2026-08-10 Canon AF35M

   The Canon AF35M (known as the Autoboy in Japan) was—according to some— the world’s first 35mm autofocus camera—in 1979—doing it all with autofocus, autoexposure, built-in pop-up flash and motorized advance and rewind. It sold for $240.
   In reality the Canon autofocus camera was beaten by two years by the Konica C35 AF that used the Honeywell Visitronic system. That system compared two images in its AF sensor until it adjusted both in focus. Canon used the Canon Auto Focus System (CAFS) that shot out an infrared beam and then measured the angle of the return from the object the beam hit. The Honeywell system was passive, while the Canon system was active.
   The Canon system became a world standard because it was cheap and fast, but it can be fooled by only measuring items in the center of the view. This measuring spot was indicated by brackets in the viewfinder. So to get around problems—like the stupid beam measuring the mountains in the distance between two standing adults—the clever folks at Canon used the self-timer lever as a pre focus lever. Pull the lever, press the shutter button all the way down as you set the focus (using said brackets), recompose the framing on your two adults and press the shutter button again to take the photograph. To act as a selftimer you just didn’t press the shutter button the second time and the camera would fire itself 10-seconds later.
   Nikon years later, in 1983, introduced their One•Touch auto-everything 35 mm rangefinder camera with the concept of half pressing the shutter button to set focus and then you could recompose and finish the shot by completing the shutter pressing.
   The two cameras differ in other slight but meaningful ways.

Staying with the Canon AF35M camera—

the flash has to be turned on manually (it will pop up and recharge over several seconds until a light shines to indicate it is ready to fire)
at the end of the roll you have to use a switch on the top as well as press a rewind button on the bottom of the camera to initiate rewind
you have to set the ASA of the film
weighs 356 g (12.5 ounces) without batteries

The Nikon One•Touch—

pops up its flash when it is needed and it seems always ready as long as the camera has been turned on for several seconds
automatically rewinds the roll when it has ended
uses Dx coding to set the ASA
weighs 316 g (11 ounces) without batteries

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