It’s once again time to hand over the EMULSIVE reins to another eager contributor. This time, it’s Andrew MacGregor — better known as Mr. ShootFilmRideSteel — giving us his take on the wonderful Canon 7 rangefinder.
Over to you, Andrew.
As far as the Rocky Mountains go, Green Mountain is hardly a mountain. It’s technically a mesa, and not very high. It’s unremarkable among the peaks on the Front Range. But it’s still challenging; 200 feet higher than the tallest peak in the Appalachian Mountains, and climbing it is good exercise.
When I climb it, I don’t just exercise my legs, I exercise my eye, always taking a camera.
My Canon 7 rangefinder is my preferred camera while climbing up Green.
The Canon 7 is a rangefinder camera which uses the M39 Leica Screw Mount, first introduced in 1961. After the 7 and its variants, Canon left the rangefinder business altogether and went on to concentrate on their hugely successful SLR lines.
The Canon 7 has a very nice, big 0.8 magnification viewfinder that makes shooting with both eyes open easy. The switchable frame lines are bright and easy to use.
Shutter speeds top out at 1/1000th, and it has a selenium meter.
It can be cold on Green, and there are no trees to stop the wind, so in the winter you don’t want to take a camera with a lot of electronics.
That’s what makes the Canon 7 a perfect hiking companion. It’s a solid mechanical camera, and the selenium meter isn’t bothered by the cold.
I’d been looking for a screw mount rangefinder, and had thought about a Bessa just to get one with a meter. The 7’s meter has to be read from the top of the camera instead of in the viewfinder, and is slower to use, but unlike the Bessa, there’s no plastic in the body and no battery required. The trick is to find a body with a working meter.
I’ll occasionally stop on the way up and take a shot while I give myself a chance to breathe for a minute before going on. I usually carry just one lens on a hike, mostly my Nippon Kogaku W-Nikkor-C 3.5cm/f3.5.
A moderately wide focal length works well for me going up a mountain, but there are an astounding number of options available in Leica thread mount, from 15mm ultra-wide to a 135mm telephoto.
I’ve read there was a 200mm made in LTM, but I’ve never seen one. Voigtlander, Canon, Nikon, the usual Soviet suspects, Schacht, Zeiss, and of course Leica all made lenses in this mount to name a few.
As I resume the climb after a few quick frames, how the camera is carried is important. The Canon 7 is as reliable as a brick, and is unfortunately shaped like one. There are no curved surfaces for the hand to grab on to, and nothing very ergonomic about the body at all.
This lack of ergonomics exacerbates the biggest flaw in this camera- the strap lugs. If you hang the camera from them using just a strap, the body will angle back and point the lens toward the sky, leaving the back edge of the camera to dig in to your ribs. A leather case should fix that, but I don’t have one.
I dug around in my closet and found an anchor bolt to put in the tripod socket and now I hang the camera vertically to avoid that edge. It will still shift about as I hike, but it’s much better than the alternative.
Once at the top, I’ll pause and look around. To the west, the saw teeth of the Hogbacks screen the further, mighty peaks of the Rockies. Pike’s looms in the distance to the south. East, the city of Denver spreads out below, with DIA just visible on the horizon. I’ll capture a few frames in the afternoon light, and then start back down the mountain. Dinner awaits at the bottom, and I’ll be back to exercise legs and eye again soon, my Canon 7 slung over my shoulder.
– Andrew MacGregor
Canon 7 technical specifications
| Camera name | Canon 7 Rangefinder |
| Camera type | Interchangeable lens rangefinder |
| Format | 35mm (135) |
| Manufacturer | Canon Inc |
| Manufacture dates | 1961-1965 7 variants sold until 1968 Canon 7 with selenium cell metering - 1961-65 Canon 7s with CdS metering - 1965-67 Canon 7s Type II - 1967-68 |
| Lens mount | M39 / Leica compatible thread mount Accepts the Canon 50/0.95 "Dream lens" with optional bayonet mount 'M' adapter |
| Rangefinder | Coupled 59mm base length 47mm effective base length Parallax compensation |
| Viewfinder | Single x0.80 magnification Selectable framelines: 35mm 50mm 85/100mm 135mm |
| Shutter | Mechanical horizontal focal plane Stainless steel 1 sec - 1/1000th sec T and B modes X-Sync port |
| Metering | Selenium meter Coupled to shutter selector dial Match needle indicator ASA 6 - 400 Selectable low and high range metering EV 6-13 and EV 12-19 respectively (at ASA 100) |
| Flash | X-Sync at 1/60th second but no accessory shoe (7s model has a cold shoe) PC socket and flash bracket compatible |
| Wind / Rewind | Lever advance Counter resets after black is opened Folding crank rewind |
| Loading | Swing open back load - dual locking mechanism |
| Finish | silver and black (rare) |
| Weight | 622 grams (no lens) |
| Dimensions (appx) | 140 x 81 x 31mm (WxHxD) Weight: 622g |
| Accessories | Optional accessory coupler for base Canon 7 model, which provides a center mounted cold shoe |
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The most irritating thing about the Canon 7 is that the rangefinder patch is imprecise and often has an annoying halo around it –perhaps flare? Once I started using Leica M2 s the advantaage of the Leica patch was superior hands down.
nice little Nikon lens there.
nice little Nikon lens there.
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