Bell & Howell attached to it. At the time Bell & Howell, an American company, was expanding it's International Division. With it's acquisitions, manufacturing contracts, and licensing agreements B&H started selling it's products
in 99 countries around the world. Canon, a small Japanese company known for high end cameras was looking to
sell internationally as well and with the addition of the Bell & Howell logo began selling this camera in America. Neither company bought out the other and to this day remained as two separate company's, this was just a foot in the American door for Canon.
the highly successful Canonet series of 35mm automatic-exposure rangefinder cameras. I believe this model is
the one and only to have its film advance, together with the rewind crank, rewind release and back catch
on the bottom of the camera body. The advance lever had an end which hinged downwards, making it easy
to operate using the left middle finger. The "R" lever is used for rewinding.
recessed frame counter, an accessory shoe and the shutter-release. By turning the ring around the shutter
release to "T" and and setting the shutter speed to "B" the shutter would stay open for long exposures.
The shutter button would pop back up when you turn the ring away from the "T" setting. With all the
empty real estate on the top the name Canonet 19 was prominently carved into the metal. I think the
"19" in the logo reflects the speed of the Canon lens at f1.9. Neat eh?
at the bottom of the lens (top picture, left). The aperture ring ranges from f16 down to f1.9, followed by an
"AUTO" setting for shutter priority. The selenium meter cell is arranged around the lens which added automatic compensation for any lens filters. This early version has a selenium meter that didn't need a battery, while later versions have meters that require a battery to work.
used two arrows to indicate over or under exposure. These early models also had a limited 10-200 ASA range
where as the Canonet 19 has a 10 - 400 ASA range.
All in all that makes this Canonet 19 that much more interesting.