I got one of these because I had been told it's image quality was on a par with the Canon Sure Shot Zoom XL, and I was looking for something with a smaller size, but longer zoom. I can't say it's as good as the Zoom XL, but it's close enough, and it beats a lot of the other p&s cameras I've been investigating lately. It's biggest detracter is the iffy exposure control. It has a three zone system, but doesn't seem to be able to compensate when there are extremes in different areas of the frame. Pair this with the flash going off when the scene is very well lit (mostly sunny in the early afternoon using 200 speed film), and I'm glad it has some programmable presets, and a spot metering mode.
The only other fault it has is the auto-winder will not auto-load the film when it is supposed to. When loading, the film should wind on as soon as you close the back, but this one doesn't. But when you pop the back open, it starts to wind. It even does this after the film has been rewound for removal. So I just load the film, close the back, then pop it open and closed quickly to get to the first exposure without losing any frames.
Both of these problems could just be this particular camera, and not representative of the model line. Even though it was advertised as being almost "mint and possibly unused", it had a lot of crud on the outside that had to be cleaned off, and a set of dead batteries in it. There is one seller I'll never buy from again.
It is a beautiful example of Canon design, with it's brushed aluminum clad body, slightly retro look, and control panel hidden behind a spring loaded door for a clean appearance. It has two continuous shooting ranges (1 and 1.5 FPS), and a Personal Presets mode on the control dial. A very nice, compact size camera for the length of the zoom lens it houses. I'm glad I've got it.
Some photo examples. A link to the full set, along with a technical write-up of the camera is at the bottom.
Zoom Range by
br1078phot, on Flickr
Comparison shots of the 38-120mm zoom lens. Yeah, I know, I got them backwards. Notice how the 120mm setting looks a bit washed out. This camera exhibits very poor judgment on exposures, but it's not something that can't be fixed in post-processing.
Green Ridge In Autumn by
br1078phot, on Flickr
Not much color this year, due to the drought.
Brushy Mountain by
br1078phot, on Flickr
Here is one thing the Zoom XL has over the Classic 120...an Infinity Lock. The mountain is out of focus because the camera selected the near foreground, and with the slowness of the lens at telephoto lengths, infinity suffers.
Too Dark by
br1078phot, on Flickr
Love that background, but what happened to the foreground? I think the sky really fooled the auto exposure on this one.
Color Along Dutch Oven Road by
br1078phot, on Flickr
Ah, finally found a nice spot. Some exposure adjustments needed on these, as they were slightly over.
Autumn Bounty by
br1078phot, on Flickr
Testing the Close-Up setting. The flash comes on automatically, and there is no way to shut it off. The offset frame marks in the viewfinder are very accurate, as this is from the right side of the negative, exactly where I planned it. I did a square crop as the rest of the negative was only interesting to me in a technical sense, and the square made more sense artistically.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7699588@N07/sets/72157627830583089/PF
