Semi-OT - R Lenses

Most list members know that Canonflex SLR bodies and R Lenses were the predecessors to Canon FD bodies and lenses. I dragged two

Canonflexes, five R lenses and an Asahi Pentax Spotmeter in a grubby DIY-modified brown briefcase all over the world from 1962 to 1976.

By 1976 Canon factory repair shops would no longer work on the Canonflex due to lack of parts. I went to FD without hesitation. If you're

interested in this family of Canons the Canon Museum has a lot of good info, I had great service from the outfit.

During the time I used the older R Lenses I shot some of the best pictures of my life (Remember I'm an amateur first, last, and always).

Consequently, my subject of Semi-OT connotes not FD but FD-related. I just finished sorting through about 280 slides shot in 1965-1967

in the Japanese countryside. After sorting, I've kept/scanned 46 slides divided into three Flickr urls (Nikon Coolscan V/ED). Each slide

has the year shot (some are est), and lens used (some are est), and comments of subject content (some are est).

 

These slides are from the Mid 1960's of scenes from growing rice and other crops in Northern Honshu, Japan (19 Slides).

 

These slides are of the rice harvest in Northern Honshu, Japan in 1965/1966 (18 Slides).

 

Toured the Northeastern coast with a friend to shoot the high surf a few days after a moderate typhoon (9 Slides).

 

Over the years my slides were used in a Kodak Carousel Projector. In several cases, I had to remount the slides into generic mounts

because the glue dried out. I did not record film type. To be honest, after I use all the tint, color temperature, and brightness controls

available in Nikonscan 4 and IPhoto, the film type doesn't mean much to me so I don't record it. I hope this interests you all.

WYSIWYG

 

Don B in Hampton Roads

Great series showing the life in Northern Japan.

 

Looks like the the brown briefcase was not the only thing beat up, note the middle 1950 Ford station wagon.

Hi Ronald, Thank you for the good words. As far as my svelte 1957 Ford station wagon was concerned, in those days

there were rank and time-in-service restrictions on shipping a car from the USA to a foreign country. These created a

cottage industry. Mechanically astute people (not me) would take an American car originally shipped in good condition and

shuffle it through a series of different owner's hands till, a person who needed transportation (me) drove this rusted out POS

as the only thing I could afford. Got me (and my Canons) into places the Japanese Railroad didn't go.

I think Canon's widest lens for that series was the 35/2.5. Did you have anything wider than that or were you able to adapt anything wider?

Hi Jeff, You're correct the Supercanomatic R 35mm f/2,5 was the widest R Lens I ever had experience with. While I'm not

a big WA fan, I thought the 35mm was a very sharp lens. At that time in my photo history it never dawned on me to adapt

lens A to body B. I was completely satisfied with the R Lenses, 35mm, 50mm, 58mm, 100mm and 135mm. I think I

remember some kind of 'adapter' that let you hook-up a Canon (and maybe Leica) RF screw-mount lens to the Canonflex

lens mount. Never saw one.

Cool series, thank you.

 

I prefered watching the sets as slideshows (button top right when you´re in the set).

I love how those lenses are called 'Supercanomatic.'

Taylor, I think the Super-Canomatic title came about to denote development of an automatic diaphragm that was wide open

before and after shooting the picture yet stopped down to the desired picture-taking aperture when the shutter is released.

I always like your old pics, I think I like the lone fellow cutting the rice stalks the best. Reminds me I need to fire up the coolscan and pick up the never ending film scanning task.

 

Wondering why you post as original size, ie 6200x4147. huge sizes, I guess you trust people aren't going to steal them. I always downsize to screen size, plus it cuts down on my upload time :)

 

Tom

There's two answers to that W T. The first is I don't know how to do it any other way and the second is I don't care if

someone steals my image or not. I have never sold and will never sell a picture. To me photography is something to be

enjoyed with as few restrictions as possible. Although I will admit I just turned down a request to 'borrow' three of my Rice

Farming images. I was asked by a Flickr Japanese Group to use my three images as part of an article concerning

Japanese Environmental Program shortfalls. Hello - - three 1966 slides used to protest 2008 environmental policies. I

don't think so.

 

Don B in Hampton Roads

Don, I have a Japanese mother (long deceased) and being born and living in Japan for 6 years brings back memories of me and my families stay their. My father was career Air Force and spent 3 tours of duty in Japan and I so wished he would have documented our lives and travels as you have. Well done, I appreciate seeing the country of my birth through your photos.

Thank you Mark, I lived in Japan for 9 1/2 years and learned to love the country. An interesting oddity, the first cameras I

ever had in my hands in my entire life were the Canonflex RM, Canonflex R2000 and Nikon Photomic F. The Japanese

camera salesperson gave a better reliability rating to the Canonflex RM over the Canonflex R2000. The Nikon with the

Photomic Light Meter head was the ugliest piece of machinery I had ever seen and the Nikon lenses were slightly more

expensive than Canon's (Monthly Pay $157). History was made. I got a Canonflex RM outfit and my first roll of film and

was off and running.

Fascinating mid 60's Slides taken Don B. There is nothing as marvellous as sharing well taken memories, re: your remarkable R lenses, for your Canonflex RM SLR and your corresponding Canon History. Much appreciated and I will further delight in your flickr.com.