The circle with the dot rotates when the shaft that interacts with the film sprockets turns, so when loading it tells you if the film is advancing, and when rewinding, when the film has detached. Very useful if you wish to leave the film leader outside the film cassette. This is a feature in all V, VI and 7 series Canons
Fantastic review, thank you! I bought one a few weeks ago and brought it to a local camera shop for a cla, can’t wait to get it back. I’m in love with this camera and don’t know why it took so long for me to hear about it, we are both the same vintage! Anyway thanks for such a well written and detailed review.
Love this camera ! This and the VL2 are just one of those designs where everything came together . Less is more . The thing that always got me is when you read lots of Leica forums they always say ' oh you need to get it CLA'd every couple of years ' where in Canon 'P' forums say . ' Oh, Just go out and shoot it and enjoy " ..... That always said a lot to me ..... Cheers !
Another great review. I have three Canon RFs, a P, a VI-T, and a 7sZ. The P is my favorite by a wide margin. I use it more than my M2 and M5. P stands for "Populaire", but in my book it stands for "perfect". It's also just gorgeous to look at.
@@nuzleafyi around $225 about 6 years ago. It was listed on eBay Asa 7s, but I could tell by the larger rewind knob and different placement of the rangefinder adjustment screw that it was actually a Z. So I grabbed it. Sometimes you get lucky.
Speaking of elegant rewind cranks, if you ever get the chance, grab a Konica IIIA rangefinder. Same type of cool folding rewind. Plus an unbelievably sharp lens, compact form, and ultra cool design, with a rapid double stroke advance. And a large, bright viewfinder with automatic parallax adjustment.
A really great and at least when I bought mine , undiscovered camera ...... The 1.4 , 50mm lens that originally came with the camera is a stunner too . Super sharp and just feels great ..... I often put it on a leica to shoot with ....... The Canon 'P' really gives the M3 a run for the money ...... Not sure why they never took off in America .......
I don't know how well they sold in the U.S. but plenty of American servicemen brought one home. You can spot those with the red "EP" markings, indicating it was sold at a U.S. base.
@@BriansPhotoShow Pretty much. L1 is basically the VT with a traditional advance lever. All have cloth shutter and I've heard some of those get pinhole leaks so people paint the curtains. L2/L3 have top speed of 1/500. L3 just drops the sych port. All of them have the 3 magnification settings instead of bight line frames. 35, 50 and "RF" which is like a Leica III where it's highly magnified. The RF patch is golden instead of silver. Mine is very contrasty.
Back then, you bought an EXSPENSIVE camera only once or twice in a lifetime! These things were made to last! Today's stuff? It's all designed from the start to end up in a trash bin after just a few short years!
Good review. As for a rangefinder that is better built an easier to use, I think you need to qualify it with: "in its day", because a built-in TTL light meter and a hot shoe would make it more user-friendly. ;-) I was fiddling with the one I just received, and was stunned to find that the shutter is quieter and has less vibration than that of my Leica IIIc. Maybe that is to be expected, as this camera's design is 10 years newer. technically speaking, and early Leica M would be a fairer comparison, but there's that ever-important element of cost to consider. Even then, early Ms had cloth shutters and that ridiculous bottom loading, still. I'm afraid that now that I've got this camera, my Leica IIIc is not going to get much use. Just a roll here and there in honor of my grandparents.
I’m trying to wrap my head around the rangefinder mechanisms. Fascinatingly clever design. What exactly determines the brightness and magnification of these? Is there a tradeoff with these whereby the smaller magnification yields a brighter image? The holy question is whether one can mod or diy these mechanisms in order to yield a brighter and more magnified viewfinder image?
Hello Brain, I appreciate how detail and inspirational are your videos! I’m still new to analog photography and I currently own a Canon P, but looking for a Bessa R due to its brighter (maybe considerably bigger?) viewfinder and the faster shutter speed. Nevertheless, just as you said in your video of Bessa R, it’s made by plastic and the build quality is far from the level of Canon P. The viewfinder of Canon P just not as clear as I expected, but it’s ok to use for me. I’m wondering in my case, do you think I should maybe grab an Bessa R to try it out since it’s still very popular in the market? And Im planning to get a black one that I think it may not look as bad the silver ones after normal daily use.
Hi Brian! I am planning to purchase a Canon P when im in japan to get started on manual cameras (as im concerned my point and shoots wont last). Other than the lens and the body, do you recommend purchasing any other equipment along with the canon p for casual street photography?
