2010 TOYS FOR CHRISTMAS

Photo by Lydia Marcus

This boxer is only a year + so she was full of pep and spastic energy. My dog Lucy The Boxador wasn't really into her manic energy. She was pretty fun to watch cavorting around the dog park and damn cute. My Canon AF35M was pretty loud each time the film would advance and she was pretty freaked out by it. She hasn't mastered the command of "drop it" or "give" or "leave it" - sometimes she would drop off her toy at my feet and most of the time she didn't. She's an adorable boxer though.

The Canon AF35M was my very first 35mm camera and the very first camera that was exclusively mine and not the family camera. Up til that point, I had used several family cameras including two different Polaroids (a Super Shooter Plus and a One Step) or a Kodak Instamatic. Sometime around 1980 or 1981, when I was 10 or 11 years old, I asked my Dad to buy me a camera of my own. On some special occasion (I think possibly my 6th grade graduation) I was told I could get a camera and I chose the Canon AF35M. I believe I bought it at Radio Shack. I used the camera until I got a hand me down Canon AE-1 Program around 1986 and then I started using that. The camera has sat unused in a cabinet ever since. My emerging re-interest in shooting film has brought me back to the Canon AF35M. When I realized it had a fast f/2.8 lens I thought I'd give it a try. Here's the first test roll. The camera is still working perfectly, the only issue I have to be aware of is that I can't get too close for focusing. Other than that, the photos turned out surprisingly sharp. I think it has a pretty nice, contrasty lens.

From Wikipedia:

The Canon AF35M, nicknamed the Autoboy by Canon Japan or the Sure Shot by Canon USA, was Canon Inc.'s first autofocus 35mm lens-shutter compact camera.[1][2] It was launched in November 1979[1] and received the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry's 1980 Good Design Award in September 1980.[2] It proved successful among similar cameras from the competition and sold well; production reached 110,000 per month by the second half of 1981.[2] It was partly supplanted by 1981's higher-specified AF35ML and wholly replaced by 1983's AF35M II.
The active autofocus system used a near-infrared emitting diode and a pin photo diode to determine the subject position by triangulation in a manner similar to a coincident-image rangefinder. This meant that the system was independent of ambient light levels and achieved a high degree of accuracy; however, it could be fooled by glass (which is not transparent to infrared radiation). The autofocus area was marked on the reverse-Galilean optical viewfinder, which also had projected framelines, zone focusing marks for near, medium and far (lit to indicate the approximate area the autofocus had selected), parallax correction marks, and battery-check and camera-shake warning LEDs. Viewfinder magnification was 0.5? and coverage was 85% of the full 135 frame by area.
The lens was of 38 mm focal length and with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. A ring around the lens optic itself was used to set the film speed (ISO 25 to 400), which was indicated on a small window on the front of the lens assembly; also there, but below the lens optic itself, was the cadmium sulfide (CdS) photoresistor for the light meter. The location of this, inside the filter ring of the lens, meant that the meter would function accurately even with filters fitted to the lens.
Film transport was fully automatic in both directions, but the camera was not fitted with Canon's Quick Load feature; film still had to be manually threaded to the take-up spool.
An integral flash was fitted; this retracted into the top of the camera on the left (from the user's perspective) and was manually extended via releasing a catch on the camera's front. The unit had a guide number of 14 (at ISO 100 in meters) and featured auto-exposure with the camera's light meter as well as supporting fill flash. Also on the front was a self-timer control.
All electronic functions drew power from two AA batteries.

Photo by Lydia Marcus

This boxer is only a year + so she was full of pep and spastic energy. My dog Lucy The Boxador wasn't really into her manic energy. She was pretty fun to watch cavorting around the dog park and damn cute. My Canon AF35M was pretty loud each time the film would advance and she was pretty freaked out by it. She hasn't mastered the command of "drop it" or "give" or "leave it" - sometimes she would drop off her toy at my feet and most of the time she didn't. She's an adorable boxer though.

The Canon AF35M was my very first 35mm camera and the very first camera that was exclusively mine and not the family camera. Up til that point, I had used several family cameras including two different Polaroids (a Super Shooter Plus and a One Step) or a Kodak Instamatic. Sometime around 1980 or 1981, when I was 10 or 11 years old, I asked my Dad to buy me a camera of my own. On some special occasion (I think possibly my 6th grade graduation) I was told I could get a camera and I chose the Canon AF35M. I believe I bought it at Radio Shack. I used the camera until I got a hand me down Canon AE-1 Program around 1986 and then I started using that. The camera has sat unused in a cabinet ever since. My emerging re-interest in shooting film has brought me back to the Canon AF35M. When I realized it had a fast f/2.8 lens I thought I'd give it a try. Here's the first test roll. The camera is still working perfectly, the only issue I have to be aware of is that I can't get too close for focusing. Other than that, the photos turned out surprisingly sharp. I think it has a pretty nice, contrasty lens.

From Wikipedia:

The Canon AF35M, nicknamed the Autoboy by Canon Japan or the Sure Shot by Canon USA, was Canon Inc.'s first autofocus 35mm lens-shutter compact camera.[1][2] It was launched in November 1979[1] and received the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry's 1980 Good Design Award in September 1980.[2] It proved successful among similar cameras from the competition and sold well; production reached 110,000 per month by the second half of 1981.[2] It was partly supplanted by 1981's higher-specified AF35ML and wholly replaced by 1983's AF35M II.
The active autofocus system used a near-infrared emitting diode and a pin photo diode to determine the subject position by triangulation in a manner similar to a coincident-image rangefinder. This meant that the system was independent of ambient light levels and achieved a high degree of accuracy; however, it could be fooled by glass (which is not transparent to infrared radiation). The autofocus area was marked on the reverse-Galilean optical viewfinder, which also had projected framelines, zone focusing marks for near, medium and far (lit to indicate the approximate area the autofocus had selected), parallax correction marks, and battery-check and camera-shake warning LEDs. Viewfinder magnification was 0.5? and coverage was 85% of the full 135 frame by area.
The lens was of 38 mm focal length and with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. A ring around the lens optic itself was used to set the film speed (ISO 25 to 400), which was indicated on a small window on the front of the lens assembly; also there, but below the lens optic itself, was the cadmium sulfide (CdS) photoresistor for the light meter. The location of this, inside the filter ring of the lens, meant that the meter would function accurately even with filters fitted to the lens.
Film transport was fully automatic in both directions, but the camera was not fitted with Canon's Quick Load feature; film still had to be manually threaded to the take-up spool.
An integral flash was fitted; this retracted into the top of the camera on the left (from the user's perspective) and was manually extended via releasing a catch on the camera's front. The unit had a guide number of 14 (at ISO 100 in meters) and featured auto-exposure with the camera's light meter as well as supporting fill flash. Also on the front was a self-timer control.
All electronic functions drew power from two AA batteries.