Canon Dial 35

Bell and Howell added their brand to the Dial version 2

The Canon Dial 35 came out in the 1960’s. It is a cool little half-frame 35mm film camera that got even cooler when featured in “The Prisoner”,

Sidenote: If you’ve not watched “The Prisoner” you really should. It could only have been made in the 1960’s.

The Dial uses a clockwork mechanism to wind on the film and cock the shutter. This makes a very satisfying (and spy like) click and whirr after each shot. The gears that transfer power from the external spring into the body of the camera are prone to getting gummed up. So, if you get lucky, you can bring back to life something sold cheap as “for parts only”. I’ve done this a couple of times. Watch this video to find out how.

The bad news is that I’ve also acquired “differently broken” Canon dials which have proved impossible to fix. But I’m hanging onto them because the lens in the Dial is wonderful and I plan to make an adapter so I can use it on other cameras.

If you are feeling brave (or foolish - sometimes you don’t find out which until afterwards) you can find the service manual here. It tells you everything about taking the camera to bits, although it does mention one or two “special tools” which you might have to come up with. However, the service manual does also contain some diagrams that I think would look great on T-shirts.

Anyhoo, enough background. What is the camera like to use? Very nice. The exposure is automatic. You set the shutter speed and the camera displays the selected aperture using a moving needle in the viewfinder. The viewfinder also shows the current focus distance which you adjust with a small control around the lens. And the pictures? Oh yes, the pictures..

These images are from scans made when the film was developed so they don’t really show the sharpness you can get from the lens in this camera. Two versions of the camera were made. The version 2 improves on the original by adding a hot shoe for a flashgun, slightly wider film speed range and some slight viewfinder improvements. But they didn’t tamper with the lovely design and cracking lens.

If you want to be able to pull something out of your pocket and have everyone go “What on earth is that?” then this camera is for you. But if you want a stylish travel companion that can also deliver high quality pictorial memories (with 72 on a single roll of 36 exposure film) then this might be for you too.