With the demise of my Canon A1, I was looking for something to replace it, as I have nothing else that shoots 35mm. I came across a Canon P review on Youtube and like the idea of trying a rangefinder.

The review mentioned Peter Dechert’s book on the full Canon rangefinder line up from the 1935 Hansa to the 1968 Canon 7s, which seemed a good place to start looking for what model to go for.

I narrowed the list down to the V series with their metal shutter curtains and a bluer brighter viewfinders. The prettiest of the bunch was the L1 with its secondary shutter speed knob on the front plate and that super recessed folding film rewind crank. The problem was that there was nothing on ebay that wasn’t battered to hell, so in the end I chose a VL2. OK, it didn’t have the 1/1000 second shutter speed or that super looking folding rewind crank, but it was in mint condition.

The viewfinder is a little dusty with some haze, but she’s going off to have that cleaned come January 2023.

With it came a flawless 50mm f/1.8 which apparently is highly regarded within the rangefinder community. As the camera comes with a selector to change the frame lines for both a 50mm and 35mm view, I’m looking to acquire a 35mm to complete the lens line-up at some point.

If I have one gripe, it would be the spacing of the shutter speeds between 1/250 and 1/500 second. The indents are unbelievably close to each other and it can be quite easy to miss-select if you are not paying close attention.

Here are a few early examples