Canon Sure Shot 35mm point and shoot film camera with 38 mm f/2.8 Lens

Product Information

The second part to the history of the Sure Shot A1 is the Canon Sure Shot range of cameras. By the late 1970s, compact cameras had well established themselves. In 1979 Canon released the original Sure Shot, also known as the AF35M and Autoboy.From this original model, the subsequent models were updated and in some cases had their own sub range. Some included fixed lenses, some zooms, some were high end models, some very basic lower end and some with date and panoramic features.

Electromagnetic programmed shutter and aperture. EV 6 (f/2.8 at 1/8 sec.) – 17 (f/16 at 1/500 sec.). Built-in electronic self-timer. Reversed Galilean viewfinder with projected frames. Within the image area are the AF frame, in-focus lamp and near-distance warning lamp, combination flash-ready and camera-shake warning mark, and parallax correction marks. 0.45x magnification. Metering Range (at ISO 100) – Flash Auto and Flash On modes 1/60 f/3.5-1/250 f/22 (EV9.5-17); Flash Off mode 2 seconds f/3.5-1/250 f/22 (EV3-17) And that essentially covers how to use this camera on land. Read the manual, use fresh film, and your photos will be properly focused and properly exposed a better-than-average 95% of the time.The only controls the camera offers is the rotating switch at the front, which allows the setting of no-flash, forced-flash, off, full auto, and underwater/macro represented by a fish symbol. At the top, the delayed shutter can be set for self-portraits. All other functions, including ISO selection and exposure settings are fully automatic. It has a 38mm lens with an aperture of f/2.8 which is fast for a point and shoot camera. This means you can get great bokeh in your photographs, and take sharp images. That’s how the Sure Shot AF-7 viewfinder works, the same way as on countless other basic film cameras. My one word of advice is get ready for the flash to go off. You will not be subtle taking any photos with this camera, so prepare for people to stare you down and your freshly-blinded friends to complain every time you take a picture. Otherwise, I find it to be one of the best cameras in my ever-growing collection.

Use Flash On mode whenever shooting underwater, or when seeking to soften shadows on subjects in bright light (see my examples of my daughter’s portrait at the beach). Flash Off should be used in low light situations (this mode will force the camera to make a long exposure), or in places where flash photography is prohibited (will I take this camera to Disney World? Probably). Red Eye Reduction Auto mode is the standard shooting mode in which the camera does all of the work – most people will use this setting exclusively. And the Underwater Macro mode is for shooting fishies whenever they swim between 1.5 and 3.3 feet away from your face. a-Si cell for full-auto program EE. Metering range of EV 3 – 17. Film speed range: ISO 25 – 3200 (with DX code). The real breakthrough in underwater photography occurred in the 1890s by the Frenchman Louis Boutan. He was able to, with the help of his brother who was an engineer, design and build a camera to be used submerged. Due to the loss of light that occurs underwater even in the clearest waters, they developed a then new dual carbon-arc lamp flash housed in a way it can fire in water. This was revolutionary in that up to that point magnesium based flash required oxygen and produced smoke obscuring filling the housing. The lens is a fixed 32mm f/3.5 (6 elements in 6 groups) with 3-point AiAF system auto focus, though it becomes fixed focus when the underwater setting is enabled. The focusing range is from 45cm (1.5 ft) to infinity, but adjusted to 45cm to 1m (1.5 to 3.3 ft) in underwater/macro mode. It has a programmed shutter which ranges from 1/250 thsecond to 2 seconds.

Finally, my last-week-of-the-decade roll of film was appropriately bookended with a photo of my family gathering to watch the Time’s Square ball drop on TV. My photographer brain is helped along in its picture-taking via some simple projected lines and lights in the viewfinder. The outer frames indicate the camera’s image area, and the smaller frame indicates the parallax corrected frame when shooting in macro mode. The center dot is the AF focusing patch – put this on your subject and half-press the shutter button. A green light on the right-hand side of the VF gives more info – a solid green LED indicates that focus has been achieved and that all is well. If the green light does not illuminate, focus has not been achieved and you are likely too close to your subject. A rapidly flashing light warns of camera shake (because we’re taking a slightly long exposure) and we should try to hold things as steady as possible or use a tripod. The familiar mode dials on Canon DSLRs can also be found on the Canon Sure Shot Z155. The dial also serves as an on/off switch, with the first turn being either Auto or Personal. In personal mode, your custom settings will be saved even if the camera is turned off. The rest of the modes are: fast shutter priority, slow sync flash/night-mode, portrait mode (auto composition zoom), macro mode, and spot mode (there’s a separated button on the left to activate spot focus on other modes as well). It’s also partly because there are so many variables at play. Was my film degraded? Was the developing bad? Is the camera, which is over 20 years old, in the same condition as yours?