Hey Brian. Thank you for this review exactly about the camera I'm looking for on eBay these days. I'm also living in Israel and trying to get some analog stuff that is almost not available in our country :-) take care.
@@BriansPhotoShow thank you. im the member of this group but never found there nothing appropriate. all the analogue stuff i got is from eBay stories. Never mistaken until now ;-) i just put a few Canon P to my watch list right now. Without lenses cos all the only 50mm lenses are somehow ppl selling with this camera. Im looking for the only 28. well maybe 35 but not 50 ;-)
Hey Brian! Check my reply on the Konica Autoreflex-TC (poor man's Oly) video, I think I missed your notification reply about the 28mm Konica version for a few months. Very jealous of your Canon P... The prices on those interchangeable Canon thread mount lenses though. If I could have one lens for crop sensor Fuji, it would probably be some sort of LTM lens.
I've got the Canon LTM 35mm f/1.8 which would be ideal for a crop sensor mirrorless camera. That is, assuming you're more interested in "character" than pure resolution.
@@BriansPhotoShow And if you DO want pure resolution, keep poking around until you find the Canon 35/2! Like the 50/1.4, this is another very late lens that crushes the Leica equivalents of the same era, but its price doesn't seem to have gone crazy yet (the crazy-price people are still fighting each other to buy 35/1.5s.) IMO the biggest downside of the 35/2 is that it's so ludicrously compact that I have to be consciously careful not to lose it in the bottom of my camera bag.
Hey Brian, thanks for the review! Quick question: I'm coming back to IL very soon and I was wondering if maybe, just maybe, you happen to know someone who's selling a Canon P? Cheers
@@BriansPhotoShow Actually a 50 Summitar can be safely collapsed on the P, But it must be extended and locked when screwing on and off the camera. Only the Summitar.
Totally agree-up to one point: the Canon P is useless for people who wear glasses.. I do have -5 glasses and can't see the 35mm lines-barely the 50mm with my glasses jammed to the viewfinder...
Agree that the 35 frameline is almost impossible to see with glasses. For the 50 or 100 frame lines, try keeping both eyes open... the P viewfinder is full life size, and if you just relax your eye and keep your view centered, you'll find your brain does a good job of showing you the whole frameline plus the scene. BONUS P FUN FACT for eyeglasses wearers: The black eyepiece surround can be lifted off off if you remove the little screw to the right of the eyepiece and then slide the surround to the side a bit. (Be super-careful not to touch the frame line plate underneath!) When these cameras were new, Canon offered eyepieces with several diopter options (at least that's what the repair manual says)... probably not a prayer of finding one of those now, BUT the actual eyepiece lens is just a conventional round lens with the sides trimmed off, then glued into place. I haven't tried this yet myself, but if you have an intrepid optician and don't mind spending some money, it looks like it should be feasible to have a new lens blank ground to your prescription, trimmed to fit, and then cemented in place of the old one, giving you a glasses-free P!
I wish i have loading film from back on my olympus om2... i ruined my film once becouse i by accident open it... swing open is fast but for my opinion it look bad and it is dangerous.
@@BriansPhotoShow The day of that mythical $25 thrift store camera is long gone. I’m glad I bought my A-1 when I did but I also made a tidy profit selling my black bodied AE-1P
I'll wade in: the P is more beautiful, more elegant, and a bit smaller. Its biggest downside is that the finder uses reflected frame lines (not as easy to see in odd lighting conditions) and only covers focal lengths of 35, 50, and 100mm; an upside vs. the 7 finder is that the P offers a full life size viewing image, which may not sound like a big deal until you get used to using your camera with both eyes open and discover how great that is. The 7 is chunkier, and some people think the built-in selenium meter makes it look dorky, but its viewfinder has true projected frame lines that are much clearer in difficult light, and cover a wider range of lenses: 35, 50, 85 and 100 combined, and 135. Unfortunately it’s finder is NOT full life size, but that also means the 35 frameline is easier to see with glasses. The 7's metal finish is “whiter” - I suspect to be a better match for the Canon SLRs of the same era - and some people think that makes it look “cheaper” than the P's deeper, more silvery metal finish. Some online commentators have extended that prejudice to infer that the 7 isn't as well-made as the P or VI, but I think that's bogus, and I've seen both of them apart... the shutter mechanics and construction look identical, and smoothness of operation and “feel” are superb for both. Likewise, some 7-haters absolutely detest the shape of its wind lever, which is stubbier than the one on the P but works just as well. If the 7 has an Achilles' heel, IMO, it's the fact that unlike the P, it doesn't have an accessory shoe!... so if you want to attach an auxiliary viewfinder or a flash trigger, there's no place to put it unless you can track down the scarce and expensive “Accessory Coupler” that fits on the top. Probably a better fix for the missing accessory shoe, as well as the dubious aesthetics of the selenium meter, is to look harder and spend more money for a Canon 7s, which is identical to the 7 under the skin but has an accessory shoe, a more compact CdS meter (made for a mercury battery, so you'll need an MR9 adapter to use it today, but it IS very useful) and lots of small detail improvements. Me? I currently have a VI-T, a P, and a 7s, and if I'm headed out the door the P is the one I reach for first... it really is just about perfect except for the slightly glasses-unfriendly viewfinder. I take the 7s if I'm more “serious” about photography and want to carry several lenses, or the VI-T if I'm shooting action and/or plan to use the 100mm lens (its viewfinder has a built-in magnifier that the P lacks, and this makes focusing with the 100 more accurate, especially at portrait distances.) So yes, the P is the people's choice... but don't turn up your nose at one of the other models, especially if a P in good condition is beyond your budget (DON'T buy any of these if it's NOT in good condition... it's not worth the frustration!)
