Those that know Meghan and I know that we have what appears to be an on going camera acquisition problem. To remedy this but continue to try out ALL of the cameras we have decided to start borrowing cameras from our fellow camera enthusiasts instead of trying to purchase or hoard them all to ourselves. Not all are winners though and some are just easier or more fun to use but you have to shoot with them first to find out! Thus, we decided if we run a roll through every camera we are interested in, not unlike going on a 5 minute date with a bunch of strangers at a singles night, we can quickly see which are worthy of being added to our collection (or put on our list of “must haves.”) Camera speed dating!
Here is most recent camera I had the pleasure of a quick date with…the Canon P and Jupiter-12 35mm f/2.8.
A few quick facts about the Canon P…first fun fact – apparently the ‘P’ in Canon P stands for ‘Populaire’. It was manufactured in 1959 and as with all Canon rangefinders use the LTM screw mount. Which means one can use a variety of lens brands on the camera, anything from Jupiter to Leica. I have a variety of lens brands myself, Jupiter, Canon, Nippon Kogaku and Leica. I admit that I do prefer the Jupiter to the others as it is very lightweight and though I have a distaste for rangefinders I found myself carrying my Canon P w/ the Jupiter-12 35mm with me all winter because it fit perfectly in my jacket pocket. I took it everywhere with me — camping in October, street shooting all November and December and then recently I took it out for one last spin (because sun dictates I rotate my cameras more frequently) last Tuesday morning. It was fabulous to finally shoot it under blue skies! Admittedly I am growing far more fond of it than I ever thought I would.\
Also, see our previous blog post for the double Canon rangefinder date Meghan and I did last year for similar interest: https://www.beauphoto.com/camera-speed-dating-canon-rangefinder-double-date/
