[1][2] It was launched in November 1979[1] and received the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry's 1980 Good Design Award in September 1980.

[2] It proved successful among similar cameras from the competition and sold well; production reached 110,000 per month by the second half of 1981.

The active autofocus system used a near-infrared emitting diode and a PIN photodiode to determine the subject position by triangulation in a manner similar to a coincident-image rangefinder.

This meant that the system was independent of ambient light levels and achieved a high degree of accuracy; however, it could be fooled by glass (which is not transparent to infrared radiation).

Film transport was fully automatic in both directions, but the camera was not fitted with Canon's Quick Load feature; film still had to be manually threaded to the take-up spool.