Storehouse Studio

The last of the Canon rangefinder cameras was the Canon 7. This was famous for mounting one of the fastest lenses ever offered to photographers - the 50mm f0.95 - commonly called the 'Dream Lens' or 'over-square' An extreme light sucker. It has become popular as something to mount on movie and modern digital cameras - as you might expect, it has a paper thin depth of field.

In recent times we have seen similarly fast lenses from Leica (at a far higher price), from Chines makers like 7 Artisans for Leica M and from Cosina Voigtlander for micro Four Thirds mount - although those only cover a half-frame sensor. The Canon 0.95 is a heavy beast, so much so that the Canon 7 had a special bayonet flange mount around the regular lens mount to carry it - the normal M39 Leica screw thread mount was preserved inside the mount throat so that conventional Canon RF lenses could be mounted as well. There were some of these fast lenses made for television work, marked 'TV' and many have been back converted to the 7 mount. Others have been converted to Leica M mount.

The Canon 7 is not a rare camera - but the lens was beyond the pocket of most buyers, compared to the fast 50mm f1.2 or 1.4. The original 7 had a long selenium meter cell on the front but was updated by the 7s which has a CdS meter cell, an accessory shoe on top, a larger rewind knob and a rectangular meter display instead of the original quadrant arc. Only 16,00 of those were made. Rarer still was the so-called 7s(z), the very last which had some improvements such as an external rangefinder adjustment screw. Only 4,000 of these were made before production was discontinued.

I was delighted when one came my way. Even happier to discover that it was on a 7s(z). Disappointed when I found that the camera had a dead light meter and a badly wrinkled second shutter curtain (stainless steel). Comforted when I realised that the lens, having come with the last version of the camera, was among the last made with a serial number high in the 28,000's and in great condition. It's now sitting occasionally on my Sony a7 body - a nice congruence of numbers. And yes, there is a simple adapter available, although not a cheap one as there is not a high demand for it. It is awesome glass. Value is well over Aus $3,000 and while I normally assert that everything I own is for sale – I'm a dealer after all – I'll need to be in some financial difficulty to part with it!

N.B. I've seen this and other superfast lenses accused of being soft. All sorts of plausible reasons given. But I suspect that the main reason is operator error - lenses this fast are hard to shoot well - very hard. The depth of field wide open is very thin and you tend to get things just off focus. But I love the output, and the challenge. It wasn't called the 'Dream' lens just because you dreamed of owning one (guilty!) but because the overall soft effect has a dreamy quality - in a portrait the eye is sharp if you get it right and the rest turns to...cream.