![Leica M3 vs Canon P [A Brief Comparison]](/img/n.gif)
The circle with the dot rotates when the shaft that interacts with the film sprockets turns, so when loading it tells you if the film is advancing, and when rewinding, when the film has detached. Very useful if you wish to leave the film leader outside the film cassette. This is a feature in all V, VI and 7 series Canons
Fantastic review, thank you! I bought one a few weeks ago and brought it to a local camera shop for a cla, can’t wait to get it back. I’m in love with this camera and don’t know why it took so long for me to hear about it, we are both the same vintage! Anyway thanks for such a well written and detailed review.
Love this camera ! This and the VL2 are just one of those designs where everything came together . Less is more .
The thing that always got me is when you read lots of Leica forums they always say ' oh you need to get it CLA'd every couple of years ' where in Canon 'P' forums say . ' Oh, Just go out and shoot it and enjoy " ..... That always said a lot to me ..... Cheers !
Great video man! I’ve been loving using my Canon P for traveling and street photography videos
Another great review. I have three Canon RFs, a P, a VI-T, and a 7sZ. The P is my favorite by a wide margin. I use it more than my M2 and M5. P stands for "Populaire", but in my book it stands for "perfect". It's also just gorgeous to look at.
Wow the 7sZ is super hard to find these days. How much did you get yours for?
@@nuzleafyi around $225 about 6 years ago. It was listed on eBay Asa 7s, but I could tell by the larger rewind knob and different placement of the rangefinder adjustment screw that it was actually a Z. So I grabbed it. Sometimes you get lucky.
@@andrewrothman7805 wow that's an incredible price for the 7sz! I just paid around 200 for the P so I'm so jealous hahaha
Right on brother. Thank you. I love those thread mount lenses
Wow that rewind crank is so elegant
Speaking of elegant rewind cranks, if you ever get the chance, grab a Konica IIIA rangefinder. Same type of cool folding rewind. Plus an unbelievably sharp lens, compact form, and ultra cool design, with a rapid double stroke advance. And a large, bright viewfinder with automatic parallax adjustment.
@@andrewrothman7805 Sounds very functional, but doesn't look quite elegant. It's quite brutal in form.
A really great and at least when I bought mine , undiscovered camera ...... The 1.4 , 50mm lens that originally came with the camera is a stunner too . Super sharp and just feels great ..... I often put it on a leica to shoot with ....... The Canon 'P' really gives the M3 a run for the money ...... Not sure why they never took off in America .......
I don't know how well they sold in the U.S. but plenty of American servicemen brought one home. You can spot those with the red "EP" markings, indicating it was sold at a U.S. base.
Just scooped up a minty L3 this weekend. Amazing build quality. Imagine the P is all of that and maybe more.
The L3 has knob rewind and a top speed of 1/500, is that correct? And does it have a cloth or metal shutter curtain?
@@BriansPhotoShow Pretty much. L1 is basically the VT with a traditional advance lever.
All have cloth shutter and I've heard some of those get pinhole leaks so people paint the curtains.
L2/L3 have top speed of 1/500.
L3 just drops the sych port.
All of them have the 3 magnification settings instead of bight line frames. 35, 50 and "RF" which is like a Leica III where it's highly magnified. The RF patch is golden instead of silver. Mine is very contrasty.
