This is my Canon
S-II (Ser. No. 20815) after the Canon
Name change from Seiki Kogaku to Canon. It is sporting a Serenar 5cm f/3.5 collapsible lens (Ser. No. 10694)
The Canon S-II
Canon and not Seiki Kogaku
After the destruction and mayhem of the Second World War Canon struggled to carry on. At first they were assembling cameras like the J-II from parts left over from the war and before. But, in those early post-war years, they were working on a whole new rangefinder camera which was introduced in October of 1946. This was the S-II.
But there is a wrinkle: when the camera came out the Company was being called
Seiki-Kogaku and that is how the camera was labeled. I wrote about the Seiki-Kogaku S-II already so we don’t have to dwell on it.
About 7,500 S-II’s were made between October 1946 and June 1949. However, on August 15th, 1947, the name of the Company was formally changed to Canon Camera Company Ltd. and from that date the S-II’s were labeled with the new name. About 70% of the S-II’s were labeled “Canon Camera Company Ltd.”. Otherwise they were the same camera as described in the online Canon Museum.
The S-II is a classic Barnack inspired design. If you know any of the Barnack cameras this one will be easy to use.
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Instructions for the camera can be found in the User Manual.
During production there were minor, very minor, variations such as in the body shell and the lens flange.
The only change that was readily apparent was the tripod mounting hole on the base plate. Canon made the hole threaded for 3/8th – 16 (European standard at the time) and the and for
1/4 – 20 (American Standard at the time). My Canon S-II has the 1/4-20 tripod screw thread.
The S-II is a classic Barnack camera. It belongs in every collection of Canon rangefinder cameras. With 7,500 produced it should not be rare but it is an old camera and the cover material was not as durable as it could have been. Many did not make it to the present day.
A Canon sales brochure for the Canon marked S-II camera.
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