Canon Film Cameras

Canon Film Cameras

In February 1936, the Hansa Canon camera became the first camera released by Canon. Canon then proceeded to make hundreds of film camera models. You can find many of these Canon film cameras at varying price points for sale on eBay.

What are some different types of Canon film cameras?

• 35mm cameras: Photographers used these 35mm film cameras to take photos on 135 film.
• Rangefinders These Canon manual cameras feature a unique photosystem, allowing users to line up two images to focus on. This technique gives them extremely sharp images.
• Single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras: Canon helped pioneer this system for photographers. Users could see the exact image through the lens that they saw through the viewfinder. The design provided better focus. The Canon EOS film camera series contains autofocus SLR cameras.
• Lens-shutter cameras: These manual cameras have a shutter in the lens and camera body.
• 8 mm cinecameras: These vintage cameras were used to make movies in the 1950s.
• Half-frame cameras: Users can choose to take two photos on each frame of film.
• Auto-exposure SLR cameras: With this camera, users can decide how long the shutter needs to be open.
• Autofocus-compact camera: This camera features automatic focus.
• Still-video camera: This Canon unit stores still images on video.

What lenses do you need for Canon film cameras?

Canon uses three main systems of lenses. The easiest way to tell which will work on the unit is to look at the front of the camera body.

• Electro-Focus (EF) lenses: If you see a red circle near the top of where the lens mounts, then the body takes EF lenses.
• EF-S lenses: A camera with a white square near the red circle takes EF-S lenses.
• EF-M lenses: If the camera's body only has a white circle, it takes EF-M lenses.

How can you tell when the unit was made?

If you look on the film chamber on cameras made after 1960, you will find a mixture of five to six numbers and letters in a series. Starting in 1960 through 1985, the first letter displays the year the unit was made starting from 1960. For example, an SLR camera made in 1965 would have a code starting with the letter E. The next number or two tells you what month the unit was made. Sometimes, the leading 0 for the months January through September is omitted. The last letter is a code for the facility the unit was made in. After 1985, the facility code was put first followed by the letter A, then the year and month codes.

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