The best cantis were the old Mafac ones. You can still find them in bike jumbles, but they are much sort after and fetch fairly high prices.
The advantage of these sorts of cantis was the bridle wire was separate and more importantly, adjustable in length. It means you have far more control on the feel / power when you set them up.
They were killed off as a design for large scale production in favour of the modern split wire bridle when lawyers dreamed up some scenario where the bridle wire came loose from the brake cable and got itself hooked onto the nobbles of a mtb tyre bringing it to an instant, and catastrophic halt. It's never happened.
Small companies do still make copies of this style of brake. You see them on the top pro cross bikes. There was (is) one called 'Frog legs' (Empella ?) as well as these from
http://www.paulcomp.com
He has two versions. An exact copy for c-cross and a version for use with panniers where the arms are raised slightly.