All Mechanical Canon

[enrique_lopez1]

Thanks, Bob. Email sent!

[Brian1664876441]

> On to my question: What was Canon's best all mechanical camera from the '60s and '70s?

 

I would also go with the Canon P if size and weight are to be considered.

 

for SLR's: The FTb is all-mechanical, and reasonable cost these days. Probably less than a K-1000, at least mine was. $35 with a 50/1.4 for a chrome body.

 

My three "Black Beauties", an original F1, EF, and FTb. They are all built like tanks.

[rick_janes]

The Minolta's a sweet camera also but if it's mechanically related to the SR-7 I shot with in the early 70s...yikes. At

barely ten years of age that body was already unreliable, misfiring and ruining more than a few pictures. I purchased it

used from Brooks Camera in San Francisco and didn't get the extended warranty. Alas, its beauty was not more than skin deep!

 

Had it been more dependable maybe I don't stop to look inside the Canon House gallery on Market Street! Everything

for a reason, eh?

[mwmcbroom]

<p>Okay, I'll join the chorus of praise for the original F-1 (both flavors) and for the FTb (also both flavors). My first "real" camera was an AE-1, but after beginning to learn about photography I took a big step backward and bought an FTbn, and promptly fell in love. What a camera! Within a year, I bought a well-used original F-1 and then another F-1, and proceeded to use them all heavily. They never missed a lick.</p>

<p>While reasonably clean old F-1s still go for a good price on the used market, the FTb or FTbn can often be bought for downright cheap. I have a small collection of them now, mostly just because they were priced so cheaply I just couldn't say no.</p>

<p>However, even though I'm a big fan of the old mechanical Canons, I have a lot of respect for Pentax. Their lenses are top notch and Pentax offered a couple of K-mount cameras that are not battery dependent that are definitely worth owning: the MX and the KX. The MX is a compact model, built on the same frame as the ME and other compact Pentaxes. Using a center-the-needle metering method, it's Pentax's equivalent of the Nikon FE and is a great, reliable little camera. My favorite of the mechanical Pentaxes, though, is the KX. It reminds me a lot of the FTb. It's a larger camera, the same size as the K-1000, but it has match needle metering, my favorite manual metering style because it shows where you are in both the shutter speed and aperture range. Like the FTb and Nikon's Nikkormats, it does not have interchangeable focusing screens and does not accept a winder or motor drive. The MX, however, does accept interchangeable focusing screens and can take a winder or motor drive -- much the same as the Nikon FM . . . which is another camera worthy of consideration, should you be inclined toward Nikon.</p>