Canon T50 SLR Film Camera with Canon FD 50mm F1.8 lens, Programmed Automation, Automatic Film Transport and Automatic Light Meter

Canon was one of the first to take the usability and automation of a point-and-shoot camera and adapt it into an SLR body, and in 1983 they released a camera that would be one of the simplest SLRs of all time, the Canon T50.
When looking at the blank slate that makes up the top of the T50 one is immediately underwhelmed. There are nowhere near the number of knobs, dials, and switches that photographers expect. Beyond the shutter button and ASA dial there exists only one other dial. This sad, little knob changes the mode from Program to Self-Timer, and rotates for a Battery Check. Most conspicuously absent is any kind of shutter speed selector. That’s because the T50 has an entirely automated shutter.
Canon did develop this machine to be a real SLR. This is most evidenced by Canon’s decision to equip the camera with their universal FD mount, allowing the use of their full range of SLR lenses. The FD range is fairly massive and can stand against any other brand’s contemporary lens range. Couple the T50 with Canon’s rather wonderful FD 35-105mm F/3.5 and you’ve got a completely capable manual focus zoom camera. For standard lens sizes the 50mm F/1.8 is perfection, producing extremely sharp images and great bokeh (when the T50 allows it). Color rendition is also incredible with the 50mm F/1.8.

Important also is the fact that each FD lens offers fully manual aperture control. This means that mounting an FD lens on a T50 gives the photographer some control over depth of field, one of the most important aspects of artistic photography. The caveat with using FD lenses in this way on the T50 is that whenever the lens is set to a manual aperture (not “A” mode), the T50 locks the shutter speed at 1/60th of a second. So, while some artistic control is returned to the shooter, the T50 is in no way a fully manual camera. Think of it as a point and shoot of any focal length with impeccable image quality.

Even with this limitation on creative control, the T50 is a pretty fun camera to use. It create a kind of freedom that’s difficult to find with the more “serious” machines, allowing the photographer to focus less on the science of exposure and more on producing the desired artistic effect through framing and composition. Additionally it’s possible to change your exposures a bit and compensate for the locked shutter speed.

The T50 is a remarkably fun camera. It’s solidly built, and when paired with FD lenses it’s capable of producing outstanding images. The camera design actually lends itself very well to shooting, with the camera staying perfectly balanced on a strap or in the hand. The bulbous hand-grip does its job better than countless more attractive machines, and the oddly angular texturing on the back facilitates perfect one-handed operation.

The viewfinder is amazingly bright and massive. The microprism and split-image rangefinder focus assist makes using the manual focus only FD lenses an incredibly simple task. To the right of the image window there’s an LED display showing “P” or “M” mode. “M” denotes that the aperture ring on the lens has been set to any other aperture outside of “A”, for automatic. Beyond this, the only information is that when the light meter has set a shutter speed slow enough to produce image shake, the “P” blinks slowly. When the light parameters have been judged to exceed the capabilities of the camera the “P” flashes rapidly and the shutter will not release.

The camera offered with FD mm F1.8 lens, but it could be re-packed with FD 50mm F1.4 S.C.C. lens and that would seriously raise the quality of your photos. The camera comes with original printed manual.


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