Thoughts on the Canon Sure Shot Zoom XL

[farlymac]

Just got one the other day, and after rounding up a set of batteries for the camera and remote, I took it out for a spin yesterday. Shot a roll of Fujifilm 200 24exp, and I'm liking what I see. I usually just get the negs scanned instead of wasting paper on shots I don't like or screwed up, but the pharmacy's cd maker went down, so they made me a triple set of prints for free. I'll post them later when I cash in the rain check for the cd.

My first impression was 'This thing is sharp!' Well, other than the fact it's kind of huge for a 35mm p&s. But they had to make room for the twin-cell battery pack, and a housing for the remote control. Though it makes the camera too large for putting in anything other than a large jacket pocket, it's design makes for a very stable platform to hand hold. Decent focusing speed, though a bit touchy on where you are pointing it, such as the sky. Operation is not too loud, and there are plenty of options to choose from on the top mounted LCD panel.

My con's are few, and workable. The flash operates with just enough uncertainty that I am going to have to remember to shut it off when shooting outdoors. Pointing into the shadows of a summer stream was no problem for the metering system, and the flash did not activate. However, later on I was taking a photo of a sundrenched monument, and the flash went off! And with 200 speed film at that.

Secondly, there is a window on top of the camera to light-up the bright framelines in the viewfinder, and the focus patch. This may be all well and good for low light situations, but when in bright sunlight, it makes a nice bright spot right in the center of the viewfinder, and you can't see what you are aiming at. So that will have to be covered up in full sun.

Let me know what your experiences with this camera are like.

PF

 

[Greyscale]

I like mine very much as well. It is large, but is well-balanced enough to shoot with one hand if necessary. And the lens is outstanding, in my opinion, the only other zoom point & shoots that own that have a big zoom this nice are two other mammoths, the Samsung ECX 1 and ECX 2. And like the Samsungs, the Zoom XL is very quiet in operation, both zooming and film advancing. Phil, if you need the manual, orphancamera.com has a downloadable pdf file of it. Mine has a bug that research has shown is common with this camera, it will not automatically rewind the film when the roll is finished, I need to use the rewind button, and then it flashes the "door open" message after removing the film, and won't clear until I remove and replace the battery. The "landscape" button should help that twitchy focus when shooting distant objects.

 

[farlymac]

Mike,

Ah yeah, I forgot about the Landscape button. Too much to learn in one day😱 Downloaded the manual after I won the auction, but it's a lot to remember.

Mine had a different 'Door Open' alarm problem when I got it. It wouldn't latch up. I was thinking 'Great, now I've got to tear this beast down to fix that', but after many operations of the door latch, it finally fixed itself. I was watching the operation, and suddenly, a second part moved when the latch was released. I figure that the lubricant in the latch had gotten sticky, and it works fine now. But I'll keep an eye out for further problems. And I had to clean all the 'mint' off of it.

Mine rewound automatically, but like you said, the door latch alarm came on, and wouldn't clear until I recycled the power switch. At least I didn't have to take the battery out.

I also got the parrallax thing backwards, so some of my subjects wound up in the corner of the frame. D'oh! At least there was enough to salvage a square crop, and there is no edge distortion to worry about. From what I have read about this camera, the 9 element-8 group lens is on a par with the FD series of lenses for the SLR's.

One other con, and it's a minor thing. The beautiful ERC that came with the camera is not designed to be on the camera while shooting, so you either leave it somewhere, like in the vehicle, or use the convenient clip-strap to hook it to the camera strap. To dangle there while you try to look like you know what you are doing. But I would prefer not to have the strap on the camera, so the ERC would have to be put somewhere for safekeeping. Or not bring it along.

It was after seeing yours Mike that I got interested in one. Saw a group of cameras for sale once that had this and a New Sure Shot included. but the shipping was going to be horrendus, and they all looked somewhat ratty anyway. Glad I found this one, and it was only $4.90 plus $9.50 shipping. And I don't have to buy filters for it! There's no where to mount them anyway. Just one less thing to worry about.

PF

 

[Greyscale]

I'm not sure what you mean about the ERC, the remote? Mine works with the remote on the camera.

 

[farlymac]

Ever Ready Case.

PF

 

[Greyscale]

Ever Ready Case.

PF

Oh ...🙄 I was going through every acronym ... External Remote Control was the one that stuck out for me.

 

[farlymac]

Well, some folks do call them "Never Ready Case". Which is NRC. But that's a whole different can of worms.

PF