Canon Sure Shot Owl Marlboro 35mm Film Camera Review
A small introduction
Contents
- 1 A small introduction
- 1.1 Why here?
- 2 The Catechism Sure Shot AF-vii (or is it AF-8?)
- 2.1 A spec canvass a little as well thin
- 3 The little Sure Shot in apply
- three.1 The viewfinder
- 3.2 Controlling the camera
- 3.3 Power
- four In the street
- 5 Functioning
- 6 And so, is information technology worth a try?
Although I'm onetime enough to have most of my life'due south important moments captured on picture, it wasn't until digital cameras became widely available in the early 00's that I started taking photography a bit more seriously. And so about 4 years ago I came by a small inheritance of vintage film cameras, given to me by a shut relative after his male parent (who was an avid camera collector) passed away. He kept the Leicas and the Rolleiflexes, but he was kind enough to let me have the Spotmatics, the Canonets and the Yashicas (among others) which literally changed the way I saw photography until and then. I often fiddled with my Dad's Trip 35 as a child (a photographic camera I still have and utilize occasionally) but those beasts were completely different. Information technology was love at first sight and as presently as I had some of them serviced and ready to shoot, my Nikon D90 found its mode to someone else's camera pocketbook.
Why here?
I started following "35mmc" a few months ago and since then I've been visiting on an almost daily basis. I observe Hamish'due south approach to the whole project very interesting, specially his willingness to expand the blog by inviting other people to contribute. Since I started shooting film, a big part of my photos have been made with inexpensive, plastic point 'northward shoot compacts which exert a special allure on me, equal to that exerted past the total-metal vintage SLRs and rangefinders I also similar to use. Hopefully, one-time shortly I'll be able to contribute something to the Yard-Leica department, only for now I'd like to share my feelings for i of my favorite P&S compacts which besides happens to be one of the cheapest and simplest film cameras I've used so far.
The Catechism Sure Shot AF-7 (or is it AF-8?)
There is a footling bit of confusion online regarding the actual name of this particular Sure Shot. My camera is clearly marked "Sure Shot AF-7", but if you lot google that, yous'll most likely come upward with a similar but definitely different-looking camera. At present, if you google "Certain Shot AF-viii" my camera pops upwards. I have no thought how this mix-up came to exist, my camera isn't pictured at all on Canon's online photographic camera museum and I have plant online pictures of it marked both "AF-7" and "AF-8" so be conscientious if you set out to buy one.
A spec canvas a petty too thin
When setting out to review a P&Due south camera (or any camera for that thing) one inevitably starts by taking a wait at the spec sheet, although I've come across several cameras with daunting spec sheets full of impressive features that would make a modern film SLR blush, but which ultimately felt completely banal during bodily use.
If someone took a look at the spec sheet of the AF-7/8 they would surely be left unimpressed: The lens is a fixed triplet with a focal length of 35mm and a slow max. aperture of f4.five. The shutter speed range is pretty limited from 1/45s to ane/180 which combined with a min. discontinuity of f11, translates to a pretty limited exposure range of ten-16 EV.
Plain this ways that correct exposure will frequently rely on exposure latitude of the used negative moving picture, in fact the instruction manual clearly warns confronting the apply of slide film. Film speed is fix automatically via DX coding and is express to 100 and 400 only. Despite the camera having been released during the late '90s, the AF organization is pretty basic offering just three steps with a minimum focusing distance of 0.8m. A iii-pace AF focus system surely sounds rudimentary, just with a max. aperture of f4.5, depth of field is unlikely to e'er exist shallow plenty to embarrass it.
The viewfinder of the AF-7/eight: Big and bright.
The picayune Certain Shot in utilize
And so is at that place any point in going any farther with this apparently very simple photographic camera? Well, after shooting with about 50 unlike P&South compacts during these past 4 years, I accept come to the conclusion that y'all should never write a camera off earlier actually testing it in the field, no affair how mediocre information technology looks on newspaper. Many plain-looking cameras accept several aces up their sleeve that can neutralize any negative preconceptions and the Sure Shot AF-7/eight is one of them.
Picking the camera up, it feels really low-cal. It is meaty but not uncomfortably so, and the brick-like shape with the matte cease and the small ridge on the forepart provide a actually steady grip. Nothing like the slippery "wet bar of soap" (© Dan James) feeling I get from the mju-II.
The viewfinder
Bringing it up to eye level, the little Certain Shot scores big as the viewfinder is simply Amazing: Big and brilliant with parallax correction marks, information technology provides 80% coverage with x0,68 magnification and reminds me a lot of the fantastic VF of the Agfa Optima Electronic series. Towards the end of the film era, virtually all manufacturers offered simple P&S cameras with big finders, probably aiming at older users with poor eyesight that were reluctant to turn to digital, just this 1 dwarfs any other camera I've used in that section. People that wear glasses will detect the AF-7/8 very easy to use, as even with glasses on, the whole frame area is conspicuously visible.
Data in the viewfinder is minimal, at that place is only a green LED which lights up when focus is locked, a process that is really fast given the fact that the AF system only has iii steps. Sadly, in that location is no proximity warning, i.eastward. the light doesn't glimmer when the field of study is besides shut, then be careful to respect the given min. focusing distance of 0.8m. At commencement I thought that the AF was faulty, but it is conspicuously stated in the transmission that the LED doesn't blink when subjects are besides close.
Controlling the camera
The second feature that dominates the photographic camera's user interface is the large mode dial on the front. Yep, that's correct. A big, clicky dial controls all the camera's functions. No tiny soft-touch switches, no faded LCD displays, no need for repeated presses of a multifunctional button to reach a hidden flash mode.
