5 Frames with the Canon SureShot / Autoboy 2 – By Wyatt Ryan

Similar to the Olympus XA2, I found the Canon Sure Shot for a measly $10 at an estate sale close to my house. Besides some corroded battery terminals that were easily cleaned out, the camera worked flawlessly. I never thought I would be someone to buy into the whole point & shoot scene, but for $10, why not try? Once I had the battery compartment cleaned out, I set out to shoot a few rolls and see what this thing was capable of.

All of the following shots are Kodak Portra 400 developed in FPP C-41 and scanned on an Epson V750 with EpsonScan. I spent a random Sunday in Madison, Wisconsin, exploring around town.

I wasn’t expecting much from this camera, but the shots came out pleasantly sharp. The autofocus works better than I thought it would, though the distance indicator in the bottom of the viewfinder doesn’t really tell you much.

One huge critique of this camera is how loud the shooting process is. Everything makes a winding or grinding noise, so it would make a horrendous street photography camera. Winding a roll back into it’s canister causes one of the most horrid noises I’ve ever heard come out of a camera; a mix of grinding and whooshing.

Besides the awful noises that this camera produces, it does justice to whatever film you’re using. The 38mm f/2.8 lens is nice and crisp, with some vignetting and a little bit of pincushion distortion. Thankfully you can adjust ISO manually, so it’s easy to overexpose your negatives for those great tones…

Now that I’ve mentioned what I hate about this camera (the noises if you have been skipping around), I’ll talk about my absolute favorite feature. Typically, when you press and release the shutter, the camera automatically advances to the next frame. If you’re trying to take a photo of someone, that frame advancement will let them know. Emanating from the camera for a solid second, is that mix of noises I mentioned up above.

BUT.

If you keep the shutter button pressed, it will hold off from advancing to the next frame, and create far less noise than usual. It will not advance until you release the shutter. This is the only way I can see this camera being viable for street photography. Well, that and pre-focusing.

Thanks for reading about my experience with the Canon Sure Shot, I hope you enjoyed the read! I have written up a much longer review if anyone would like to check it out here. I discuss the specs, pros, cons, and usability in quite a bit more detail. I’ve also included many more photos than I have here.

If you’d like to see more of my work, click the links below.

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