Canon Sureshot Sleek
This was another 75p Charity Shop bargain – I had two of these, the first had a slightly chipped door, the second was in excellent condition all round, though somehow the battery door closures have broken in storage.
It is one of my favourite cameras as it is small, ergonomic and has some great features.
About
This little compact was first produced in 1996, as part of Canon’s hugely successful Sureshot range. It is a wonderful pocket sized camera, which performs very well at metering, handling tricky exposures.
It has an in built flash, with a guide number of 7.5; with automatic, red eye reduction, and suppressed modes. One thing that is useful is that these are set by a dial, not a menu, so you can keep the flash suppressed when the camera is switched off.
It also has a self timer mode.
Lens and focus
The 32mm lens has a noticeable edge on the normal 35mm focal length giving a slight wide-angle distortion and a pleasing hint of vignetting. The field of view is 59° x 41° and to do a situated full length portrait you would need to be about 3m from your subject.
The autofocus has three points, which allows focus to be assessed from the whole frame rather than just a central point. The shutter is a combined shutter and aperture – this means the blades open to a width sufficient for the desired aperture in one movement, rather than a separate stop.
Exposure
Exposure is fully automatic. The camera performs well in low light with the exposure (though the autofocus struggles a little) – with ISO 100 film it can handle down to EV 3 due to the relatively wide aperture and slow shutter speed of 2s. This will allow time exposed firework images, and easily cover night shots outside, though a tripod would be necessary (there is a tripod bush on the base).
The maximum and minimum exposures for different ISO film would be something like this:
| ISO | Absoute Min2s , f/3.5 | Effective Min1/30s, f/3.5 | Max1/250s, f/22 | Notes |
| 25 | 4 | 10 (Immediate after Sunset) | 17 | |
| 50 | 3 | 9 (10 min after Sunset) | 17 | 1 |
| 100 | 3 | 8 (Bright interiors/City Squares) | 17 | 2 |
| 200 | 3 | 7 (Bright Streets) | 16 (V. Bright Sun) | 3 |
| 400 | 3 | 6 (Bright Home Interiors) | 15 (Bright sun) | |
| 800 | 3 | 5 (Home Interiors) | 14 (Weak Sun) | 4 |
| 1600 | 3 | 4 (Under Street Lamps) | 13 (Cloudy Bright) | |
| 3200 | 3 | 3 (Fireworks) | 12 (Open Shade) | |
| Notes: 1) Actually about 3.5, but most film will cope with ½ stop under-exposure 2) Actually about 8.5, as above 3) Limit of metering capabilities 4) With ISO 800 film, sunny 16 conditions could overexpose, and so forth | ||||
Sadly the metering range goes no lower than EV 3 you could not do any super low light work with higher ISO films as it might first seem from the shutter speeds, but with ISO 1600 film you can shoot night time city scenes at about 1/25s which with this light camera and short focal length is just about sharp if you have a steady hand. I have also used it at gigs. I don’t know how many steps the shutter speed goes in though.
Gallery
Vital Statistics
Type: Fully automatic 35mm Lens-Shutter autofocus camera.
AF System: 3-point Smart Autofocus; 0.45 m – infinity. Pre-focus enabled.
Lens: 32mm f/3.5 (3 elements in 3 groups).
Shutter: Electromagnetic programmed shutter and aperture.
Exposure Range: In auto mode and flash-on mode: EV 9.5 (f/3.5 at 1/60s) – EV 17 (f/22 at 1/250s). In flash-off mode: EV 3 (f/3.5 at 2s) – below EV 17 (f/22 at 1/250s).
Viewfinder: Direct viewfinder. 0.32x magnification and 84% coverage. Image-area frame, AF frame, close-up AF frame, focus/battery indicator LED.
Metering: Full-auto program, a-Si cell meter, range EV 3 – 17.
Film speed range: ISO 25 – 3200 (with DX code).
Flash: Fixed, built-in flash. Guide number 7.5m (at ISO 100). Multi-mode – red-eye reduction, suppressed.
Accessories: Tripod Bush, Wrist Strap.
Power Source: One 3V CR123A lithium battery.
Dimensions & Weight: 120 x 62 x 41 mm, 185 g (with battery).
Links
Canon Sureshot sleek on Camerapedia.
Canon Sureshot Sleek on Canon Camera Museum.