Also called PRIMA TELE and Autoboy Tele 6.The SureShot Mult Tele can be used as a full frame or half frame camera. Introduced in March of 1988.
Last fall somebody in a forum mentioned that Canon had made a half-frame point and shoot camera in the 1980's. I did a search on Ebay to see if there was one for sale and had no luck. Still I saved the search and told Ebay to notify me when one was listed. It took a couple of months till I saw a Multi Tele in good shape and for a good price. Maybe that means there aren't that many of these cameras out there. I found in several camera advertisements from 1989 that the Multi Tele sold for $139. That is about average for a camera of this type at the time. So price probably didn't keep the sales down. Still it seems to be rare when compared to other Canon point & shoots of the same time period.
One thing that does surprise me is that there isn't more demand for these cameras now. The half frame camera seems fairly popular these days with film photographers. And this is a half frame from a well-respected camera maker. It is possible that the Multi Tele being fully automatic and battery dependent may turn some people off. However that doesn't seem to have hurt the demand for the, Yashica Samurai, another half frame from the same time period.
So far I have put a couple of rolls of film through the Multi Tele and the experience is about the same as with most 1980's Canon point and shoots. The build and image quality is quite good and the winding motor is quite loud.
Although they don't seem to come up often on Ebay there isn't much of a crowd bidding when they do. I payed $14.99 for the one I have and it came in excellent shape with a good battery. So if you like half frames and don't mind a battery driven automatic camera than you may enjoy the Multi Tele.
The Canon Camera Museum site does a great job documenting all the cameras that Canon has produced. Canon Camera Museum entry for the Multi Tele.
Here is my Multi Tele Gallery.
I'd never heard of this camera before -- though to be fair, cameras made after about 1980 seldom make it onto my radar. So thanks for alerting me to this one!
ReplyDeleteI was pretty much the same about post 1980's cameras until recently. I think I still prefer the pre-electronic age cameras, however I have to admit there were some interesting cameras made post 1980's. And they are usually inexpensive.
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