I'm gonna be honest: the reason for publishing this review is that I'm very unhappy with my camera's extremely poor performance, and partly also the response from Canon to my complaint. The Internet is a great place for whining, so here I am.. Please note that this is based solely on my personal experience, and its validity may obviously vary on a more general basis, unlike what one might expect from more extensive reviews. I claim not to be an expert on this camera -- I merely offer my experience. For what it's worth..
The Canon has a fixed and reasonably fast lens of 32mm f/3.5, and no zoom to compromise image quality and speed, or so I thought. After getting my first rolls of film back from the lab, I soon realized, Canon would in fact be hard pressed to degrade the image quality any further.
I was extremely disappointed with the optical results, as there is an absolutely intolerable circle of overexposure in the center of every frame, and whereas the edges have a amazingly different cast and appearance. On average, the pictures are ok, but a white center and black corners doesn't exactly make for the best grey-card, does it? On some shots, one might think the centre of the film has been subject of x-ray machines or a fault in the film, with its overexposed, foggy zone standing out. That is not the case, as the film speed is only 100 ASA, it happened to several types of film (both print and slides) and some of those were nowhere near a X-ray machine.
The pictures were taken with the sun straight above or from behind, so the horizon should be equal in exposure and color all over (pictures taken with my SLR were just that). There has been made no adjustments to the pictures, and the appearance on the screen is very representative of the actual slides (expect monitor calibration and color balance). Film: Fuji Provia 100 ASA
Unsure of what to do, I scanned some pictures and put them on the web, and asked for comments in the newsgroup rec.photo.equipment.35mm. I got quite a few responses, and they all agreed upon that this quality was absolutely unacceptable. Several of them had a AS-1 themselves. So, I contacted Canon, and we agreed to have the camera and slides shipped to them for closer inspection. I once again specifically mentioned my problems (overexposed center and underexposed border).
After a week or so, I received an email from Canon, explaining that they had checked the camera, and found both its exposure and focus to be in acceptable working order. I immediately sent a response explaining that I was happy with both focus and exposure, but I wanted a comment on the differences in exposure within a frame. I also put up a webpage with these two pictures with samples copied and pasted together, so that there would be no way to misinterpret my intentions.
I received no response, and my server logs showed that they did not even bother to check out the webpage I had set up. Two days later, and much to my naive surprise, the camera arrived in my mailbox, with a note from Canon claiming it to be in fully working order, as explained in the email. Case closed on Canon's behalf it seems.
I'm not quite sure what to think. Possibly a combination of the three? Extensive testing might provide useful clues, but I'm really not that interested. I'll probably use it occasionally, and maybe that will shed some light on the issue. But mainly, I'm preparing to lug my SLR around a lot more..