During the summer of 2022 I was transitioning between jobs so I didn’t get paid for about 6 weeks. During that time The Photography Show tickets were on sale. I initially said I couldn’t go, but a friend who asked me to join her said she had a camera I could have. The idea was to sell it and raise the ticket fund. This is that camera. Ultimately, I sold a few other cameras and made it through that rough patch while holding on to this.
I thought I had already tried this camera as it was very similar in looks to the other EOS cameras produced by Canon. Well, as you can see by this post…I hadn’t and this is a new to me EOS 🙂
The camera came out in 1988 and is nothing more than a fancy, heavy point-and-shoot. You have no controls whatsoever. You cannot even rewind the film mid-roll, there is no rewind button, and it will only rewind once the film is finished. That is a shame as the specs for the camera are actually quite good. It has a built-in flash, accepts film from 25 to 3200 asa and has speeds to 1/2000th. There is a QD version with a data back.
Other than the program mode the only other choice is the “DEP” function. I copied the page from the manual to try and understand this feature.
Get it? It’s a bit of a weird feature to have on an entry-level, fully automatic camera with no manual settings. This is what one great post said about it…
The DEP setting is more interesting. When set to DEP the camera lets you focus on a near spot you want in focus, then a far spot you want in focus, and then it will set the aperture to attempt to have the whole range in focus. This means stopping down the lens resulting in longer shutter speeds. But the camera does not report to the photographer what settings it is using.
This setting is strange in an entry level camera because you do not have the tools to really make use of it. I doubt an amateur would make use of this feature. This means that the Program setting is probably where the camera would stay.
I agree, I tried to use it once and then kept the camera on program for the rest of the film. What I do find amazing is that the EOS 850 is this camera with some features removed such as the in-built flash. What other feature could be removed from such a basic camera?
I wanted to load it with a roll of Heart ECN-2, but that is when I found an issue with using this film in this camera. With the 750 being totally automatic and only accepting DX-coded films AND this film having no DX code, the camera would set to 25asa. That was way lower than I wanted so I decided to trick the camera. I had some DX codes prepared for 200asa so stuck one of those on the cartridge. I figured there was enough latitude in the film to cope with 50asa over-exposing.
As the EOS 750 does not have a display I could not check if it had worked, so put the altered cartridge in another camera. That one showed 200asa on the display, but also pointed out another thing lacking with the 750. The internal viewfinder gave no indication of what settings the camera had chosen, it only had a green circle to let you know it was in focus. This one indication actually came in very handy. Once powered up, I found that the attached lens failed to automatically focus. I decided to use it in manual mode taking advantage of the focus indication as I didn’t have another EOS lens to hand. I hoped the aperture function still worked.
Here are the results from a walk in the woods.
The film is great and the photos are fine, but the camera really is little more than a fancy point and shoot…with a hefty weight. If I wanted a hefty point and shoot, I would use the Nikon Zoom Touch 800.
So now I will sell or give away this camera …or return it to the previous owner.
Wouldn’t be a high choice for me, either, but you can stick on some exotic lenses and move it out of the p/s range
I guess so, I could play with it in some way. I will put it back in my experimental box.
How bizarre!
Not to offend, but, Gee-Whiz! Found myself staring at the pictures of the camera, rather than the sample shots.
It has the odd, big-shouldered, heavy-muscled, hypertrophied & steroidal look of a gym rat. Which, functionally, it is, I suppose; all looks, with massive physical presence of, ah, limited practical use. The prism hump, especially with flash popped-up, is … Cyclopean.
Heavy,too, is it now?
What were they thinking? I must try and research the 1988 marketing for this thing, try and align this combo of brutalist design & spavined function what Canon must have imagined their target demographic to be.
Wow, that is like text from the movie metropolis. Yeap it is heavy. Now I feel like steam punking it.
Well Peggy, if we were to remember 1988; Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Yuppies making a fast buck, athletes bulked up on steroids etc…all showy things but a bit limited, as such this is the perfect camera for 1988! and to be fair it does take a pretty decent photo…
Yeah, if it blasted music too it would be perfect.
Ok, yeah, found a couple folks selling framed 1988 magazine advertisements on US eBay, and it don’t look any better. A grouping of two looks like a pair of Putin’s generals.
The frames probably cost more than the camera body would.
Well, yeah, Steam Punk fer sher. Big rivets, brass-spiked leather collar. Only don’t return it to the experimentals box; chain it up outside the back door to stop local toe rags breaking into the garden shed.
The previous owner doesn’t want it back if you want to play with it. Send a message via the contact form if you do.
Samsung made a “cyborg” styled p&s in the 1980s, the ECX-1. I believe it was a F.A. Porsche design, no less, but it was yuuge and futuristic in a sort of dystopian fashion. Might be a fun camera for Halloween shooting!
Apparently I missed several of your 2019 posts … the link you provided that tells how to hack DX coding is very useful. Thanks.
I have that camera in my to test box, but havent had time for it yet…it is a bit intimidating looking so I have avoided it.
Meh, 1980s plastic SLRs. Curious if it were a Nikon of the period or slightly earlier how would it be advertised? Big and bulky man’s camera, or a simple point and shoot for the ladies? It was you who told me about the Nikon advert?
Yes thw Nikon EM I think