Camera 3: Canon 10s

The next camera to buy was a tough decision, because photography was and is very important to me. I was drooling over the Leica cameras (anyone of the Leica actually) at the time, but I also know that I could not afford one.

I was weighting the options between Nikon, Minolta, Olympus and Canon… in that order (thanks to the Rebel Original experience). Researching on camera in the early 90s was not at easy as today. Cnet.com, Photo.net and Dpreview.com were not even born yet. I actually had to go to the library to flip through monthly issues of Popular Photography to get some insight of these monsters.

In the end, Nikon FM2 and Canon 10s (despite my experience with the Rebel) were head to head with inches to spare. The Nikon FM2 was the historical facts proven camera that went to the edge of the world and back. While the Canon 10s was hail as the best “sports and action SLR camera of the future” that complimented the famed Canon EOS 1!

Finally, two things helped me made that decision.

1. My uncle Peter, who introduced me the joy of photography, uses an EOS 650.


2. Canon has a lens called 135mm f2.8 Softfocus, that supposed to be the mother of all portrait lenses.

So I call in a mail order and got the Canon 10s.

It proved to be the right decision. Alright, it does not run without batteries, but it could do almost anything else. (No, it did not make coffee… I meant everything in photography)

The Canon 10s walked with me around the world (literally), from the fortress of Signal Hill, to the swarming wind of the Great Lakes, from the blistering dunes of White Sand to the endless prairie of Oklahoma. Of course, we crossed the Pacific Ocean a few times to the Rainforest and back as well.

I did not have a problem for 10 years of extensive use. (During that time, it has a sidekick in the form of Canon Elph 2) By extensive use, I mean rolling off a rocky hill for 20 ft at Signal Hill, Newfoundland, shooting frozen berries out in the snow and tons of dink and dang of everyday use. I mean after 10 years… it looks 10 years old, kind of extensive use. (You are right, if I was ever to own an SUV, it would not look polish and squeaky clean… it would look like a real SUV)

The Canon 10s was precise. It had the right weight. The metering was perfect. It has mirror lock up, remote control, 2nd shutter sync flash, a bar code reader and everything else that we take for granted nowadays. And I did not have to worry about it not up to the challenge at any weather, season, night or day.

Then one day… but that’s another story.