Canon SureShot Supreme

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Vics

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I had to laugh today when I picked these pictures up at the lab (camera store). Here's the story. For a year now, my wife and I have been planning a six-week trip to visit friends in England, France and to make a side trip to Madrid.

As usual, I fussed over the choice of which camera to take, then about two weeks before departure, I settled on the Rollei MX and 20 rolls of Tri-X.

As soon as we arrived, I knew I had made the wrong choice. I was stuck, and decided to make the best of it, but I kept missing the Leica M3 with Summaron35/2.8.

One morning, our host in Suffolk asked me to go with her to a "boot sale". I went along, and lo and behold, there was the SureShot Supreme with case and instruction guide for two quid. I grabbed it and ran. I had shot a couple of rolls of HP5+ when I realized that I didn't know whether it even worked! So I bought a roll of Superia 400 to do a quick check of the various functions. Problem was, I couldn't find anyone to process the film. So I just kept shooting HP5 and Tri-X along with the Rollei.

I've been home about a week now, and just got that roll of Superia processed, and the results kind of surprised me.

The Rollei turned out to be the right choice after all, and it's negs look great so far (eleven more rolls to soup.) Here are a few from the Canon "Miracle cam"


Normandy churchyard5 by travlrs2, on Flickr
See more here
 
I looked a some of the larger images (1500 x 1000 link) in your flickr, and I must say Wow. That little things has nice lens in it. What a nice find for 2 quid.
 
It's very sharp, isn't it? It's a 38mm f2.8, very close to what I was wishing I'd brought. Does exhibit some strange distortions if you're not careful. I think I'll keep it as a backup travel cam. I'm anxious to see how the BW looks.
 
I've gone through quite a few of the Canon Sure Shot line, and was always pleased to see the results.

PF
 
Aye, the rise of digital has led to all kinds of remarkable deals for film gear. Sadly, as you observed, getting film processed at a shop can no longer be taken for granted. The ubiquitous 'lab in the back' is fast becoming the exception. :(
 
Interesting, there is a Canon Sure Shot sitting in one of my local charity shops at the moment priced at £2, I held it and it was so plasticky and ugly looking that I wasn't at all interested in it really, maybe I should have bagged it after all :)

R
 
Back when the Sure Shots were made, that was "modern, space age polymer" and everything was being made from it. Even good stuff. Those chunky little plastic cameras have very good lenses, and what was state-of-the-art electronics for the time. And they weren't really cheap, either. Little Cinderellas, many of them.
 
It was a complete surprise to me. I have been wondering about the idea that "no photographer is as good as the simplest camera". So I thought it would be fun to take a swipe at that. I knew that most everyone's holiday snaps back in the '80s were made on cameras like this one, and that the snaps were almost universally awful, so I wanted to see what a bit of careful handling would yeild. You only have to figure out how the camera sees and calculates. I think most users never learned how to press the button down halfway, nor did they know how to focus then recompose. I think most people shooting P&S digicams today don't know these simple techniques. BTW, this thing has a beautiful VF!
 
Nice budget bargain Vics. Mine died on me a while back but I would certainly buy another as the lens is a cracker. The only thing I hated about it was the weird contortions needed to do flash free low light of which it is more than capable. Press a button underneath whilst prefocussing and composing the shot. Very difficult for those of us blessed with only two hands. !
 
John Bragg said:
Nice budget bargain Vics. Mine died on me a while back but I would certainly buy another as the lens is a cracker. The only thing I hated about it was the weird contortions needed to do flash free low light of which it is more than capable. Press a button underneath whilst prefocussing and composing the shot. Very difficult for those of us blessed with only two hands. !
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Yeah, that's a weird little flaw in the design. I've tried it a couple of times but it just wasn't worth the trouble. So I carry a Leica M3 with Summaron as a backup.
 
I've had a couple of the Sure Shot Supremes but got rid of all of them without putting a roll through them. Now I wish I'd done so. There's one at our Goodwill store so maybe I'll try to snag it tomorrow. Those pics are great, Vic! I enjoyed looking at all of them.

Andy
 
racoll said:
I've had a couple of the Sure Shot Supremes but got rid of all of them without putting a roll through them. Now I wish I'd done so. There's one at our Goodwill store so maybe I'll try to snag it tomorrow. Those pics are great, Vic! I enjoyed looking at all of them.

Andy
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Thanks, Andy. That's very kind of you to say.
 
My only fault when I started using the Sure Shots was the stubborn idea that they should work with slower film. I now limit my film in all my p&s cameras to ISO400 as a minimum. Your Normandy shots look great, Vics.

PF
 
Ah yes Rogier, the SS Supreme is very nice indeed! And you clearly have the skill to put it to good use!

I'd forgotten how quick the trigger was on some of the P&S cams; almost as though Canon migrated the RT concept across the line . . .

It's a really effective stealth cam in that most people will ignore someone shooting with it but in the right hands it can really deliver the goods. FWIW, in 1986, it was selected as the European Camera of the Year.

Thanks for the sample pix!
 
scottgee1 said:
I'd forgotten how quick the trigger was on some of the P&S cams; almost as though Canon migrated the RT concept across the line . . .
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Actually, they did. The Canon Sure Shot Zoom 105, among several other late entries, utilize Canon's Real-time (RT) mode, with shutter lag of just 0.03 seconds.
 
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