Bill Smith's Photography

 I had to go downtown back in April to handle some lingering business with mom's estate with the bank, I packed one camera, one lens combo, this time around the Canon 7 with the Canon LTM 36 F1.8 lens. A nice combination for shooting south of St. Clair. For those who can't swing the Leica M mount system, I highly recommend taking a long hard look at the Canon rangefinder system. Some ways the bodies were nicer then Leica M mounts with titanium shutters and an ease of loading like an SLR as opposed to going through the bottom like Leica.  The Canon Leica Thread Mount (M39) 35 F1.8 is a fun little lens. It pre-dates the LTM 35 F2 lens from the 1960s so it pre dates the 7 rangefinder and is a companion to the P and the VT Deluxe, but I'm a user of the Canon rangefinder system and nowhere an expert, while I have a copy of Canon Rangefinder Cameras 1933-1968 by Peter Dechert it's about the cameras much less about the lenses.  With this roll I also wanted to try Eastman Doubl...

  Finally picked up a Canon 7 Rangefinder to go with my P (Populiare) and my modest screwmount lens kit.  Everyone's first thought is, why not get a Nikon SP rangefinder. Well, SP's aren't cheap and this Canon 7 clocked in at about $300 delivered to my door. It was in great shape, the meter even works and is pretty accurage for a 60 year old selenium meter which usually is dead on arrival. The ergonomics are pretty intuitive, you can switch the frame lines via a dial on top and the really the only drawback is the lack of a hot shoe. Canon ran with a rather unique attachment for a flash that was on the left side of the camera.  All that aside the camera is a dream to shoot with, and you have access to all that Leica screw mount glass floating around out there without having a nervous break down trying to load a Barnack Leica.  I chose a roll of Kosmo Mono 100 and decided to give FX-39 a try as a developer, wow, I got contrasty negs. have a few year I want to print at ...