Canon Shooter
Diamond Member
- Jan 7, 2020
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When I travel, one of the things I always do is check the local Craig's List. I've gotten great deals on various things in the past, like a $700 Rolex Submariner and a $900 Gibson Les Paul Custom. Well, yesterday I found what I think is a pretty decent score.
We're visiting my daughter and son in law in Seattle, and I found a local guy who was selling this Canon FP camera:
The camera hit the market in October of 1964 and, if I've done my math correctly (always suspect) the original price was right around $29. It's virtually identical to the Canon FX of the same era, the only difference being that the FX has an onboard light meter where the FP does not. The addition of the light meter added an additional $5 to the cost of the FX. Canon offered both because, at the time, hand-held light meters were prevalent, and someone using an on board meter was quickly labeled a neophyte.
Despite that, the FP didn't sell well and has become somewhat of a unicorn for collectors.
This is a shot from camera-wiki:
Even more rare are the black-body versions. I haven't been able to track down any black-body FP bodies, and only three black-body FX's are known to still exist.
The lens is a 50mm f/1.8 FL. The FL lens mount was replaced by the Canon FD mount, which was introduced with the Canon F-1 in 1971.
So far as I can tell, the camera is in perfect operating condition, although both the body and the lens will require a good cleaning.
And the best part? It was only $60.
It's been a long, long time since I've used a 100% manual camera, so I'm looking forward to messing with this. My daughter has a photo studio in downtown Seattle, so we'll go there to process the film I shoot. I'm not looking to capture any Bruce Davidson level stuff, but I'll share some shots if I get anything decent...
We're visiting my daughter and son in law in Seattle, and I found a local guy who was selling this Canon FP camera:
The camera hit the market in October of 1964 and, if I've done my math correctly (always suspect) the original price was right around $29. It's virtually identical to the Canon FX of the same era, the only difference being that the FX has an onboard light meter where the FP does not. The addition of the light meter added an additional $5 to the cost of the FX. Canon offered both because, at the time, hand-held light meters were prevalent, and someone using an on board meter was quickly labeled a neophyte.
Despite that, the FP didn't sell well and has become somewhat of a unicorn for collectors.
This is a shot from camera-wiki:
Even more rare are the black-body versions. I haven't been able to track down any black-body FP bodies, and only three black-body FX's are known to still exist.
The lens is a 50mm f/1.8 FL. The FL lens mount was replaced by the Canon FD mount, which was introduced with the Canon F-1 in 1971.
So far as I can tell, the camera is in perfect operating condition, although both the body and the lens will require a good cleaning.
And the best part? It was only $60.
It's been a long, long time since I've used a 100% manual camera, so I'm looking forward to messing with this. My daughter has a photo studio in downtown Seattle, so we'll go there to process the film I shoot. I'm not looking to capture any Bruce Davidson level stuff, but I'll share some shots if I get anything decent...
