this is the canon mc, sometimes called canon’s xa. it looks really close to the olympus xa series, which is probably why people compare them all the time. same compact, clean design, fits in your pocket without thinking about it. it came out in 1984 and uses canon’s early autofocus system, cafs. primitive, but it gets the job done.

i got one back in 2024 and yeah… selling it was a mistake. one of those you don’t really think about until it’s gone, and then it randomly comes back to annoy you. so i bought another one. actually two. which is kind of ridiculous but also makes perfect sense to me.

size is a big part of it. mc literally means microcompact and yeah, it’s tiny. like actually tiny. and when you take the flash off, it gets even smaller, which still feels weird every time i do it.

but honestly, part of the appeal is just how hard it is to find. this isn’t something you see all the time anymore. the last one i picked up was the only working one i could find at that moment, which kind of says everything. it makes you treat it a little differently, like you know you might not come across another one anytime soon.

the more i used it, the more i felt like people kind of underrate this camera. or maybe just write it off too quickly. because if you find one that actually works and hasn’t been abused, it’s hard not to like it. it’s one of those cameras you get attached to without really planning to.

this camera gets attention. way more than you’d expect. people don’t really know what it is, and that turns into conversations every time. taking it out with friends somehow makes the whole thing more fun. i honestly can’t remember the last time i used it without someone asking what it was.

performance wise, it holds up. the f2.8 lens is sharp, nothing crazy but definitely good enough, and you can set asa from 64 to 1000 which gives you some room to play depending on what you’re shooting. it’s simple, but it does what you need it to do.

the flash is separate, not built in, which i actually like. you have to turn it on yourself, no auto decisions. it feels a bit more intentional that way, like you’re actually choosing when to use it instead of the camera stepping in. it runs on four aaa batteries total, both the camera and the flash, which sounds great… until it isn’t. you see, this is where most of the problems come from.

and here is the irony, the batteries are both the best and worst part of this camera.

no camera is perfect, and this one definitely has its issues. i remember getting my first one and then seeing a ton of negative reviews, which kind of killed the excitement a bit. most of the complaints are about reliability, and honestly, they’re not completely wrong.

aaa batteries are easy to find, easy to replace, all of that. but a lot of these cameras sat around for years with batteries still inside. and after enough time, they leak. once that happens, corrosion starts spreading through the contacts and that’s usually the end of it.

that’s why so many of them are dead now. not really bad design, just bad storage and time doing its thing, which is also why finding a clean one feels kind of special.

for me, this is one of those cameras you don’t sell again. not just because it’s rare or looks good, but because once you actually spend time with it, it kind of sticks with you.