Hi, this is the first post on our new blog where we'll be writing about cameras we film test and perhaps a few other things. This probably goes without saying if you know us: all writing will be original and done without "AI" or any other dystopian plagiarism technology. The first one up is this Canon Sure Shot Max (serial 40529657), for sale here.

We've always enjoyed using the Sure Shot Max (c. 1991) and the closely related Sure Shot Tele Max (basically the same camera except it adds a switchable teleconverter). We especially love the Max/Tele Max's simple three-way switch for controlling the flash. Here's the page from the manual explaining it:

When using the 'Flash-OFF' setting in daylight the viewfinder LED will blink rapidly if the light is too low for sharp handheld photos without flash. If you use a tripod or makeshift stand, the Sure Shot Max will shoot as slow as 1/8 second at f3.5 (LV 7)* about the light level of a typical city at night with ISO 100 film. When using ISO 400 or faster film, you can shoot even darker scenes without flash (e.g. fireworks at night). 

You could call this 3-way switch a step backwards compared to the fully automatic flash on the earlier Sure Shot Supreme (1986) but I vastly prefer the control that the Max gives you. You might disagree if you prefer full automation.

Otherwise there's not too much to say about the Sure Shot Max's features and ergonomics: it's a very simple, compact and easy-to-use camera with a nice lens. It supports a very wide range of film speeds (ISO 25-3200). If you roll your own film (or if you use oddball non-coded films) you should be aware that it meters at ISO 25 if no DX code is present. 

Film testing

We used Ilford HP5 Plus ISO 400 film on a very sunny day. The light was often harsh. It would have been wiser to use a slower film like Ilford FP4 or Kodak TMax 100 but I thought the camera did a good job in the difficult light. It wasn't a special excursion, we were walking through our own neighbourhood in Montreal on our way to the post office. 

Processing notes

We developed the film using Flic Film Classic MQ (we have it in stock as I'm writing this). This is a version of the darkroom standard D-76 developer that dates back to the 1920s.

I used 1+1 dilution in an old (and leaky) UniColor drum with a UniRoller rotary base.  Negatives were scanned with a Nikon V-ED. Excuse the dust specks on these scans, I processed the film in a dusty basement. 

Test Photos

Comparing Different Sure Shot Max/Tele Max cameras

Warning: this gets into the weeds and assumes interest in camera design and technology. The tl;dr is that the Sure Shot Max and Sure Shot Tele Max have very reliable shutters and light meters. 

Besides the camera we film tested, we also had another two Sure Shot Maxes and three Sure Shot TeleMaxes on hand. I was curious to see how much sample variance I'd find in exposure (basically the shutter and light meter performance). These cameras vary in condition, and a couple of them have other major issues that would prevent us from selling them in our shop until they have been serviced. Nonetheless, when it comes to exposure, even the most beat up TeleMax we tested only had a relatively small deviation from the norm. 

Test notes: I used two exposure testers. One is a classic professional Spectron Instrument tester from the 1980s using an incandescent light source corrected to ~4700ºK. The other is a modern microprocessor-based unit (designed by Serhiy Rozum) featuring a 3000ºK LED light source that we'll call "The SR1". The Spectron unit's results are listed first, it allows testing at ISO25, 100, and 400. The SR1 is fixed at ISO 100 so I used it to test at three exposure levels. Both testers used the common calibration constant (K-factor) of 12.5 (if you want to go deep on this and see all the formulas, here is an excellent article and on this thread Photrio user Stephen Benskin generously shared arcane texts explaining calibration constants in great detail). 

I strongly suspect that many film point-and-shoot cameras, particularly from the 1990s and 2000s, were intentionally designed to expose film in a different way than professional SLRs. I think the manufacturers baked some real world compromise into their formulas, biasing point-and-shoots to slightly 'overexpose' vs what a lab tester says is 'normal.' This helps avoid underexposure, which is a much bigger issue than overexposure when using ordinary colour negative films like Kodak Gold and UltraMax (which can easily handle at least 3 stops of overexposure; professional colour negative films like Portra 400 look quite acceptable even when overexposed by 6 stops). 

To the best of my knowledge, Canon never published a detailed service manual for the Max/TeleMax (only a parts manual with exploded drawings). The closest model where I have a full service manual is the aforementioned Sure Shot Supreme (1986). Its auto-exposure adjustment section specifies a calibration constant of K=17.68 which indeed gives exactly a half stop more exposure than the usual K=12.5. The exposure tolerance was +/- 1 stop. I'm guessing that 5 years later, when the Max/TeleMax were released, Canon biased its consumer point-and-shoots to make use of the improved colour film overexposure latitude for bright scenes (mitigating problems like harsh shadows, backlighting, etc.). 

This drawing is taken from the Sure Shot Max parts manual. The part circled in red is the light metering SPD (silicon photodiode).

The chart below shows the averaged-out exposure measurements for each example camera. Even the beat-up TeleMax (serial 4556822) only deviated by a half stop compared to the other cameras. So based on this sample and my own experience using quite a few of these cameras, I'd say the lens shutter and light meter design is very reliable. The most common failure points I see are worn-out shutter release buttons and motor gear issues. 

The y-axis assumes a typical SLR-type camera using a K=12.5 calibration constant for its light meter. If using K=17.68, like the Sure Shot Supreme, the expected target exposure would be +0.5 EV.

And here is the more granular data (the units are in 'EV' for the exposures; in 1/seconds for the shutter speeds):