arhphotographic

Is it a bird?..Is it a plane?..No its..a..Canon Epoca 135!

“Revolutionary shape..high power 3X zoom with equally high power flash to match… smart autofocus…. a camera with an unsurpassed level of performance by conventional cameras” . These expressions found in the manual that comes with the camera indicate that Canon felt they had a winner on their hands. For a ‘point and shoot’ film camera of the early 1990’s the specs were impressive.

But how does a camera that hails from the past but aspires to the future feel to shoot in 2020? Retro/Futuro!

Its quite substantial in the hand. It comes with a strap around the right hand side of the camera which your meant to slip your hand through and grip the camera similar to a camcorder of the same time. I couldn’t actually get my hand through but was still able to hold it comfortably with one hand.

All controls are found on the back of the camera (pictured above) Starting from the left bottom row, we have the fixed framing zoom button. According to the manual, when this button along with the shutter button is depressed half way, the lens automatically zooms when the shooting distance changes in order to maintain a constant subject magnification?? I didn’t get to try this feature, perhaps another time.

The next button is to control the flash. Settings cycle through flash off > flash on > slow-sync. The next button enables red-eye reduction.

The penultimate button allows you to alter the film winding mode from the default single frame to continuous shooting > real time shooting > continuous real time shooting.

The final button is the film rewind .

Moving up to the two buttons above the screen. The left is a dioptric adjustment, handy if you don’t want to wear glasses when looking through the small viewfinder.

The next button provides a ten second self timer function.

Looking at the viewfinder a handy green/red focus confirmation light is present.

To the right of the viewfinder is the zoom function button.

The picture above shows the top of the camera with its shutter button and zoom. Above them is the low angle finder. This was actually more useful than I first thought it would be, enabling you to get well…low down.

Turning to the base of the camera reveals the latch to open the door for both battery and film. The battery does actually have its own little door.

The final two pictures shows the zoom reach of the camera. The flash uniquely housed in the camera’s lens cover also houses a frensel lens which apparently helps to focus the flash when the lens is extended.

Enough of the technical stuff lets see some results.

It certainly is a different camera to use, but one I quite enjoyed, although I wouldn’t want to use it all the time. The zoom reach is really useful, allowing me to get some decent photos. The addition of the low angle viewfinder was a bonus. The fill in flash, used in the picture of the post box, did in my humble opinion, a good job.

I will definitely be using this camera again , high praise for someone who doesn’t like point and shoot cameras.

In the mean time I must fly….. to infinity and beyond!