Canon WP-1, lessons learned hard.
One of my photography objective’s on vacation was to shoot high ISO film underwater with the prime beaches Hawaii offered. Upon some google research I found the Canon Sureshot WP-1 to meet my needs. I had considered the Minolta Weathermatic, but decided to pass it in lieu of wanting to find a sharper lens and a better viewfinder. In addition to it’s 32mm F3.5 lens, the WP-1 is capable of shooting up to ISO 3200.
Upon first impressions, it’s almost as if Canon decided to use the WP-1’s color scheme for its L model professional glass, and I actually dug the look. Okay I won’t lie, the color design factor was crucial in me wanting to buy it. Especially that red ring around the lens. My girlfriend on the other hand, was repulsed and called me a nerd whenever I wore it out in public.
It’s very simply functional like most point and shoots, I usually just threw the switch to auto and made sure my composition was in the frame lines in the viewfinder. Pressed the shutter button, until the green autofocus light illuminated and then took my composition. I paired it with Lomo 800, which according to many Internet forums, has nearly identical characteristics to Kodak Max 800. Some photographers go on to say even Portra 800, or thinking it’s actually reloaded Kodak film. This is where, I learned a hard lesson about my choice to shoot with a non-Dx coded film in a Point and Shoot. I had shot a test roll with Kodak Gold 200 before my trip. It rewound and spaced it just fine. It didn’t know what ISO, so it defaulted to 100 ISO, and the amount of exposures to shoot before rewinding, it somehow spaced the shots to a max of 15 on the roll. After swimming to ashore after shooting my 36th shot according to my film counter, I had thought the camera had rewound itself when I popped the back cover open and gave the whole roll a good 1 second exposure. Ruined....all over a silly sticker missing from the film canister. I lost an expensive roll of film, and memories. I was able to recover the 2nd roll, by putting a t shirt over my backpack, and using it as a makeshift change bag and hand rewinding the film canister. Here are some of my favorite exposures, enjoy! And for a public PSA, don’t shoot non Dx coded film into a PnS with no rewind button!
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amazing shots as always.
just curious on how you managed to retrieve so much detail in the highlights with the film being over exposed by three stops if I got this correctly (800 shot at 100) or maybe I'm a bit confused sorry
Bummer about the lost roll of film and troubles, but what a sweet looking camera and experience! Nice beach shot and funny looking fish shot! Haha.
Quote from Gawad on July 17, 2021, 7:36 amamazing shots as always.
just curious on how you managed to retrieve so much detail in the highlights with the film being over exposed by three stops if I got this correctly (800 shot at 100) or maybe I'm a bit confused sorry
I'm not sure myself, but hey I'll take it. That's the brilliance of film. It's got quite the dynamic range on it.
Super sorry to hear about losing the roll... I think mistakes like this are unfortunately a rite of passage for shooting film. The Minolta Weathermatic is currently my go-to for paddle boarding and general beach days, so I'm glad to see someone else thinking along the same lines!
I really love that shot of the beach. If you told me it was shot on an SLR instead of a camera designed to be dunked I would totally have gone along with it. Does the WP-1 default to fixed focus when shooting under water or did Canon find out some underwater autofocus magic?
Quote from Justin Tung on July 18, 2021, 5:57 amSuper sorry to hear about losing the roll... I think mistakes like this are unfortunately a rite of passage for shooting film. The Minolta Weathermatic is currently my go-to for paddle boarding and general beach days, so I'm glad to see someone else thinking along the same lines!
I really love that shot of the beach. If you told me it was shot on an SLR instead of a camera designed to be dunked I would totally have gone along with it. Does the WP-1 default to fixed focus when shooting under water or did Canon find out some underwater autofocus magic?
So I found out through r/analogcommunity on Reddit it has fixed underwater focus. It's only from 1-3m apparently. I'd love to see some of the shots the weathermatic does.
Despite not having the Dx code, I'm printing some decals up for future rolls. I really enjoyed the saturation and colors on Lomo 800.
Lol yeah, and I just made the same mistake yesterday with my Olympus Pen D2, thought it was totally rewound and welp...
Quote from SpruceBruce on July 18, 2021, 11:07 amQuote from Justin Tung on July 18, 2021, 5:57 amSuper sorry to hear about losing the roll... I think mistakes like this are unfortunately a rite of passage for shooting film. The Minolta Weathermatic is currently my go-to for paddle boarding and general beach days, so I'm glad to see someone else thinking along the same lines!
I really love that shot of the beach. If you told me it was shot on an SLR instead of a camera designed to be dunked I would totally have gone along with it. Does the WP-1 default to fixed focus when shooting under water or did Canon find out some underwater autofocus magic?
So I found out through r/analogcommunity on Reddit it has fixed underwater focus. It's only from 1-3m apparently. I'd love to see some of the shots the weathermatic does.
Despite not having the Dx code, I'm printing some decals up for future rolls. I really enjoyed the saturation and colors on Lomo 800.
Lol yeah, and I just made the same mistake yesterday with my Olympus Pen D2, thought it was totally rewound and welp...
It's such a scourge! That and thinking I have the film wound on when It isn't are banes of my film life. I'd be interested to see how decals work for DX coding. I normally either cover the DX code with a piece of tape since the Weathermatic defaults to ISO 100, or I'll scratch the paint on the canister to reveal bare metal to fake the DX coding. I haven't really taken shots underwater with it, but when I do I'll make sure to post!
@sprucebruce I recently put a roll through the weathermatic while walking around on a rainy day in order to test a new developer. I don't have color chemicals going right now, so they're BW.
The Weathermatic lens looks like it's maybe a touch less sharp than your Canon WP-1, but It's still plenty sharp for me, especially for a paddle boarding camera. My favorite image from it was this. I think water got on the autofocus eye so it missed a little bit and the flash washed out the definition from the pool chairs, but it feels kinda Daido Moriyama, and I vibe with that.
It looks plenty sharp to me! What do you use for scans? I just picked up an Epson V550, still learning optimal settings.
Quote from SpruceBruce on July 21, 2021, 1:56 pmIt looks plenty sharp to me! What do you use for scans? I just picked up an Epson V550, still learning optimal settings.
I use an Epson v600! I've had issues with holding the film in the scanner bed using the supplied holders, especially with films that like to not curl but cup (looking at you, Agfa APX 100). I'm currently just putting the film straight on my scanner bed and putting a plate of glass on top of it to weigh it down.
