Canon MC

They are hardly classics according to this forum but the Canon MC is one of the best point and shoots ever made. It's unusual in that the flash comes as a separate attachment so you can either take it with or save weight and leave it at home if you are shooting outdoors. Without the flash it's truly pocketable.

This was the only info I could find on it online... its a photo.net posting... you may be able to look John up on photo.net and ask him personally:

"John Shaeffer, May 12, 2003; 07:26 a.m.

Canon MC. This camera was produced in 1984. It is smaller than a Lomo LC-A with the flash detached. It has a 35mm f2.8 lens. It is essentially an autofocus, auto advance, auto rewind Olympus XA. One of the best auto focus cameras you can get, if you can find one."

link to the article: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0055hA

It appears to be Canons all automatic version of the XA... making it the forerunner to the entire class of all-automatic compact point-and -shoot cameras. It looks like most of the design was lifted from the XA including the flash, but if you are into auto everything it might be a fun camera.

Wait... I just found some specs.... Google Image Search sometimes yeilds interesting results...

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/1976-1986/data/1984_mc.html http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/1976-1986/data/1984_mc_s.html

From the instruction manual: 35F2.8 4-element 4-group lens. Focuses 3ft-infinity. Film settings 64-1000 asa. Exposure range EV 6-17. Has self-timer. The lens is sharp, I can speak from personal experience. Another great point and shoot (even better IMHO) is the Pentax PC35-AF, it has a 5-element lens and manual wind.

Thanks, Patrick and David. Why such the cult following for the XA? It sounds as if the MC performs at least as well, but one doesn't hear about the MC nearly as much, or see it being sold on ebay for the prices that some XA's go for. I wonder if some of the manual operation of the XA is more appealing to 'purists' than the full auto operation of the XA, although perhaps the fact that you don't see the MC on ebay very often is a testament to how much owners like them and choose not to sell them. I picked up one on ebay with hard case, box, and papers, in excellent condition for $10.00. It's on the way, so we'll see what it's like when it arrives. According to the seller everything (specifically flash, autofocus, wind/rewind) all work fine and all of the glass is clean. I'm interested to see how it handles and what kind of results it yields.

I think we need a separate forum for such... BTW, very nice camera!

Looks comparable to the Yashica T-4, only older.

I wouldn't trade my XA for a dozen of these. I like KNOWING what I focused on and what aperture I set it on. It's almost perfect. All it needs is a shutter dial.

The XA is so popular for a couple reasons... manual control being one, and the fact that it came out 5 years before that Canon and still manages to look more modern being another. Unlike most cameras of the 70s and certainly most cameras of the 80s, the XA paved the way for modern point and shoot cameras in design, size and handling. The unique retrofocus 6 element wide angle fixed lens is another reason... I cant remember how many original patents Olympus had on the XA but it was a good handful.

There are several cameras which fit into this nitche of the photography world, most of them appearing in the 1980s, but a few are older like the Minox 35s from the mid 70s and the Rollie 35 series from the late 1960s. These german mini cameras fetch tremendous prices based mostly on their name, even though the Minox 35 cameras are a little too simple in my opinion and the Rollies have some serious design issues... nonworking ones seem to be common. The Japanese offerings to the mini 35 world seem to have been better contruction and more features.

That Canon does look like fun, if I wasnt such a manual focus snob.. ;)

The XA's lens is non-retrofocus, and the Canon is auto-focus.

Sorry I meant... "Reverse Retrofocus" ;)

Thanks everyone for the info. I hope to acquire an XA sometime soon, but for the time being the MC will hopefully be fun.

The Canon MC is a very underrated, and scarce little camera. I recently tested it up against a canon sureshot 120 Classic and a sureshot 130uII.
I shot rolls of fuji reala 100 and fuji 1600. The results were amazing to say the least. This little gem is sharp. It was as good with the the reala 100 as the other cameras but with the maximum film setting of 1000 asa shooting fuji 1600, I expected grain grain and grain, particularly shooting Sydney's Harbour Bridge in the rain. Somehow the 1000 asa setting over exposes this film and the photos were stunning!, sharp and crisp, unlike the the glum grainy results of the 120 sureshot classic although the sureshot 130uII faired a little better.
The clarity and sharpness of the camera shooting indoors with available light is most surprising, (using 1600 film).
I love this little automatic everything noisy gem. I'm not letting it go. If you find one, buy it! It is not a waste of money!