Back then, you bought an EXSPENSIVE camera only once or twice in a lifetime! These things were made to last! Today's stuff? It's all designed from the start to end up in a trash bin after just a few short years!
Thanks for sharing! I have the Canon L2 works great and well built. I think the Canon rangefinders are great rugged cameras!
Indeed they are! The L2 is one of the best.
BTW, that 35mm Canon lens looks beautiful. For some reason, Canon ltm lenses frequently have haze built up, which unlike fungus is not removable.
That lens was purchased new by my father at a US airbase in Japan in 1958 and has been well taken care of.
@@BriansPhotoShow that explains it, then. Good dad, lucky son. My dad gave me his M3 when I was just out of high school. Lucky me.
Good review. As for a rangefinder that is better built an easier to use, I think you need to qualify it with: "in its day", because a built-in TTL light meter and a hot shoe would make it more user-friendly. ;-)
I was fiddling with the one I just received, and was stunned to find that the shutter is quieter and has less vibration than that of my Leica IIIc. Maybe that is to be expected, as this camera's design is 10 years newer. technically speaking, and early Leica M would be a fairer comparison, but there's that ever-important element of cost to consider. Even then, early Ms had cloth shutters and that ridiculous bottom loading, still.
I'm afraid that now that I've got this camera, my Leica IIIc is not going to get much use. Just a roll here and there in honor of my grandparents.
I’m trying to wrap my head around the rangefinder mechanisms. Fascinatingly clever design. What exactly determines the brightness and magnification of these? Is there a tradeoff with these whereby the smaller magnification yields a brighter image? The holy question is whether one can mod or diy these mechanisms in order to yield a brighter and more magnified viewfinder image?
Hello Brain, I appreciate how detail and inspirational are your videos!
I’m still new to analog photography and I currently own a Canon P, but looking for a Bessa R due to its brighter (maybe considerably bigger?) viewfinder and the faster shutter speed. Nevertheless, just as you said in your video of Bessa R, it’s made by plastic and the build quality is far from the level of Canon P. The viewfinder of Canon P just not as clear as I expected, but it’s ok to use for me. I’m wondering in my case, do you think I should maybe grab an Bessa R to try it out since it’s still very popular in the market?
And Im planning to get a black one that I think it may not look as bad the silver ones after normal daily use.
If you have the money, there's no reason not to have both.
Hi Brian! I am planning to purchase a Canon P when im in japan to get started on manual cameras (as im concerned my point and shoots wont last). Other than the lens and the body, do you recommend purchasing any other equipment along with the canon p for casual street photography?
Perhaps a small light meter which attaches to the accessory shoe.
Hey Brian. Thank you for this review exactly about the camera I'm looking for on eBay these days. I'm also living in Israel and trying to get some analog stuff that is almost not available in our country :-) take care.
check the facebook group מצלמות פילם וציוד אנלוגי
@@BriansPhotoShow thank you. im the member of this group but never found there nothing appropriate. all the analogue stuff i got is from eBay stories. Never mistaken until now ;-) i just put a few Canon P to my watch list right now. Without lenses cos all the only 50mm lenses are somehow ppl selling with this camera. Im looking for the only 28. well maybe 35 but not 50 ;-)
Hey Brian! Check my reply on the Konica Autoreflex-TC (poor man's Oly) video, I think I missed your notification reply about the 28mm Konica version for a few months.
Very jealous of your Canon P... The prices on those interchangeable Canon thread mount lenses though. If I could have one lens for crop sensor Fuji, it would probably be some sort of LTM lens.
I've got the Canon LTM 35mm f/1.8 which would be ideal for a crop sensor mirrorless camera. That is, assuming you're more interested in "character" than pure resolution.
@@BriansPhotoShow And if you DO want pure resolution, keep poking around until you find the Canon 35/2! Like the 50/1.4, this is another very late lens that crushes the Leica equivalents of the same era, but its price doesn't seem to have gone crazy yet (the crazy-price people are still fighting each other to buy 35/1.5s.) IMO the biggest downside of the 35/2 is that it's so ludicrously compact that I have to be consciously careful not to lose it in the bottom of my camera bag.
Hey Brian, thanks for the review! Quick question: I'm coming back to IL very soon and I was wondering if maybe, just maybe, you happen to know someone who's selling a Canon P? Cheers
Not offhand, no. You could check the Facebook group מצלמות פילם וציוד אנלוגי
@@BriansPhotoShow Thanks a lot! Will do
Hi Brian, great video once again. Can you put a collapsable LTM lens on the P?
