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JayCee Images
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 17:37
The house im moving into was occupied by an older gentlemen who had lived here since it was built in 1978. He died of lung cancer a few months ago and his daughter really wanted nothing to do with the house or its contents so she asked me if i were to clean up the house, have an estate sale and give her the earnings, she would rent me the house for cheap...DIRT CHEAP! :D

So as i was going through all his belongings i stated to find alot of photography stuff but nothing really of any value or worth keeping. She had told me that anything i wanted, i was able to keep. For the last month i have been gutting the house, cleaning, selling and getting all my own stuff moved in.

I didnt know there was an attic to the house but this morning while i was moving a few boxes i noticed the access panel and got my ladder and crawled up inside. There was a few boxes of old tax records, some clothing and a few other pieces of junk but WAY in the corner i saw something kinda wedged in between a couple 2x4's. It was a leather bound case that had the word "Canon" imprinted on it. I kinda giggled cuz i had a good idea what it was, ran down the ladder and found this:

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s296/SharpsShooter69/IMG_3732.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s296/SharpsShooter69/IMG_3733.jpg

:eek:

Now i havent done much to research it yet, but it seems to be an older Canon Rangefinder...possibly a model or varient of the IV series. www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/CanonIV.html (http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/CanonIV.html) Maybe someone here can shed a little more light on what it is, when it was made and what its worth?

This thing i built like a freaking tank!! Its half the size of my 40D without the flash and probably weighs twice as much! All the controls seem to work and it sounds like the shutter is A-Ok! Im gonna load it up with some film and play around with it some tomorrow and see if it does in fact still work.

Heres a few more.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s296/SharpsShooter69/IMG_3735.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s296/SharpsShooter69/IMG_3742.jpg

Check out them controls!!
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s296/SharpsShooter69/IMG_3738.jpg

Anywho, just thought i would share my little treasure findings for this morning...ive found a few other really neat things as well as all the accessories and stuff i have for this one that ill get some pictures taken and posted that im sure some of you would enjoy.
JulieNick
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 18:38
Awesome find!!!!
mellowd
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 18:41
Looks very nice indeed
Anke
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 18:42
Wow, what a beautiful object that is. Can't wait to see what kind of piccies it produces, make sure you don't forget to share them with us :)

Interested to know the value too but I have a feeling you might not sell it, unless its worth a million dollars of course :D
Mike-DT6
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 18:45
It looks very much like my old Leica III. I wonder if Canon copied the Leica design.

Mike
JayCee Images
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 19:03
Interested to know the value too but I have a feeling you might not sell it, unless its worth a million dollars of course :D

Pretty much...i kinda like old antiquey kinda stuff so this is right up my alley. I wouldnt sell it unless it would draw a very pretty penny!
Mike-DT6
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 19:14
Even if you don't use it much it would look great on display.

Mike
Kristy
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 19:18
that is sooooo cool! Awesome story and an incredible find! Looks like you'll be investing your money in B&W film for a while. Woo Hoo!! :)
HSK
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 19:22
wow nice find, it looks pretty cool too. I like the Canon logo in the last pic.
3Turner
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 20:07
Great find....can't wait to see some shots from it.
c2thew
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 23:03
holy smokes........... those make great movie props in films.
cdifoto
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 23:08
Not exact but pretty similar
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280271947904
jjaenagle
4th of October 2008 (Sat), 23:36
can you send the pic to canon and see what they say? i wonder how many they have of those?

No. 56529 out of... 100,000? that would be cool lol
krb
5th of October 2008 (Sun), 00:01
Now i havent done much to research it yet, but it seems to be an older Canon Rangefinder...possibly a model or varient of the IV series. www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/CanonIV.html (http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/CanonIV.html) Maybe someone here can shed a little more light on what it is, when it was made and what its worth?

The shutter goes to 1/1000 so it isn't a II series.

But the knurling on the knobs is diamond cut rather than straight (a change made on the IIIA and IV) so I'm going to guess that it is a model III.

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/film/data/1933-1955/1951_3.html?lang=us&categ=crn&page=1933-1955

Edit: According to http://www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/canon/idmain.htm the flash rail makes it a IV.
krb
5th of October 2008 (Sun), 00:35
It looks very much like my old Leica III. I wonder if Canon copied the Leica design.
Absolutely. Apparently after WWII all patents belonging to German companies were rendered null (spoils of war) so everybody was free to copy their designs at will.
darosk
5th of October 2008 (Sun), 00:41
That's pretty coo.
LBaldwin
5th of October 2008 (Sun), 00:50
I think it may be a III or IV as well. I have a good friend Dick McRill of McRill's Camera in Eugene, OR. his website is www.cameraguy.com

He is an expert and avid collector of early Canon Rangefinders, drop him a line and tell him Les sent you!! Most experts will value that between 175-325 USD. The question is do you have any more lenses...
DozerLYP
5th of October 2008 (Sun), 04:10
nice beauty dish...
JayCee Images
5th of October 2008 (Sun), 11:51
I think it may be a III or IV as well. I have a good friend Dick McRill of McRill's Camera in Eugene, OR. his website is www.cameraguy.com (http://www.cameraguy.com)

He is an expert and avid collector of early Canon Rangefinders, drop him a line and tell him Les sent you!! Most experts will value that between 175-325 USD. The question is do you have any more lenses...

No more lenses but i do have a few more accessories for it...some OLD kenko filters, flash bulbs, an automatic shutter timer, battery extension tube for the flash, the original carrying case for all of it and even some of the old paperwork(which is quite frail now). Ill send Dick and email and see what he can tell me about it!
Pekka
5th of October 2008 (Sun), 12:58
If Canon would do digital cameras with that metal retro look and feel I would get one for sure! :)
BottomBracket
6th of October 2008 (Mon), 18:31
Beautiful - it looks just like my Leica IIIG.

I'm with Pekka here - if they revive that with digital innards, I'd get one!

There should be lots of lenses for it, since it is of Leica Screw Mount format.
AdamC
8th of October 2008 (Wed), 06:06
Wow, awesome find! Lucky bugger.
coalcliff
8th of October 2008 (Wed), 06:27
Retro is so good looking, compared to the P & S business card holders and morbid black monoliths that are DSLR's.
pradeep1
12th of October 2008 (Sun), 22:59
Put up your pictures on http://www.rangefinderforum.com/ and have those guys have a look at your pictures. Not only will they be able to positively identify it, but they will also be able to give you a deep and thorough history of the camera and also its current market value. What a great find!

That camera is probably worth more than all of your current camera gear combined.