This week's camera: Canon Multi-Tele


I'm a sucker for stretching the limits of 35mm negatives. And, with a little creativity, I get some nice rewards.

This week, I'm shooting with a rarity: the Canon Multi-Tele, a 35mm automatic film camera that captures either full-frame or half-frame images. Depending on how you set the selector, you can grab either 24 x 36 or 18 x 24 mm pictures. So a 36-exposure roll of Kodak Portra VC 400 becomes a 72 exposure roll.

Why do this? 18 x 24mm is roughly the same size as the sensor in digital SLR cameras, and I'm curious to see if the half-frame images come out with any more clarity or detail than the same-size JPEGs from a Nikon D60. Besides, I get the added satisfaction of driving the photo lab a little bit crazy, as the half-frame adapter required to print "normal-size" prints from the smaller negatives is rarely found. (You can easily create acceptable prints by editing a scan or digital negative).

Downsides: the Canon Multi-Tele uses a loud, spring-loaded lens that literally pops out from behind a porthole on the front of the camera. It's jack-in-the-box annoying. You cannot sneak up on a subject without them knowing you're shooting a photo. Although relatively compact at the time of introduction in 1988, the Multi-Tele is part of Canon's Sure Shot line, and physically larger than any point-and-shoot digital camera built after 2005.

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