My friend Emma moved to Australia recently 🙁 but she left me with one of her cameras and gave me a disposible one to use up 🙂 It’s not quite balanced out, but maybe the distraction will make me feel better. The T50 even had an f1.4 lens attached.

First, here is the disposible…

The film inside expired in 2003, that meant there was probably no chance the flash was still working with the original battery. I decided to change it if I could, as the film would need all the extra light it could get. Getting access was pretty easy, the battery was on the base, under the sticker and held by a thin, plastic strip. The original battery hadn’t leaked which was lucky, so it was a simple swap.

Once charged, the flash worked perfectly. I took the camera to Oxford and quickly used up the 25 frames. I was right about the flash. Where I used it, the photos were reasonable. Where I didn’t…they sucked. Here are a few from that cartridge.

Well, that was…weird.

I then focussed on the Canon T50. I loaded it with a roll of bulk loaded Ilford Pan 400 and also took it to Oxford. It was an Emma day as I had two of her cameras and I met the woman who took her job at Analogue Wonderland 🙂 I finished the roll in Lichfield.

It goes without saying that Oxford was gorgeous. I stayed the weekend and for the first day wandered with a Canadian friend, she had a plan of things she wanted to see which suited me perfectly, no thinking involved. Good friend are the ones you meet again after a few years and it was like you only saw each other yesterday. I had a great time, I hope she did too…she laughed a lot anyway. The second day I met a couple of people from the #sheheartsfilm group and we went to different places, including the story museum. I highly recommend that place if you like children’s books. As I am a little person teacher, I certainly do.

Lichfield was visited on the recommendation of another friend. She is a work mate and we often eat lunch together. She knows I like taking photographs and wandering around. She follows me on Instagram, I think stalking, she says not 😉 For a few days before the Christmas holiday, she said, “you should go to Lichfield, I am from Lichfield, it’s nice…you should go to Lichfield.” To be honest Lichfield wasn’t on my radar at all, I knew nothing about it…then I got a bit bored and thought it would be fun to post photos of Lichfield on Insta to see if she noticed. It took her a matter of seconds to respond, “Lichfield!!!!!” Have I mentioned I went to Lichfield?

Actually, I loved it. The cathedral was stunning and I really enjoyed the Samuel Johnson museum, pity about the constant rain.

Here are most of the shots from that roll:

Well, the photos came out ok, but how did I feel about the camera? I didn’t like it. Sorry Emma, but I didn’t. You have no control whatsoever. It is a glorified point and shoot. You set it to program and put the lens on A and shoot away, with no information on what the camera chose. You can take the lens off A, but then the camera only shoots at 1/60th. This reviewer didn’t like it either, even calling it ugly…harsh, but true. Actually, that review is one of the funniest I have ever read.

Of course, it is a Canon and the f1.4 is a great lens. So the metering was spot on and it worked really well, but I want the option of control even if I choose not to use it sometimes.

Here are some other reviews, which kind of agree this camera from 1983 is ugly, lacking in functions, but a Canon so just works.
https://casualphotophile.com/2014/05/05/canon-t50-camera-review/
https://mikeeckman.com/2015/12/quick-review-canon-t50-1983/
https://www.35mmc.com/16/10/2023/canon-t50-loving-the-unloved-ignored/

I will save it somewhere and give it back to Emma when she returns, right now she is sitting on a pumpkin??