BURNING FILM! The Nikon vs. Canon Motor Drive Wars, Part 1

[wlewisiii]

It was January. I remember listening to the launch that night on AFN radio in Tokyo visiting a friend and then drinking way too much scotch and smoking too many camel straights after hearing about the explosion...

 

[Jason Schneider]

Another fascinating read. Thanks for posting.

Canon did experiment with adding a motor drive for the Canon P. This pic is from the Canon Historical Society page on Facebook. Nothing is known about this motorized Canon P. It was a prototype on an auction site in Japan.

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Jim B.

Thanks very much for posting this. It’s not included in Peter Dechert’s great book on Canon rangefinder cameras. Too bad they never put it into production, even if it required a separate battery pack. It would have been a game changer.

 

[Jason Schneider]

I would love to have seen your F2 gear when you sold it.

Maybe you'll have a photo of it in your upcoming bestseller, Memoirs of a Press Photographer?

Thanks for the thought, but I cannot in good conscience write "Memoirs of a Press Photographer" since I never was one. I did shoot scads of photojournalistic "street pictures" some of which were published, and had a 2-year stint as a teenager shooting weddings with a Crown Graphic 4x5, but I never took photographs professionally for anything that can be called a news organization. Sorry.

 

[Pál_K]

Thanks for the thought, but I cannot in good conscience write "Memoirs of a Press Photographer" since I never was one. I did shoot scads of photojournalistic "street pictures" some of which were published, and had a 2-year stint as a teenager shooting weddings with a Crown Graphic 4x5, but I never took photographs professionally for anything that can be called a news organization. Sorry.

Hi Jason, sorry - my comment was for Dogman and his story about using his F2 and motor drive for 13 years on assignment.

But since I have all three volumes of your Camera Collecting books, I eagerly await the fourth.

(you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find the second one - took me about 10 years)

 

[Jason Schneider]

Hi Jason, sorry - my comment was for Dogman and his story about using his F2 and motor drive for 13 years on assignment.

But since I have all three volumes of your Camera Collecting books, I eagerly await the fourth.

(you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find the second one - took me about 10 years)
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I’m flattered that all 3 of my Camera Collecting books are in your stack. If I decide to do a fourth volume I sure hope it will have higher production values than these soft cover books printed on glorified newsprint.