You can read about the Travelling Canonet project here. We have over 50 photographers on 4 continents waiting to take part. Two Canonets are involved, each travelling in a different direction. The idea is to take 5 or more shots and then send the camera on to the next person on the list. Previous pictures …
Travelling from Washington State to Long Island – Canonet 28 Roll #2 Read More
There have been at least two cameras called a Canonet 28. The first was a very basic viewfinder camera with a selenium cell. This is the second one, sometimes called the ‘New 28’. It is a rangefinder camera, launched in 1971 as a cheaper alternative to the Canonet QL17. It features a 40 mm f/2.8 lens and programmed automatic exposures. For flash, the camera can be taken off ‘A’ and set to a particular aperture. When it is out of Auto mode the shutter will fire at 1/30 second.
Those who shoot rangefinder cameras on a regular basis are probably aware of (they may even feel plagued by) vertical rangefinder misalignment.
A camera rangefinder works by superimposing a (generally central) patch reflected from a position slightly to the side of the viewfinder into the direct vision viewfinder. When the calibrated rangefinder shows that both images coincide horizontally, we know the object in the patch is in focus. All quite practical, but there can be issues.
The classic scene: an advert for a bunch of random film cameras that showed no hint of what the cameras actually were. I met with the seller and she showed me a dilapidated box of cameras. Everything reeked to high heaven of old basement but something caught my eye: A Canon branded rangefinder with simple rounded lines that didn’t yell out “Yo! I’m a fancy camera!”
