Canon Multi Tele (Half Frame / Twice the Fun)
The Canon Multi Tele from 1988 is made of plastic but has a feel and look that is much better than most other cameras from the late 1980’s in fact it doesn’t seem at all out-of-place today, besides the fact that it uses film. It is a particularly interesting camera because of its half frame setting. A choice you have to make before loading the film. The little yellow lever for this is located inside the back. Once set the frame counter on the film back does let you know as well as the viewfinder framing changes to half frame.
When set to half frame the dual focal length lens gives the field of view of 50mm and 85mm when compared to the full frame 35/60mm. Now a 24 exposure roll yields 48 images. Additionally the framing is a vertical portrait orientation, of course you can still turn the camera sideways for a landscape framing.
The focal length choice is set on the back in combination with the on off switch, however the lens remains behind the sliding shield until you fully press the shutter.
On the top of the camera are two buttons one cryptically marked B-4, this is actually a bulb setting of up to 4 seconds. One press of this turns on bulb mode for the next shutter press but considering how much pressure the shutter button requires a very sturdy tripod would be required. The yellow button forces the flash to fire but there is no way to suppress the flash if the camera decides its needed.
There is a teleconverter that goes with this camera but I find it hardly worth mentioning as it is a paltry 1.25X and only available for the tele setting so 60mm goes to 75mm not worth the extra effort and bulk in my opinion.
One thing about one camera: The Multi Tele has a safety Macro mode. If you ignore the warning and attempt to take a picture of something closer than the minimum 2.1foot focal distance the camera will set: the focus to 18″, the focal length to 35mm, an aperture of f16 and fire the flash. I have to try that and see how well it works.
