Box
Mirror box
mirror box
Self-Timer Accessory
For the first time in 1956 with the Canon VT, Canon built-in a self-timer, actuated by a lever on the camera front. For Canons before 1956, Canon offered a self-timer accessory which could be connected to the shutter release.
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You can click on the links in the table below to consult other pages of the canonrangfinder.org site.
| Navigation: Click Below to Jump to Desired Subject Page | ||
|---|---|---|
| Canon Rangefinder Cameras - 1 | Canon Rangefinder Cameras - 2 | Canon Rangefinder Lenses |
| Canon S | Canon IVSB2 | Canon 19mm |
| Canon J | Canon IIS2, IID2, IIF2 | Canon 25mm |
| Canon NS | Canon VT, Canon L2 | Canon 28mm |
| Canon JS | Canon L1, L3 | Canon 35mm |
| Canon J-II | Canon VT Deluxe | Nikkor 50mm |
| Canon S-II | Canon VL, VL2 | Canon 50mm |
| Canon IIB | Canon VI-L, VI-T | Canon 85mm |
| Canon III, IIC, IV | Canon P | Canon 100mm |
| Canon IIIA, IVF, IVS | Canon 7 | Canon 135mm |
| Canon IIA, IID, IID1 | Canon 7s | Canon 200mm-1000mm |
| Canon IVSB | Minolta Rangefinders | Minolta Lenses |
| Canon IIF, IIS | Other Rangefinders | other M39 lenses |
| Go to canonrangefinder.com home page | ||
Any additions or corrections to these pages would be welcome simply by contacting this site as shown at the foot of this page .
Footnotes:
1 Dechert, Peter. Canon Rangefinder Cameras 1933-1968. Hove Collectors Books. West Sussex, United Kingdom. 1985. ISBN 0-906447-30-5.
Peter Dechert's book is the most important expert source of information regarding Canon Rangefinder Cameras.
2 Kitchingman, Peter. Canon M39 Rangefinder Lenses 1939-1971. A Collector's Guide. Published by Peter Kitchingman. Perth, Australia. 2008. ISBN 978-0-646-48144-9.
Peter Kitchingman's book is the definitive study of the more than three decades of M39 format camera lenses developed for Canon Rangefinder Cameras.
3 Nostalgic Canon Camera Book. 懐かしいキヤノン EI Publishing Co. Ltd. Tokyo, Japan. June 2003.
Peter Kitchingman's book is the definitive study of the more than three decades of M39 format camera lenses developed for Canon Rangefinder Cameras.
4 "Canon Camera Museum" history website. https://global.canon/en/c-museum/history/ published by Canon, Inc. accessed in 2019.
5 Rajner, Hans P. (author), John Wade (editor). Leica Copies. Classic Collections Publications. London, UK. ISBN 13: 9781874485056
Hans P. Rajner's book is an excellently detailed and carefully researched study of camera from around the world which used the Leica M39 lens mount and the same lens to film plane distance.
7 Dechert, Peter. Canon Single Lens Reflex Cameras 1959-1991. Historical Camera Publications. Yakima, Washington. 1992. ISBN 1-879561-04-2.
8 Tomlinson, Shawn M. The Film Photography Book. Lulu Pulbications. 2016. ISBN: 9781365263972
9 Sartorius., Ghester. Identifying Leica Lenses. Classic Camera 19. Tokyo, Japan. 2001. ISBN 4-257-12029-0
10 website http://www.nicovandijk.net/rflensmatrix.htm consulted 2019.
11 O'Reagan, Douglas M. Allied Exploitation of German Science after World War II. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, Maryland. 2019. ISBN 9781421428888
12 website www.canonrangefinder.servehttp.com consulted 2008.
13 Minolta expert Andrea Aprà has posted information on minoltarangefinders group and other groups and further detailed information by email. (thanks Andrea !)
14 website http://www.collection-appareils.fr/objectifs/ consulted 2019.
If you have any comments or questions about this Canon Rangefinder site, please e-mail me (Larry Huffman) at e-mail address: [email protected]
