Friday, February 17, 2017

Retro Review: Canon FS-5 Solar Card Scientific Calculator

Retro Review:  Canon FS-5 Solar Card Scientific Calculator





Company:  Canon
Model:  FS-5
Type:  Scientific, One Variable Statistics
Year: 1983
Power: Solar
Memory Registers: 1
Operating System:  AOS (prefix)
Statistics:  One Variable
Forensic:  8.9789682 (9, sin, cos, tan, atan, acos, asin)

A Credit-Card Sized Delight

The Canon FS-5 is a thin as a credit card calculators that came popular during the 1980s.  Other calculators that belong to the credit card size are Casio fx-82 and TI-30 SLR.  All the buttons are small, but are responsive, especially the small round clear all ([CA]) button. 

The display is 8 digits (which reduces to 5 digits when powers of ten are displayed). 

One thing to note, the power function is labeled by a^x.

Statistics

The statistics package that the FS-5 offers is very simple:  mean, sample deviation (labeled by σ^(n-1)), and population variance (labeled by v^n).  You enter statistics mode automatically by pressing the [SUM] button and delete last entry by the [INV] [SUM] (DLT).  To return to mathematics mode and clear all statistics registers, press the [CA] button.

Going Green

The FS-5 run by solar power, with no battery backup.  Be sure to be in adequate light. 

This Calculator is Thin!

I think the picture below says it all:



(Thickness comparison:  Casio fx-115 ES, Canon FS-5, Sharp EL-510RN)  (left to right)

Verdict

This is a nice, thin, and simple scientific calculator.  I like the key design, especially since the buttons are small, they are responsive.  The calculator looks pretty cool too.  If you can find one online, consider getting it.  I paid $15, I think that is reasonable, somewhere in the teens. 

Until next time,

Eddie



This blog is property of Edward Shore, 2017.

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