Canon T-50: The Amazing Canon FD SLR Point & Shoot Camera

Guest blog by Brian Moore

I’ve enjoyed 35mm point & shoot cameras since the day in the early 80’s when I picked up a Pentax 35AF. It fit fairly nicely in the pocket…not too bulky, it was solid, took decent pictures, had automatic exposure for film up to ASA 400, and came with a built-in flash. I used it constantly for a while, until one day it fell out of my coat pocket and landed with a sickening clatter on the concrete outside the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.

That was that.

Cameras have come and gone since then, including the occasional point & shoot and even a replacement for my Pentax 35AF.

(But I dropped that one too one day, and that was that.)

I currently covet an Olympus XA, though I haven’t been able to score one on E-bay at my price point. (Call me cheap if you want, but some things go for crazy money on the bay.) In the meantime, I’ve discovered a point & shoot whose charms have so stricken me that it’s now my main squeeze: the Canon T50!



Released in March of 1983, the T50 was the first of Canon’s T-series, which achieved its apex with the highly regarded T90.

The T50 is rather a small SLR with a plastic body, auto exposure, auto film advance, a hot shoe and a self-timer, and it will accept film speeds ranging from ASA 25 to 1600.

Canon designed the T50 to be a beginner’s SLR. All the photographer need do is focus and shoot, and when finished with the roll rewind it in the conventional way. But if you’re a beginner who actually wants to learn photography through manipulation of the camera’s functions, the T50 isn’t for you, since it lacks manual over rides for exposure settings.

But if all you need is a second body for your Canon FD system, or a low-cost camera to sling over your shoulder and be at the ready to provide some excellent images, the T50 could be an excellent choice.

Two AA batteries are all the power you need for up to 75 rolls of 24 exposure film. (Or 50 rolls of 36 exposure.) And although by modern standards its firing rate of 1.4 frames per second may seem a snail-like pace, just remember it’s a cheap 1983-point & shoot.



The real beauty of the T50, though: It takes FD lenses! Yes, all that beautiful Canon FD glass you used on your AE-1 will fit on the T50. Just connect the FD lens of your choice, set it to “A” on the aperture ring, and your T50 is ready to point & shoot.





Your images will be as sharp as any other manual focus Canon, and the auto exposure system is flexible enough to make low light shooting not only possible but simple and quite delightful. Put the camera on a tripod or steady it in some other fashion and you may be surprised by the results you get.

Despite its relatively small size, it’s still way too big to fit in a pocket, unless you’re name is Harpo Marx.

All images © Brian Moore

Links to Canon T50 pages on the web

The T-50 - Index Page
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/SLRs/t50/index.htm

Canon T-50 on the Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_T50

How to Use a Canon T50 35mm Camera
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Canon-T50-35mm-Camera

Brian Moore is a listener and regular contributor to the Film Photography Podcast
Brian Moore on Flickr

About The Film Photography Podcast
Launched in October of 2009, the Film Photography Podcast is a 90 minute, bi-weekly Internet radio program, exploring a wide range of topics relevant to the experienced and aspiring photographer using film as a medium. Hosts Michael Raso and Duane Polcou enthusiastically dissect and debate the pros-and-cons of film formats, do-it-yourself techniques, digital technologies, and vintage and contemporary cameras and accessories in a thorough, informative and casual manner. Regular features include Camera tests and reviews, “book of the month”, interviews, a listener-generated Q&A, and film-related giveaways.

Produced in the United States, the Film Photography Podcast is broadcast around the globe via iTunes and direct stream from http://www.filmphotographypodcast.com

Polaroid 210 Automatic Land Camera

Guest blog by Brian Moore



The Polaroid 210 “Automatic” Land Camera was the lower end model of the 200 line. According to the “Land List” (http://www.rwhirled.com/landlist/landhome.htm), a fine resource for Polaroid information, the camera was produced between 1967 and 1969 and sold for a list price of $49.95. It was the first color-capable Polaroid to sell for under $50.00, and Polaroid made some 1,500,000 of them.


above: Me, with my 210 at the age of about 15. Also with my mum and dad. Someplace in Scotland.

I got one of those 210s back then. I still have it, too, although, much to my shame, I condemned the poor thing to life in the back of a closet on or about 1971 when I got my mitts on my first 35mm camera (a Mamiya-Sekor 1000 DTL that I had long coveted).

The term “35mm” had become a mantra to me over the year or two since I had acquired my 210. This, along with the svelte coolness of SLR aesthetics, meant the Mamiya now commanded all my attention, while the square and bulky 210, with its funky bellows and plastic body went the way of the dodo bird.

Assumptions of my 210’s extinction were premature it now seems, for I have recently undergone a metamorphosis. Polaroid Land Cameras are once again cool to me!

What’s more, I find that I am not alone. Film photography blogs and image hosting sites such as Flickr abound with Polaroid users and aficionados.

