strange casing for Canon New-F1

[AgX]

All I know about this casing is that it was made for the Canadian Mounted Police:

http://olypedia.de/static/images/d/d1/Canon_New_F-1_Mountie_3.JPG

Very strange are those sharp corners at both sides, that do not look ergonomic at all.
The lens barrel is totally enclosed, thus the casing only allows fixed-focus operation. The first use for such that comes to my mind is aerial photography. But then again I can hardly think of a situation were the camera is at great mechanical risk. What rests that I can think of would be a wheather protection in aerial use. But such adverse wheather typically exludes aerial photography.
Off-shore photography?


What do I overlook? Who knows more about this casing?

 

[frobozz]

I'm guessing some sort of fixed-mount use, given the non-ergonomic case. Is the leatherette also red??

Duncan

 

[lxdude]

Well, at least the color makes sense...

 

[elcabezagrande]

More photos here. I like the red leather.

http://olypedia.de/Canon_New_F-1_-_Sondermodelle#Canon_New_F-1_.22Royal_Canadian_Mounted_Police.22

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Cool New F-1 modifications on that page, most of which I hadn't seen before.

I have no idea why one would want that kind of rigid case with no ability to focus or zoom. You could set it on Program or aperture priority AE mode to control the aperture. There's no tripod screw, so it's for handheld use. A bright red case doesn't seem like a great idea for surveillance operations. The lens would probably be the 100mm f:2.0 or maybe the 135mm f:2.8 from the looks of it.

Hot pursuit of suspects from a snowmobile? Photography while parachuting? The ergonomics don't seem so bad. Your hands shouldn't be in contact with the corners on the bottom or the piano hinge.

 

[AgX]

The collector who owns this sample put a FD 2.8 100mm he had available to give this result.

So maybe a longer, lower speed lens would still fit with its barrel protruding partly beyond that casing. What does not make more sense: more accessibility, less protection.

 

[AgX]

Wouldn't there be that fixed focus thing, one might think of riot-protection during a violent demonstration .

Could this be used with a wide-angle lens in snapshot setting ?
If a wide-angle lens would fit, that would make sense to me.

 

[snapguy]

not for jumping

Having flanged myself out of a perfectly good airplane, camera in hand, a few times, I can tell you a camera with sharp corners and things that protrude out of the body, like that knob and the viewfinder thingey, is not what you want.
One could, I suppose build this thing into fiberglas helmet mount but that would involve yet another structure.
Fascinating stuff but I have no idea what it is for.
Of course, here in the States, our knowledge of the RCMP is limited to Dudley Do-Right.

 

[AgX]

I just had a look at the sticker on top of the barrel casingn with the inventory-number.

It says Canadian Forces (not Canadian Police)

 

[elcabezagrande]

The owner's description on flickr states that the camera as pictured is not original to the case, so who knows what other modifications were done to the original camera.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I don't think it would work with any wider lens. 100/2.8 is reasonable.

The sports finder makes sense, because it has a higher eyepoint than the standard finder, for whatever one might be doing in such a harsh environment that would require that sturdy housing.