Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-03-07)

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Testbench C A N O N T- S E R I E S

TheT60,a farmore
conventional35mmSLR,
made for Canon by Cosina

TheT80withitsdedicatedautofocuslenses:

theAC50mmf/1.8fitted,plusthe35-70mm

f/3.5-4.5 and 75-200mm f/4.5 zooms

TheT70with50mm

f/1.8 Canon lens

TheT50fittedwitha
standardCanon50mm
f/1.8 Canon lens

Guide

prices

withstandardlens

T50£15-25

T70£25-30

T80£10-20

T90£90-120

T60 £40-50

THE OTHER T-SERIES CAMERAS

CanonT50

Thefirstof Canon’sT-seriespresenteda newstyleof SLR.
Outwenttheattractivemetal(orsyntheticmetal)bodiesof
thepast,andin camea lookthatwasunashamedlyplastic.
WithanyFDlenssettoits‘A’positionontheaperture
scale,theT50workedentirelyin programmode.Changing
the‘A’settingtoanyindividualapertureautomaticallyset
theelectronicshutterto1/60sec,soa smalldegreeof
manualusewasalso possible. Film wind, but not rewind,
was motorised.

CanonT70

ExtraautomationcamewiththeT70.It includedthrough-

the-lenscentre-weightedaveragemeteringplusselective

areameteringwithfiveexposuremodes:normalprogram

autoexposure,wideprogramwhichbiasedtheautomation

towardssmallerapertures,teleprogramwhichbiasedthe

automationtowardsfastershutterspeeds,shutterpriority

andmanual.Programmedflashautomationwasalso

possibleanda dedicateddatabackwasavailable.All

functionswerecontrolledviaa slidingswitchtoselectthe

meteringpreferenceorself-timer;threebuttonsto

activateexposuremodes,filmspeedorbatterycheck;and

twomorebuttonsmarked‘up’and‘down’forselectingthe

requiredexposuremode,orsettingshutterspeedsfrom 2

secondsto1/1,000secin shutterpriority.Filmloading,

wind and rewind were all controlled by an in-built motor.

CanonT80

Unexpectedly,theT80wasanautofocusSLR.It usedCanon’sAClensesthat

includeda 50mmf/1.8standard,35-70mmf/3.5-4.5zoomand75-200mm

f/4.5zoom.Theautofocusmechanismwashousedin anappendagetothelens,

containinga motorthatoperatedthefocus,whilea chargedcoupleddevice

(CCD)detectedsharpfocusasthepointwhereimagecontrastwasat its

maximum.Exposuremodesincludedregularprogram,deepfocusprogramme

thatfavouredsmallapertures,shallowfocusthatfavouredwideapertures,stop

actionthatfavouredfastshutterspeedsandflowingmodethatfavoured long

shutter speeds. Film loading, wind and rewind were all automated.

CanonT60

ThemissinglinkbetweentheT50andtheT70wasn’t
launcheduntil 1990 – threeyearsaftertheintroductionof
Canon’sautofocusEOScameras.It lookednothinglikethe
otherT-seriesmodels,resemblingmuchmorea conventional
SLRof the1970s,andit wasn’tevenmadebyCanon.Cosina
madethecameratotakemanualfocusFDlensesand
offeredaperturepriorityandmanualexposuremodes.Film
windwasalsomanual.In anagewhenautofocuswasfast
becomingthenorm,it represented a good basic manual
35mm SLR for traditionalists.