After doing a lot of reading and listening to photography podcasts I knew that the prices for compacts had gone mad recently. In fact I’m way late to the party. Any chance of getting a cheap Yashica T4, Olympus Mju ii or Contax T2 are long gone. But, I thought there must be something out there still that had a nice fixed focal length, a wide f2.8 max aperture wrapped in a tough plastic shell. After all, these seem to be the characteristics people are looking for in a compact of a certain vintage.

Albada reversed Galilean viewfinder. 0.42x magnification and 84% coverage. 33mm eye relief. Within the image area are the AF frame, close-up frame, panorama frame, green OK-to-Shoot LED (lights when focus is achieved; blinks for close-up warning, camera-shake warning, and red-eye reduction lamp ON; and turns off during flash recycling). Above water: 3-point Smart Autofocus with near-infrared beam. Prefocus enabled.Underwater: None. Fixed focus (Macro: 0.45 m – 1 m) Frame lines aside, I loved using this little compact. On the street, I did not have to worry about anything except composition. The camera did all the work. Not really something I could use for candid photography, the motor is quite loud, but a great camera to take on holiday or run about town. Shot using macro mode. Standard minimum focus distance at starting focal length. Middle of the zoom range. The camera successfully focuses the small tree branch. I was able to frame this shot thanks to the zoom lens, the photo turned out sharp despite zooming in. If that sounds like the kind of film camera you want, then yes. You wouldn’t go far wrong with a Canon Sure Shot AF-7, or Owl, or Prima, or whatever else it may come labelled as.

CdS cell for full-auto program EE. Metering range of EV 6 – 17 (at ISO 100). Film speed range of ISO 25 – 400. I used this camera in my pool, in a park, and at the beach. I made a bunch of good photos. A good photographer could probably make great photos. Regardless, all of these elements together – the well-thought out design, the huge viewfinder, the easy point ‘n’ shooting, and the automatic winding – made this cheap little Canon compact film camera ideal for distraction-free street photography.A nice little feature on this camera is the little grey twisting ‘foot’ built into the bottom plate. This allows the camera to be angled upward slightly when placed on a flat surface, for self-portraits. I don’t do selfies, but it does mean you can take floor shots without having the entire bottom of the picture taken up by the floor. Perhaps the Supreme’s biggest tragedy, though, is how close it comes to being a fantastic street shooter. The ergonomic handgrip and shutter release position make the camera really easy to hold and shoot one-handed and, better still, the film doesn’t advance until you release the button. The advance is not terribly quiet, so this increases the camera’s stealth capability considerably. Or at least it would if you could be sure the flash wasn’t going to go off. I toyed with the idea of fashioning a piece of plastic to keep the flash override permanently pressed, but I don’t really use it enough to justify the effort. It also has a tilt-feature on the bottom of the camera, something that only a few of the Canon point and shoot cameras have. This means you can position the camera to shoot slightly upwards when positioned on a surface. This makes taking self-portraits or images on the self-timer easy, and your shots more versatile, so you are not cutting off anyone's head in your group photos! So why is it then that the Canon Sure Shot Supreme isn’t commanding mega money? It has that sharp 35mm wide aperture lens. It’s quite nice to use. It’s tough. I haven’t heard any reliability horror stories. Well, I don’t really know. Maybe I’ve just discovered something the rest of the world hasn’t latched on to yet. Or maybe it’s that there are hundreds of the things out there flooding the market. To be honest, I don’t really care. I spent very little money on it. If I drop it and kill it it’s not the end of the world. If I’m ahead of the curve the value will only go up. Either way, I have a simple to use and reliable performer I really quite like that should serve me well while riding on the continent. That, I think is a win / win situation.