CanonPrima Super 115u

Place the Canon Prima Super 115u in context and you land in the post-millennium hangover, when production lines wound down and unsold stock filled department-store shelves. Catalogued as a zoom compact, it pairs the Canon Zoom 38–115mm f/5.6–12.9 with a 35mm film path. Worth knowing up front: sold as the Sure Shot 115u in North America and the Autoboy N115 in Japan — same camera, three names.

Format

35mm

Year

2001

Lens

Canon Zoom 38–115mm f/5.6–12.9

Shutter

1/2 – 1/360 s

Min. focus

0.6 m

Flash

Built-in multi-mode with red-eye reduction

Battery

1× CR123A

The Canon Zoom 38–115mm f/5.6–12.9 is the convenience play: a single optical formula that handles groups, snapshots and tighter portraits without ever leaving your hand. On the film-availability spectrum, plain 35mm is as easy as it gets in 2026. A single CR123A lithium cell powers everything including the motor; still cheap and stocked at most camera shops. The built-in flash will fire whenever the meter decides it should, so learn the override before your first night out. Minimum focus is 0.6 m, close enough for a coffee cup or a face but stops short of true macro. Worth knowing in the field: the 'u' badge marked Canon's turn-of-the-millennium rounded design language, shared with the ELPH/IXUS line. The zoom range covers the obvious bases: groups at the wide end, half-length portraits at the long end, no lens changes ever.

The Canon Prima Super 115u won't impress at the pub, but it'll cover a holiday end-to-end without ever asking you to think about glass. A footnote that often comes up: at 115mm the lens slows to f/12.9, so it really wants 400-speed film or the flash for anything indoors.

• §1Sold as the Sure Shot 115u in North America and the Autoboy N115 in Japan — same camera, three names.
• §2The 'u' badge marked Canon's turn-of-the-millennium rounded design language, shared with the ELPH/IXUS line.
• §3At 115mm the lens slows to f/12.9, so it really wants 400-speed film or the flash for anything indoors.
• §4One of the last Prima zooms before Canon shifted its compact energy entirely to digital IXUS bodies.