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Canon VT
Innovative 1956 Rangefinder The VT enjoyed being part of an extensive Canon system with lenses ranging from 25mm to 800mm, and fast lenses up to f/1.2
Canon had a postwar
history of making slightly modified knob wind Leica Copies....until the Canon VT in 1956.
The VT is an important camera in Canon history because it showed for the first time that
Canon wanted to be a leader in innovative 35 system rangefinder design.
Leaving the Leica inspired knob winding bottom loading design behind them, Canon came up
with an inspired design of their own.
In one area, the VT and its siblings have no equal.
Canon
kept the Leica Screw mount on the VT, but that was about all. The main method
of film advance was changed from a top mounted knob wind to a bottom mounted Leicavit
inspired trigger. In the VT design, however, the bottom trigger was permanently
mounted. The tripod socket changed ends to mount a trigger wind grip.
Canon ads of the time promoted how fast the trigger wind was. It was
true, but they neglected to mention that with one hand on the
shutter release and the other hand on the trigger wind, you were out of luck of the
subject moved and you needed to refocus. For the first time, Canon used
a swing open back on its top of the line 35, which was MUCH easier to load than the
bottom wind Canons. The VT used a traditional cloth shutter curtain,
which would be replaced later in the V/VI series with wrinkle prone stainless steel.
Shutter speeds ranged from 1 second to 1/1000th, plus T and B. About the only
thing which seems out of place is the manually set frame counter.
The VT kept its predecessor's separate high and low speed shutter dials. Some people forget that these "old" style rotating high speed shutter dials make double exposures very easy. All you have to do is rotate after the exposure till it catches, than take another shot. The rotating collar around the shutter release acted as the rewind switch. The self timers made its first appearance on a top of the line Canon on the VT.
One of the VT's biggest advantages was its 3 position viewfinder with
three rotating prisms giving it three different viewfinder magnifications. See
that wheel below and to the right of the eyepiece? The photog could use it to
select the 50, 35, or "RF" finders as indicated on the top plate above the
finder. Here it is set to the 35 finder. The "RF" position is
roughly equal to a 135. While a relatively bright combined RF/VF, there
was no framelines or parallax compensation in the finder. Compared with
the later Canons of the V/VI series which followed, the VT has
a warm toned gold rangefinder patch, instead of a cool colored silver patch. Over
the years the earlier gold tone RF image has proved to age better with a brighter
image and less flare. The recessed film rewind knob was raised by pushing
that little lever marked by the arrow next to it. Canon introduced its bayonet
locking flash gun connection with the VT, which would last to the last Canon RF --
the 7sZ.
The top right deck sported the auxiliary knob wind knob, which was activated by the button on the top deck's back edge. It was useful and necessary to use the VT on a tripod. The lever beneath the high speed shutter dial selected the flash sync type...between various types of flash bulbs and electronic flash.
