Canon Scoopic with interchangeable lenses

[Patrick Cooper]

As most of us are generally aware, the various Canon Scoopic models (with one exception) are among the few 16mm movie cameras produced with a fixed lens. It was not too long ago when i discovered that there was in fact one Canon Scoopic that did have interchangeable lenses. Very little is discussed about this camera and I have never seen one advertised for sale. It must be quite a rare camera and I would expect that bidding on Ebay would sky rocket on the few occasions when it does make an appearance on that auction site. Out of curiosity, has anyone here used this camera or knew anyone who has used it? Any comments (either positive or negative) about it?s general design, functionality and performance? I?m assuming it uses C mount lenses?.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Wow, never heard of this. Did you find out when this camera was supposed to be produced?

 

Though really, the great appeal of a Scoopic is the relatively low price... otherwise an Arri S/B or a Bolex RX5 would be a far better choice IMO.

[Patrick Cooper]

Ive just done some more research at the Canon Museum and apparently, there are two Canon 16mm movie cameras with interchangeable lenses. And only one of them has 'Scoopic' in the model name. This one is the Canon Scoopic 200S10 released in 1972 and features a bayonet mount. It sounds like this was a unique lens mount developed by Canon. Though Ive never heard of a set of lenses produced with this mount. The lens that was supplied with this camera may well be the only lens available with this mount - but i can't say with any certainty. The other camera is a Canon Systema Sound 16 which was released in 1979. This camera uses an Arriflex mount. It seems that all the Canon 16mm cameras were aimed largely at newsgathering. The Systema Sound 16 model was the last 16mm movie camera that Canon produced because of the TV news' transition from film to video at the time.

 

More information is available here.

 

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/cine/f_index.html

[Will Montgomery]

I wonder if that 1979 model was even released in the U.S.?

 

Since I've never seen or heard of it other than that Canon history site, I'd bet very few were made.

[Mitch Gross]

That 1979 model looks strikingly similar to the Cinema Products GSMO, which came out at the same time. I suspect a rebranding, or an outright sale of technology. My bet is that there was likely just a single protoype built and that they never actually went into production.