Canon Sure Shot A-1/WP-1

Canon pretty much invented the auto-focus point & shoot cameras with the release of the first Sure Shot back in the late 1970’s. I bought one of those to compliment my “Go-To” Olympus OM-1N and remember thinking at the time that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. 

The little gem shown below is one of the last versions of the Sure Shot line before the digital revolution and this one also happens to be water proof. 

I was looking for some kind of water proof 35mm camera to give to my soon to be daughter-in-law for her birthday. She has a nice Pentax Q-7 digital but I wanted something she could take on the honey-moon and use by the pool or beach without having to worry about ruining it. I ran across the Canon Sure Shot A-1/WP-1 at www.Shopgoodwill.com and was able to rescue it for a very modest amount of cash.

I cleaned it up, checked the seals, put a fresh battery in it, and took it for spin with a roll of Fuji color 200 film.

The huge bright viewfinder was my first surprise. What an awesome view! Next was the crisp clean action as the chunky, well-built camera impressed me with it’s quick and precise autofocus, crisp shutter, and instantaneous film advance. And, as if that weren’t enough, the super sharp wide angle lens delivered a set of dazzling images that were so impressive I didn’t even notice at first that the local CVS pharmacy’s One-hour Photo Lab had scanned them all in backwards. 

Here’s an image of the camera borrowed from the Canon web site (since I don;t have it anymore).

Oh, and I forgot to mention the built in flash which did about as good a job as any such flash can. The mantle shot above was taken in my living room using the on-board flash unit. I rescanned it correctly (not backwards). No one but me probably would have noticed but it would have driven me crazy every time I looked at it on the blog. Besides, I’ve wanted to play with my new Epsom V550 scanner since I got it for Christmas. I will be blogging about it too as soon as I’ve used it enough to have something to share on the subject.

At any rate the Canon Sure Shot A-1/WP-1 is definitely a keeper that I am sure will be enjoyed for many more years to come.