Canon Sureshot “EX” thing!

Time for another sureshot! This time the “EX” as it’s known in the UK or “Joy” in US, the Prima 4 in Europe and in Japan the Autoboy Lite 2! Whatever you call it, it’s a 35mm compact first made by Canon in October 1988. Frankly it’s a variation on a theme! It’s a fixed lens 35mm focal length and f4.5 (3 elements in 3 groups) compact. Not especially bright nor sharp, but does a reasonable job. To the left as you look at the front of the camera is the on/off switch, all powered by a 2CR5 battery. The viewfinder above the lens has a 0.42x magnification and 85% coverage. Either side of that is are the two AF sensors that utilize near infra-red. The flash has a guide of 9 meters with 100 ISO and is auto – there is no over-ride!

On top is the frame counter that counts up as you would expect but also counts back down again as it rewinds! Ther’s a standard 10 sec self timer, shutter release in red, and perhaps the cameras only “different” feature is the 1,2,3,4 setting that takes that number of photo’s continuously with one press of the shutter button. Don’t forget film was cheap in 1988!!! On the bottom is a tripod thread. So how did it perform? I took it to the garden centre on my weekly breakfast trip to find out!

Nothing remarkable but for standard family snaps – it performed OK. It doesn’t focus that close, I’d say a meter, closer and the results get pretty soft. On a brighter subject I think I see some vignetting, both in light drop off and softness. Rather like the “Sprint”, I’d say it’s infinitely better than a disposable camera, but there are many better cameras out there.

I’m sure my memory is correct when I say that this camera had a big brother when released in 1988, and that in the UK was known as the “Ace”, effectively the same camera, but with a waist level finder in the top and a little red oval shaped twist out button in the base, so the camera could be tilted up, when using the timer with the camera on a table!

If you are interested the film was FP4 developed in FX55.

Verdict: Another camera that I don’t need to hang on to – time to pass onto someone else to enjoy!