James's Camera Collection: Canon TX

Canon TX Japan Other Canon Cameras 35mm cameras
Canon TX
Camera type: Single Lens Reflex (SLR)
Lens Mount: FD breach/bayonet
Film type: 35mm
Approx. date of manufacture: 1975
Battery: 1.35V mercury
Approx. original price: unknown
Approx. street value: low

Despite beginning with a T, this is the last of Canon's F-series cameras, which included the F-1, EF, FT and FT-b, TL and TLb, FP, FX and the Pellix, plus all their minor variations.

The Canon Museum says it's "a stripped-down Canon FTb for the mass market overseas. The fastest shutter speed was only 1/500 sec. The metering pattern was centerweighted averaging instead of 12% partial at the center. The stop-down lever had no locking feature. A PC terminal and hot shoe were provided for flash."

It was also marketed as the Bell & Howell FD35. B&H had imported Canon cameras in the USA for approximately 10 years, sometimes co-branded, sometimes not. Canon set up Canon USA as its American distribution network; I assume the FD35 was a goodbye settlement to give B&H a 35mm SLR to sell while they worked out a deal with someone else (which never happened, as far as I can tell).

For people who thought the TLb was "a stripped-down Canon FTb for the mass market overseas," it was. The Museum describes it as a TX without the hot-shoe.

For more information: Canon Camera Museum

Camera manual: Orphan Cameras.com

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