Old Canon Gear - Can anybody shed some light on it ?

[dinners]

I've wound up with all this gear in good nick but know nothing about it. It's come from an old family friend who knew me as a lad and remembered I liked photography. I know nothing about this kind of thing but it's obviously been loved.

bigger version

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3455/3933008752_901aec5333_b.jpg

 

[Flash In The Pan]

Those old Canon Canonets turn up regularly, they're not worth a lot, but they certainly look nice.That's a really nice looking camera bag too

 

[dizidav]

Looks as if this may have been bought as a kit, tripod should fit in case at bottom of bag, flash looks like the original for the Canonet, nice Weston V meter in there.



Dave.

 

[steveb]

The Canon Canonets and the Olympus compacts used to rule the roost. Yours probably has the 4 element F2.8 lens, there were also models with a 5 element F1.9 lens that I still have, and the top of the range had a F1.7 6 element lens. The black version used to fetch inflated prices on eBay. From memory most used the PX625 mercury battery, now discontinued. If you want to try it out and the battery is dead you can buy the equivalent Wein cell.

 

[MartynK]

The Canonet was a 35mm rangefinder manufactured from the early 60s to the 70s, so this is about 30 - 40 years old. They had a good reputation and were quite sophisticated for their day. This looks like a nice setup, in good condition, but the camera may/may not work properly, and might need some attention. Has it been used recently? The straps on the bottom of the bag are probably for the tripod.

The camera had a built in light meter, but the separate Weston meter suggests that the owner didn't trust it (can you ever?) or that it came from an earlier period when he was using something else, without metering.

It's not worth much, in cash terms. I'd just keep it for what it is, and shoot some film now and again.

 

[dinners]

Thanks for the information folks - much appreciated.