Canon T80

Another 1980s Canon, although, this time we're talking about a fairly unique, if low end, SLR.

I picked up an old Canon T80 for pretty cheap with the AC 50mm f/1.8, and it's really not a bad little camera.  It's not as big as it looks in all of the pictures you see on the internet, but it's full of 1980s quirk and charm.  But what's so special about this camera, you might be wondering, well, in a word: autofocus, to be specific, Canon's first autofocus SLR.

As you can imagine, being the first means that the AF is somewhat primitive and really requires something with fairly good contrast for it to be able to focus on.  But outdoors in bright light AF is both fast and accurate and not as bad as a lot of reviews on the internet make it sound.  The AF motors in the AC lenses are naturally a far cry from today's silent USM models, but they're not obnoxiously loud either.

The major drawback to the T80 is of course the availability of autofocus lenses for it, not that the selection has bad range, there's just nothing there that's anything more than consumerish.  The AC 50mm f/1.8 is probably the star of the trio of lenses available, but it's optically nothing more than the run-of-the-mill FD 50mm f/1.8 with autofocus added.  Additionally, there was an AC 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 standard zoom and an AC 75-200 f/4.5 telephoto zoom.

The camera is auto-loading and auto-winding, so there's no lever advance.  To look at the film transport mechanism, I'd guess that it's the same system that was used with minor modifications in the later EOS models in the 600 series, and I'd wager fairly robust.  Mercifully, with all this automation requiring power, this camera runs on 4 cheap and easy to find AAA batteries.

Some of you might not be aware, but this camera really doesn't have any manual capability aside from manual focus (which is aided both by an electronic rangefinder and a slightly unique four-way split focusing spot).  You can, in one of the auto modes, select 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, or 1/125 second shutterspeed, but honestly that's about it.  The other auto settings do let you sort of set the camera to the type of picture you want to take, but the more advanced modes that we're used to today like Av, Tv, and M are absent.  Even when you attach another FD lens to the camera, you have to set the lens to A (or O depending on vintage) and use it fully automatically.

To some the lack of manual modes may be a drawback, but honestly, this camera is about point and shoot simplicity with FD-lens quality, and in that regard it definitely delivers.