Canon AF35M

I can't for the life of me remember how I got this one. It's part of my original collection from around 2010 and it's a little broken. I wouldn't have knowingly bought a broken camera at the time, so maybe it was given to me? Who knows and, frankly, who cares.

The brokenness of it comes in the part where you have to do some percussive maintenance after each shot taken because the motor won't wind the film out of its own volition. Wake it up by slamming your palm on the bottom and it does the job, though. And so we go, and it's a slightly wacky friendship, if I'm honest: I give it a good slap and it gives me lovely negatives. To each their own, I guess.

History bits are to be found in the usual places but to recap: this is the first auto-focus camera Canon ever produced, launched in 1979, and it's even called the world's first af camera in general. So if photographic firsts are your thing, this is something to keep an eye out for. 

How does it handle?

I know some have doubts about the camera's real ability to auto focus. I've read a couple of reviews bashing it for not being where it should be or nowhere at all. I don't share the same observations but that may be due to the way I work which isn't very fast --no matter-of-milliseconds street shots here. I have time and when I give it to this camera, it works perfectly. 

The lens is sharp. Very sharp and with pleasant bokeh/blur. The operation is straight forward: point and shoot, basically.  You choose when to use the flash and flip it open with a slider. There's an interesting ability to pre-focus with a lever near the lens, and this is how: put the object you want to focus on in the center of the viewfinder. Now pull down the lever and press the shutter release button: this focuses the lens at the object you're pointing at without releasing the shutter. Now reframe and press the shutter release button again: this releases the shutter for real this time. Handy. Everything else is automatic. There isn't much more to it. Just happily snap away.

Bottom line is, mine is a little broken but I know how to work it so I'll probably hold onto it and snap a couple odd pictures a year, then develop the film expired a decade ago only to find out how a negative can hold much more than a just couple bits of silver.

Further reading:
Canon AF35M on wiki
Review on 35mmc