Canon Dial

<p>Never saw this one before. I'm not a collector, but maybe it's of interest for some of you<br>

<a href="http://www.ebay.de/itm/261160297117?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649">http://www.ebay.de/itm/261160297117?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649</a></p>

<p>it's a 1/2 frame if I recall?</p>

<p>Yes, it's a half-framer and not a bad camera. I owned one for a while and enjoyed my time with it. Two things to watch for is the wind-up film advance spring can go bad and the bodies metal finish is very easy to mar up. It's seems to be of a anodized type of aluminum and the surface will scratch pretty easy. I kept mine in the special Canon case almost all the time and still ended up with some marks on the body. In the end I let it go and now only have a Olympus PenEE for a half-framer, which to me takes better pictures. Not by much, but just a little. JohnW</p>

<p>If the intended goal was the then standard, 3x5 print. Half frame was really a great idea.<br /> I suppose these could be stretched into 5x7's? I shot a half frame Olympus camera a few times back in the day. The slides were mounted into standard 2x2 mounts, and the quality was pretty good. In certain applications where reloading would be hard, i.e underwater, skiing etc. Half frame made a lot of sense.</p>

<p>I currently have one that I've never tried. Picked it up for $.25 (yes, 25 cents) at a tag sale. I guess that's the best deal I ever got on a brand name camera.</p>

<p>Canon attempted to solve the "half-frame is portrait" issue by making the camera square -- the most natural grip puts the image in a landscape orientation. It's not quite as awkward as it looks but there is a reason no one copied this approach. It's scale focus, aperture-priority with a CdS meter (the outer bubbles are for different size openings covering the meter cell for aperture/ASA). Spring motor advance/rewind via the little black handle on the bottom. In the US, these were sold with the Bell & Howell label like most other Canons; I have the Mark II (black aperture scale, increased ISO range). Here are a couple of samples on Kodak Gold 200.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.pbase.com/maderik/image/114432108/large.jpg" alt="" /><br>

Ace (above), Beach accessories (below)<br>

<img src="http://www.pbase.com/maderik/image/114432118/large.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p> </p>

<p>It's a half-frame, scale focus camera. I have several and used them extensively for a few months one Summer. The spring wound motor drive is neat and it's a good quality Canon 28mm f/2.8 lens. You can find them with both the Canon or the Bell & Howell logos. It came supplied with an interesting form fitting case. The auto exposure works well but leaves not much control. I put it aside in favor of the Olympus Pen FT which is a better half frame camera with interchangeable lenses.</p><div></div>

<p>Yeah, I had one with the Bell & Howell logo. Fairly accurate meter with interesting manual override for the aperture. Shutter speeds limited to 1/30-1/250 but lens can stop down to f22. I used to shoot the old High Speed Ektachrome (ISO 160 E4 process) in mine and develop it myself with the Unicolor E4 kit. I also made a "filmstrip" once to use in a class.</p>

<p>There is by the way at least one famous photographer who based his signature style on the use of this camera. Bill Arnold.</p>

<p>http://www.josephbellows.com/artists/bill-arnold/#1</p>

<p>Bill taught at Hampshire College in the 1970s where I was a student of his. He used to recommend the Dial 35 to all of us. I think Bill presaged much of the broader movement today in phone and instagram photography. This was a great camera for shooting from the hip, since it fit in the palm of your hand, and had a mechanical film advance. </p>