CANONFLEX
In 1959, Nikon released the Big F camera, which made the Nikon F series SLRs brilliant. Before the release of the Nikon Big F, Canon also quietly released a SLR, embarking on the path of SLRs. That series was called the R series. Unfortunately, What’s wrong is that this series didn’t work out.
Some people in later generations say that Canon users are like domestic slaves with six surnames. Canon changed its mouth six times without considering the user’s feelings. The L39 was the first to change to the R-mount. However, this statement is actually exaggerated. When Canon launched the R series SLR, its rangefinder Products are still under development. In fact, we have seen that in recent years, Canon and Nikon have switched to mirrorless cameras and changed their interfaces. In fact, in the past, changing interfaces often represented business difficulties.
Let’s take a look at this camera first, and this camera also reflects that although Canon was a weak manufacturer in the 1950s, it has always had great ideas.
Naijatechnews have attached all the photos below
This Canon machine is called CANONFLEX. It was released in May 1959, a few months earlier than the Nikon Big F. It was Canon’s first SLR camera.
At that time, Japanese SLRs mainly followed the basic structure and design logic of Zeiss SLRs, while retaining a large number of German camera habits in operation.
Canon’s SLR has many innovations in operation.
The film advance mechanism of CANONFLEX is located at the bottom, which is a very bold design. Film advance from the bottom is not unusual. Leica has already had a fast film advance mechanism, and the design of this camera is logically fast film advance.
However, the fast film advance is generally linear, but the film advance of CANONFLEX is still curved, which is not convenient in actual operation. This is considered to be a major shortcoming of this machine.
The top of the CANONFLEX is removable, but I didn’t find a replaceable viewfinder in any of my information, and it wasn’t mentioned in the promotional leaflet or manual at the time. The focusing screen is fixed by screws and there is no indication that it can be replaced.
I personally think that maybe Canon originally reserved a metering system or a metering top here, but it was finished before the metering top came out. However, it is also possible that Canon has reserved space to replace the viewfinder, but this product is too short-lived, so there is no time to develop it.
CANONFLEX’s light meter is an external light meter, and the body itself is completely mechanical and uncharged. The light meter is hung on the body and can be linked to the shutter dial. This is also considered a very poor design, making it inconvenient to hold. Of course, this is just a stop-gap measure, because when this camera was launched, there was no concept of TTL.
However, CANONFLEX still implements the maximum aperture viewfinder function on some lenses. No matter what aperture is used, the viewfinder is the maximum aperture and shrinks when shooting. This is a relatively advanced mechanical function.
CANONFLEX is priced at 59,000 yen, with a 50mm 1.8 lens, while the Nikon Big F kit with a 50mm 2.0 lens is 67,000 yen. Although it is more expensive than Canon, the Big F is a very complete camera, and Nikon I also completely abandoned the rangefinder and went to a SLR.
Compared with the big F, although the mechanical performance of CANONFLEX is not inferior, its design flaws, inconvenience to use, fewer lenses and other problems are constantly exposed. Canon has no determination to let go of the rangefinder and continue to fight on two fronts.
The camera was produced for only one year and only 14,000 units were produced.
After experiencing the failure of the R, Canon continued its efforts to save costs and immediately gave up the plan of replacing the viewfinder. In 1960, Canon launched the RP camera and the R2000 camera. Both machines could not replace the viewfinder. The RP camera is a simplified version of the CANONFLEX, without the T door, and the price is slightly cheaper at 48,000 yen. At the same time, a version R2000 with a shutter speed of 1/2000 was also launched, which can be regarded as a fine-tuning of the body. The R2000 is more than 70 grams lighter than the prototype.
However, the response of the R2000 was even worse than that of the CANONFLEX. 1960 was the year of the explosion of Japanese SLRs. Each company had come up with relatively mature products, and people were accustomed to top-pass film, so the Canon R series was criticized. Failed miserably.
Unwilling to fail, Canon made a last-ditch effort and launched the RM, the fourth and final camera of the R series in 1962.
The performance of the RM camera body is the same as the previous body, but it has obviously learned its lesson and abandoned the black technology of film advancement under the camera. Instead, it adopts a design with a hidden film advancer. I don’t know about Canon’s designers and film advancers. What a deep hatred there is in this thing.
The appearance of RM is very trendy, and the flat head design doesn’t look like a SLR.
This machine has a light metering mechanism. The fuselage is not charged. The meter uses the relatively popular photocell technology, which is the plate on the front of the fuselage that you see. This turned out to be an impractical design that reduced the efficiency of the camera.
The result of RM was still a disastrous failure until the F series was launched in 1964. You will see some popular technologies at the time on the FX in 1964, but Canon’s 1960s were destined to be bitter.
There is another lens released at the same time as RM, which is also tasked with turning the tide, the 58 1.2 lens.
I can only find one picture of this head on GOOGLE, and it’s this one, which is even more mysterious than Nikon’s. There are a total of 14 lenses in the R series, and some lenses have been iterated because not every lens can automatically shrink the aperture.
The R series is a fleeting series of Canon. In 1964, Canon invested and developed the new series F series, and stopped the development of the L39 port rangefinder in 1965.
Although the R series failed, for Canon, it opened up their determination to embark on the SLR road. More than ten years later, in 1971, Canon launched the very classic F1 professional 135 SLR. Later, the trapezoidal viewfinder style of Canon cameras also started from the R series.
For more such interesting article like this, app/softwares, games, Gadget Reviews, comparisons, troubleshooting guides, listicles, and tips & tricks related to Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS, follow us on Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.