Why? The answer is hard to grasp given the distinctly lo-fi feature list of a rig like the 210.



above: Foster Freeze Torrance Ca.
below: Ocean Center Building, downtown Long Beach, Ca. Taken from my car window.



With a plastic, two element lens, the 210 would never be the camera you’d turn to for crystal clear images. But if held with a steady hand and peered through with a sharp eye, it’s capable of decent results. I, sadly, must no longer be steady of hand or sharp of eye, for the images my 210 has recently produced have displayed a lack of clarity I would characterize as Diana-esque. (May I call them “dreamy” for the Lomo folks?)

The 210 has two film speed positions, 75 ASA for color film and 3000 for black and white. Film speed is selected with a switch on the top of the lens housing.

You have some manual control of the aperture. You can turn the bezel around the lens to various degrees of “Darken” or “Lighten.”

The shutter and light meter are powered by a 3v battery, and according to the website “Jim’s Polaroid Camera Collection” (http://polaroids.theskeltons.org/), another good source of Polaroid information, shutter speeds range from 1/1200 to 10 seconds. But the 210 lacks a tripod socket so you’d be challenged to get a decent long exposure.

Focusing the 210 is a hoot! You push a lever, linked mechanically to the lens housing, this way or that with the index fingers of each hand, thus positioning the lens nearer to, or further from, the film plane. Simultaneously a scale inside the viewfinder indicates the distance to your subject by means of an arrow that moves up or down through several distance ratings from 3 ½ ft to infinity.



above: Villa Riviera, downtown Long Beach, Ca. Taken from my car window.
below: Vincent Thomas Bridge, Sane Pedro, Ca.Ttaken from the Terminal Island side



Best of all, if your subject is a human being, Polaroid advised that distance can be estimated by placing the viewfinder’s infinity line at the top of your subject’s head then adjusting the movable indicator arrow to your subject’s chin. Actually, it works pretty well.

Taking a photo requires a sequence of steps that Polaroid helpfully guided you through by numbering key components on the camera.

1. Focus by moving the lever with your index fingers
2. Snap the picture using the red button
3. Cock the shutter for the next exposure
4. Pull the white paper tab to pop the leader out for film retrieval

Personally I prefer a 1-3-2-4 sequence, but that’s me.

With the 4 steps above completed, you’re ready to pull the film from the camera, thus initiating the development process.

You’ll have to wait before you peel the picture off the backing paper,…60 seconds, 90, …whatever, depending on the temperature.

For color film in temperatures below 65 degree F, Polaroid supplied a “cold clip.” This was made up of two aluminum plates hinged in book-like fashion with black tape. You placed your exposed film into the cold clip then kept in your pocket or under your arm for warmth while the film developed.

It was all very labor intensive actually, especially compared with modern photographic tools. But maybe this is some of the charm of Polaroid photography. It’s a tangible sense of involvement, of manipulating a mechanical device in search of an accurate representation of what you saw in your mind’s eye, however fleeting that image may have been.

Yet there’s a deeper appeal to the Polaroid process: it is laden with suspense! (Did I load that film right? Is the dark slide in the right place…? Will it come out when I pull it…? Where’s that white tab…? Oh yeah, there it is, whew! What if I pull the white tab and nothing happens…? Is 90 seconds too long a development time…? And so on!)

These questions and more melt away as you peel the film off and reveal the image. It may not look exactly like you thought it would, and the process is neither instant nor uncomplicated, but that picture was made by you and your Polaroid, and there is no other like it.

(You can pick up a Polaroid 210 and other varieties of Land Camera cheaply off E-bay. You’ll probably have to modify the battery connections for modern batteries, but this is easy.

Peel-apart film (FP-100c Color / FP-3000b BW) is manufactured by Fuji and readily available.

A note from Michael Raso
If you plan on purchasing your Polaroid “pack camera” from e-bay, remember to ask the seller if the battery compartment has any corrosion. If corrosion is present, you might want to consider holding out for a clean unit.

About guest blogger Brian Moore
Brian writes mostly about soccer, in particular the European soccer leagues and especially the English Premier League. However, he has been an unapologetic camera nut since his early teens and although he never fully engaged with the digital camera world, he is delighted that he has recently been reawakened to the virtues of film photography.
Brian Moore's Flickr Photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56486443@N08/

About The Film Photography Podcast
Launched in October of 2009, the Film Photography Podcast is a 90 minute, bi-weekly Internet radio program, exploring a wide range of topics relevant to the experienced and aspiring photographer using film as a medium. Hosts Michael Raso and Duane Polcou enthusiastically dissect and debate the pros-and-cons of film formats, do-it-yourself techniques, digital technologies, and vintage and contemporary cameras and accessories in a thorough, informative and casual manner. Regular features include Camera tests and reviews, “book of the month”, interviews, a listener-generated Q&A, and film-related giveaways.

Produced in the United States, the Film Photography Podcast is broadcast around the globe via iTunes and direct stream from http://www.filmphotographypodcast.com