Hello,
I never made a camera review, so this is my first and probably the last one.
Some people make their living from that!, but I’ll do it for free.
I have four batteries for my digital camera but even though they all became empty before the end of the day in this trip.
The idea of buying a cheap film camera came to mind, although I didn’t really need a new camera purchase.
I stopped in a small store selling second hand film cameras and asked for something like a point and shoot Kodak instamatic.
The guys at the store, as I was telling, were really nice. I didn’t get any camera (nothing to buy cheap other than disposable ones with colour roll inside) but when asking for a photo book store they suggested me an area I visited next day.
That corner of Tokyo they recommended is really interesting. A wide street with book stores one after the other, hmm obviously nearly all of them in Japanese language (opening the book from the back cover and reading it upside down).
There were a lot of different kind of books, specially old ones. I visited several of those stores trying to find photobooks, I mean new publications of renowned Japanese photographers, say Moriyama for instance, or others but no way.
An entire building was one of those stores. After several trials of asking for photography books I landed in a floor with a section of many books with photographs like that one,
Interesting but not actually what we use to call art photography books.
At the end another small store had a rather simple collection of photo books, mostly old fashioned and I finally bought one of them.
The following day again camera batteries were also already really weak before sunset and I found an interesting old camera store. The owner was repairing a camera with a magnifier loupe in his head and he let me have a good look to the tempting collection of fantastic cameras he had for sale.
After a good while watching, there were only two affordable cameras I got interested in; all the others were either too vintage or more expensive that what had in mind, as I said I wanted just a spare camera to help my digital one battery laziness.
For nearly the same price (about two hundred quids) I could buy one of those mini retractable lens Rollei 35 I already owned once upon a time or … the one I finally got together with several film rolls ; by the way nearly half the price of the one they use to be sold now in Europe market. So, here we go with the review.
The Canon IV Sb
As I got out of the store and started using it I felt a fantastic sensation. A fully manual battery free beautiful fully tested camera in my hands working silent and precisely. Amazing!
Similarly to my previous reflection I have to say that although my liberating sensation and fantastic feeling I wouldn’t recommend nowadays to shoot manual to do street photography. Get the point at last?
But perhaps I start thinking of carrying both digital and this one hanging from my neck next time, as I did next day as a kid with his new shoes.
A bit of history
Since 1935 Canon started producing different rangefinder camera models to compete with the German Leica’s. Inspired in them, these Japanese cameras had a good market acceptance but never could really achieve the relevance the Germans had.
They made a good amount of models with slightly different features. Model names aren’t stated in the cameras, so it can be really confusing to determine which one is the one you might have bought. Canon IV Sb was manufactured after 1952, including a speedlite synchronization (first in the world with the feature) and a lock on the slow shutter dial.
About 35000 units were produced in 1952-53.
Also different Nikon and finally Canon lenses were attached since first models. the IV Sb has a Canon 50 mm f 1.8 Leica 39 screw mount. The one I got has some lens scratches, which made body plus lens price really attractive… to hope that doesn’t affect image quality, or perhaps even enhance its output!
Camera description and handling
The camera is in excellent condition. Just a slight crash mark on the upper left can make it different from mint condition. The black leatherette is also like new.
The make of this camera is really excellent. Full strong metal as a raw material manufactured for precision. Its weight is 790 grams lens included.
The camera is a beautiful piece of shiny steel.
The viewfinder
Focusing is through Coincidence rangefinder integrated with reversed Galilean viewfinder.
Viewfinder is really clear, not as much as modern Leica cameras of course but good enough in any condition. And much better than some old cameras rangefinder ones. Also by difference with the last it has a rotatable switch to set one of three magnifications. That enables more accurate focusing and can be used for 100 and 135 mm lenses.
Magnification switch detail
Blue arrow showing rotatable switch. Magnification to red circle (1) and green circle (1.5)
Normal view 50 mm
1x view (100 mm)
1.5x view (135 mm)
Notice in the last two images the rangefinder focusing paralleling system is clearly visible.
Shutter system
Two-axis, horizontal-travel focal-plane shutter with cloth curtains. Single-axis rotating dial for T, 1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 sec., and single-axis rotating dial for X, B, 1/25, 1/40, 1/60, 1/100, 1/200, 1/500, and 1/1000 sec.
These are the two dials
To the left main shutter speed dial, unlocked when lifting for change. From 1/1000 to 25 plus B
Detail of the low speed dial, working when main is in 1/25. It has a lock. From 1/25 to 1 sec, including T position.
All speeds work really fine. T is released when moving the slow dial to some other position (instead of pressing shutter button again).
Seeming an inconvenience, the slow dial is only used when working in dim light conditions. So in other general situations the main dial will be enough. Perhaps a clever solution.
The lens. Aperture and focusing
A 50 mm f 1.8 Canon lens with screw Leica 39 makes finely the job. Its built is as solid as the camera body.
Aperture ring from f 1.8 to f 16 without intermediate stops.
Distance only in feet from 3.5 to infinity. The ring works really smoothly, a small knob helps turning and locks in infinity. Minimum focusing distance is rather too long.
Depths of field for every aperture signaled. Infrared focus mark.
Red and yellow arrows in the photograph indicate aperture and focusing marks. Notice they aren’t just on top of the lens but a bit displaced to left.
Film loading
Like Leica’s (still nowadays) bottom plate is to be opened to load the film roll. In this case the take-up spool needs to be pulled out to load the film. By clipping the film tip in the spool and placing it and canister in the camera. But this needs the film end to be previously trimmed.
The seller trimmed four rolls for me and I easily loaded them. I kept the trimming stencil with the camera.
Leica film cameras are often tough in loading and a reload is not seldom required. The four rolls I shot attached easily the take-up spool, but a couple of them kept on shooting far after 36th frame and once developed a good amount of frames were unexposed.
I’m shooting another roll now to fully check it ends about the 36th frame correctly, to determine the proper way of film loading. Perhaps film didn’t clip well in the spool.
As the roll is still in the camera I bring a pic from the instruction manual I downloaded.
As shown, film trimmed is clipped to the spool and then everything comes in and the plate closed.
The shutter is cocked to the first frame turning the knob while frame counter moves in the while. ISO can be set to your roll sensitivity: just to remember… nor batteries nor light meter in this camera.
When the film reaches the end, R lever allows putting it again in the canister thanks to the turning knob in figure 5.
Samples
Used to autofocus, focusing is not of course as fast…
But image quality, despite lens scratches, is just fantastic. This portrait was shot at the shortest focusing distance
Here a pretty sample of depth of field
And a beautiful hand held exposure, perhaps one second
Also here a slight blur, making the scene more dynamic
See how good this night scene became
Bokeh is also beautiful, see this image
Of course I didn’t have a light meter with me neither bought one.
Shooting by the sunny 16 rule or just estimating the right exposure is a beautiful exercise. Of course no warranty results will be fully accurate, but it’s actually a joy.
Of course, again, I wouldn’t recommend shooting manual for street photography in the present days. Autofocus and automatic exposure is faster and more accurate!
But the pleasure of doing it is actually there…
And, forgot it… double exposure is possible by handling the shutter button and speed dial. A thing at least modern film Leica doesn’t allow!
In resume, images from this camera are something else than snapshots. Glad to have bought it instead of a plastic camera. The price there was really fantastic, and the lens defect (some visible scratches the seller showed me in one of the inner glasses) are not affecting at all the image quality. Actually I can see no scratch now when having a close look.
Thanks for reading.
Have a happy week
Hola , Creo Que Sabiamente Acertaste Al Comprar Esa Cámara, Las Fotografías Son Excelentes. Un Saludo.