Need compensation? Forget the Porsche and get this!

[Dr. Strangelove]

Endless GAS attack seems to be my problem, although I have promised myself to take at least 1 month break from the nasty habit after I got this thing:

The Canon Epoca / Photura has got to be one of the strangest P&S cameras ever made. It was marketed as a "bridge" camera for serious amateurs in Europe (and I presume in North America as well), but in reality it is nothing more than a glorified point & shoot. It offers no manual controls, not even any kind of exposure compensation :bang: The lens is also just a slightly faster than usual P&S telescope zoom and not a true SLR level zoom.

The shape does make motion blur at tele settings a little less likely and the low angle viewfinder option is nice. The flash is very powerful (GN 30 at ISO 100) for a P&S, but that's about it, and the thing is big and heavy on the top.

Why I bought it? It's simply so wonderfully strange. But as far as bridge cameras go, the Olympus IS series cameras were much better. I probably won't be using the Epoca much...

Another pic of the monstrosity:

 

[BillBingham2]

I wonder if it will shine your shoes? Looks like it could cook your dinner if you held it too close!

B2 (;->

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

I wonder if it will shine your shoes? Looks like it could cook your dinner if you held it too close!

B2 (;->

I don't know but one thing is for sure: if space aliens ever invade Earth, I am certain I can just point the Epoca at them and they will immediatelly retreat believing it is some kind of super ray gun...

 

[kully]

Now there's a camera that screams late 80's early 90's 🙂

 

[shadowfox]

I've seen this once in a while, I always thought:

If we hollow out the content, it would make a smashing coffee thermos 😀
It'll dazzle your Starbucks buddies for sure.

 

[BJ Bignell]

I've seen this once in a while, I always thought:

If we hollow out the content, it would make a smashing coffee thermos 😀
It'll dazzle your Starbucks buddies for sure.

Especially if you keep the flash functional! 😀

 

[Papa Smurf]

Space aliens?

Space aliens?

I don't know but one thing is for sure: if space aliens ever invade Earth, I am certain I can just point the Epoca at them and they will immediatelly retreat believing it is some kind of super ray gun...

Forget space aliens, imagine a thousand years from now some eagar beaver archaeology student on his/her summer field trip unearthing one of these! 😱 They will have their name in textbooks for the next fifty years!

Life is uncertain, eat dessert first.
Papa Smurf

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

The big and the small

The big and the small

This is a group picture of what were, as far as I know, the biggest and the smallest 35 mm point & shoot cameras:



Which one would you rather have in your pocket? 😀

By the way, after shooting 18 frames from the test roll, I have to say that the Epoca kind of grows on you. The video camera like shape and grip are actually quite comfortable and the camera does not feel very heavy, even though it's actual weight is 700 grams. So perhaps Canon's crazy designers had something going when they came up with the shape.

But then again, the lack of manual controls becomes even more frustrating. With proper manual exposure compensation, say +- 2 EV with 1/3 EV steps this could have been a pretty good camera. I suppose that Canon did not want to lose any sales from their low end SLRs and decided to keep the Epoca firmly in the P&S category. Nevertheless it's price was close to SLR levels; according to the Canon Camera Museum the Epoca was more expensive than the bodies of early EOS 1000 / Rebel models.