The mode dial dominates the front surface.
At that place are 5 positions the punch can be ready to: The "OFF" position which keeps the camera turned off with the lens shield closed, the "Crimson-heart Auto" position where the photographic camera is turned on, the lens shield is retracted and the exposure system automatically decides whether the flash (which features red-heart reduction) needs to fire or not. Beware that in this mode, the minimum shutter speed is 1/100s, so it's likely that the flash will tend to fire a lot when slow film is used under less than platonic lighting atmospheric condition. The 3rd position is a "flash on" position which will strength the wink to burn down regardless of the lighting weather condition (useful for backlit subjects).
The fourth position is the "flash off" position where the flash is turned off AND STAYS THAT WAY FOR Every bit LONG AS YOU Similar. No need to reset the flash after each shot is fired, no automatic shut-down of the camera after a couple of minutes if you decide to go along information technology turned on in your pocket to avoid the flash resetting to auto. Pure, simple, mechanical control of the flash part, merely similar well-nigh of u.s. desire it to be. In this style, minimum shutter speed is 1/45s so with 400 ASA one may exist able to become away with the occasional indoor shot without resorting to wink. I must say that a LED warning in the VF for the need for flash to guard confronting underexposure under borderline conditions when in wink off mode would have been welcome . The fifth position on the punch is reserved for the self-timer fashion which provides a shutter release filibuster of 10 seconds. The "other" Sure Shot AF-7 you may come across while browsing the cyberspace, does not accept the way punch at all, flash command and self timer beingness handled past 2 dreaded soft-touch buttons on the front end of the camera.
Power
The power necessary for the exposure system and pic advance and rewind is provided by 2 obviously alkaline AA batteries. No need for expensive special lithium batteries, of which you lot ever accept to carry a spare, but two common cheap batteries available in the grocery store of the remotest village you lot may find yourself in. According to the manual, two fresh alkaline batteries will give you enough juice for 50(!) 24-frame rolls with the flash used for fifty% of the shots, based on the "standard Canon measurement system" which I personally find very optimistic, but volition probably never be able to actually test.
In the street
In practise, despite its chunky appearance, the camera can skid in and out of a coat pocket very quickly and securely with minimal risk of slipping from your hands. The large finder allows for fast aim, no demand to lose time aligning your visual axis with a squinty VF that tends to black out at suboptimal viewing angles. The shutter push button is large, rubbery and perfectly placed with two clearly distinct levels of pressure level required to engage the AF organization and release the shutter respectively. Shutter lag is very short, possibly not equally brusque as that of the Oly AF-10 Super, merely much shorter than that of more popular and expensive P&Due south cameras I've used. Moving picture advance is much less noisy than earlier film compacts, as by the end of the '90s camera motors had gradually become quiet enough to be easily drowned by traffic dissonance and the AF-7/8 is a practiced case of that improvement.
Performance
Then the piffling Sure Shot ticks all my boxes in the user interface department, but at the same fourth dimension its spec canvas certainly justifies some degree of hesitance amidst about experienced users, leaving image quality every bit the decisive cistron tipping the scale in its favor or against information technology.
I've shot ii rolls of film with the camera, the first one being a roll of Agfaphoto CT Precisa 100 slide film which was cross-candy in C-41 chemicals and the second one a roll of Agfa APX-100 B&Due west film which I developed myself in Kodak's HC-110 programmer. Both films were scanned with a professional Noritsu LS-1100 scanner at the local photograph lab.
The images are at that place for you to gauge lens operation, but I would like to add a few comments of my own: Firstly, I think the manual'southward alarm against the employ of slide film should exist respected. Despite the CT Precisa's speed existence inside the ASA range of the camera'southward exposure organization, the ho-hum pinnacle shutter speed of i/180s and relatively large minimal discontinuity of f11 led to severe overexposure of many frames that were shot under strong sunlight. Exposure latitude of slide motion-picture show is really minimal so the exposure range limitations of the camera became readily apparent, something that probably wouldn't take been the instance if negative film had been used. Still, the well exposed frames were sharp and contrasty with minimal fall-off at the corners and good flare control, all consistent with the good optical reputation of most Sure Shots in the '90s.
The photographic camera handled the Agfa APX-100 much better and I was really impressed by the footling triplet: Precipitous, contrasty pics with some corner smearing creeping upwardly under suboptimal conditions (i.east larger apertures used) but really up there with about of my more expensive P&S compacts which lack all the ergonomic perks of this little shooter.
So, is it worth a effort?
First of all, the Catechism Sure Shot AF-seven/8 is cheap. Mine was a freebie simply I'chiliad pretty sure it falls well into the "0.99 GBP" category on eBay auctions due to it being widely available and relatively unknown. If yous requite great importance to ergonomics similar I exercise, then this camera has no equal, esp. at that price range. Fantastic VF, a unproblematic mode dial decision-making everything, permanent flash off capability, inexpensive batteries, fast (if uncomplicated) AF, minimal shutter lag and a very decent (if a scrap tiresome) 35mm lens, all make up for a actually peachy daylight street shooter and i of my favorite P&Southward.
There are some limitations exposure-wise, but using the correct negative picture show under the correct lighting conditions tin hands overcome them, letting the photographer relish a film compact which is peachy fun to utilize just can also deliver great results.
Thank you to all for reading my review and to Hamish for hosting it on "35mmc". Please feel complimentary to comment or ask any questions in the comments section below.
Source: https://www.35mmc.com/11/06/2016/canon-sure-shot-af8-review/
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