Canon's first camera — the 1935 Hansa 35mm rangefinder on the early Nikon S bayonet with Nikkor optics.
The Canon Hansa was the first commercial camera produced by the maker that became Canon, launched in 1935 and sold through the Omiya distributor whose Hansa name appears on the top plate. It was a 35mm rangefinder built in Japan during the pre-war era, using an early Nikon S-type bayonet and lenses supplied by Nippon Kogaku (Nikon). It stands at the start of Canon's rangefinder line and is a scarce collector item today.
This is a 35mm coupled-rangefinder camera. Focusing is by a coupled rangefinder, and the body uses a cloth focal-plane shutter. It takes lenses on the Nikon S bayonet supplied by Nippon Kogaku, with the standard optic of the period being a Nikkor. The finder and rangefinder are separate windows in the pre-war Leica-influenced layout. Exposure is set manually; there is no built-in meter on this early body.
As one of the earliest Japanese 35mm rangefinders, the Hansa is chiefly of interest to collectors and historians of the Canon and Nikon systems rather than as a working camera. Its handling reflects mid-1930s design, with a separate rangefinder and viewfinder and manual exposure throughout. Surviving examples are handled as fragile historical objects rather than daily users.
On the used market the Canon Hansa is rare and commands collector prices, so condition and originality matter. Check the coupled rangefinder patch for contrast and vertical/horizontal alignment, inspect the cloth focal-plane shutter curtains for pinholes and capping, and confirm the slow speeds run. Verify the finder and rangefinder windows are clear. Given its age, mechanical service history and completeness of the original Nikkor lens strongly affect value.