No, you risk damaging the camera if you do that.
@@BriansPhotoShow Actually a 50 Summitar can be safely collapsed on the P, But it must be extended and locked when screwing on and off the camera. Only the Summitar.
Totally agree-up to one point: the Canon P is useless for people who wear glasses.. I do have -5 glasses and can't see the 35mm lines-barely the 50mm with my glasses jammed to the viewfinder...
Agree that the 35 frameline is almost impossible to see with glasses. For the 50 or 100 frame lines, try keeping both eyes open... the P viewfinder is full life size, and if you just relax your eye and keep your view centered, you'll find your brain does a good job of showing you the whole frameline plus the scene. BONUS P FUN FACT for eyeglasses wearers: The black eyepiece surround can be lifted off off if you remove the little screw to the right of the eyepiece and then slide the surround to the side a bit. (Be super-careful not to touch the frame line plate underneath!) When these cameras were new, Canon offered eyepieces with several diopter options (at least that's what the repair manual says)... probably not a prayer of finding one of those now, BUT the actual eyepiece lens is just a conventional round lens with the sides trimmed off, then glued into place. I haven't tried this yet myself, but if you have an intrepid optician and don't mind spending some money, it looks like it should be feasible to have a new lens blank ground to your prescription, trimmed to fit, and then cemented in place of the old one, giving you a glasses-free P!
@@jlwilliams That solution sounds really fancy.
Or you know, wear a contact lens..
Strange how old rangefinders often have such off center tripod mounts.
I wish i have loading film from back on my olympus om2... i ruined my film once becouse i by accident open it... swing open is fast but for my opinion it look bad and it is dangerous.
The prices on these cameras are insane now.
I wonder if the popularity indicates a temporary fad or a long-term price trend?
@@BriansPhotoShow The day of that mythical $25 thrift store camera is long gone. I’m glad I bought my A-1 when I did but I also made a tidy profit selling my black bodied AE-1P
Canon 7 vs Canon P?
I've never owned or used a Canon 7, so I can't offer an informed opinion.
I'll wade in: the P is more beautiful, more elegant, and a bit smaller. Its biggest downside is that the finder uses reflected frame lines (not as easy to see in odd lighting conditions) and only covers focal lengths of 35, 50, and 100mm; an upside vs. the 7 finder is that the P offers a full life size viewing image, which may not sound like a big deal until you get used to using your camera with both eyes open and discover how great that is. The 7 is chunkier, and some people think the built-in selenium meter makes it look dorky, but its viewfinder has true projected frame lines that are much clearer in difficult light, and cover a wider range of lenses: 35, 50, 85 and 100 combined, and 135. Unfortunately it’s finder is NOT full life size, but that also means the 35 frameline is easier to see with glasses. The 7's metal finish is “whiter” - I suspect to be a better match for the Canon SLRs of the same era - and some people think that makes it look “cheaper” than the P's deeper, more silvery metal finish. Some online commentators have extended that prejudice to infer that the 7 isn't as well-made as the P or VI, but I think that's bogus, and I've seen both of them apart... the shutter mechanics and construction look identical, and smoothness of operation and “feel” are superb for both. Likewise, some 7-haters absolutely detest the shape of its wind lever, which is stubbier than the one on the P but works just as well.
If the 7 has an Achilles' heel, IMO, it's the fact that unlike the P, it doesn't have an accessory shoe!... so if you want to attach an auxiliary viewfinder or a flash trigger, there's no place to put it unless you can track down the scarce and expensive “Accessory Coupler” that fits on the top. Probably a better fix for the missing accessory shoe, as well as the dubious aesthetics of the selenium meter, is to look harder and spend more money for a Canon 7s, which is identical to the 7 under the skin but has an accessory shoe, a more compact CdS meter (made for a mercury battery, so you'll need an MR9 adapter to use it today, but it IS very useful) and lots of small detail improvements.
Me? I currently have a VI-T, a P, and a 7s, and if I'm headed out the door the P is the one I reach for first... it really is just about perfect except for the slightly glasses-unfriendly viewfinder. I take the 7s if I'm more “serious” about photography and want to carry several lenses, or the VI-T if I'm shooting action and/or plan to use the 100mm lens (its viewfinder has a built-in magnifier that the P lacks, and this makes focusing with the 100 more accurate, especially at portrait distances.) So yes, the P is the people's choice... but don't turn up your nose at one of the other models, especially if a P in good condition is beyond your budget (DON'T buy any of these if it's NOT in good condition... it's not worth the frustration!)