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Canon T50: manual and user guide

The Canon SLR with programmed exposure and a built-in motor. Its original manual, then the essentials for using it.

View the manual on butkus.orgOriginal scanned manual · 32 pages · in English and German

Manual scanned and put online free of charge by Mike Butkus, whose library runs on donations. The link opens his model page, where you can download the PDF.

Getting started

Batteries Push the latch on the cover under the body: it opens by itself. Insert two new 1.5 V AA batteries of the same brand, the way shown on the back of the cover. The manual recommends LR6 alkalines and rules out Ni-Cd. Turn the selector to B.C.: if it beeps, the batteries are good.
Sensitivity While pressing the release button, turn the film speed dial until your film’s ISO value is opposite the green index. It goes from ISO 25 to 1600 (ASA), the dots mark the intermediate values.
Loading Pull the rewind knob up: the back opens. Put the cartridge in out of the sun, push the knob back down while turning it, pull the film leader to the orange mark, perforations on the sprocket teeth, and close the back. With the selector on PROGRAM, keep your finger on the shutter button until the counter stops at 1 by itself.
Your first photo While pressing the small AE lock release, set the aperture ring to A: without this setting, there’s no automatic exposure. Focus with the focusing ring, then press halfway: a steady green P on the right of the viewfinder signals correct exposure. Press all the way, the motor advances the film.
Rewinding At the end of the roll, the advance stops and the camera beeps. Press the rewind button under the body, then turn the crank in the direction of the arrow until it turns freely. Only open the back at that point: the counter returns to S.

What it can do

It chooses the shutter speed, from 2 s to 1/1000 s, and the aperture by itself: it’s a programmed-exposure camera.
The built-in motor advances the film in about 0.7 s. Keep your finger on the shutter button to shoot frame after frame.
10 s self-timer on the SELF position, with beeps that speed up 2 s before the shutter fires.
A P blinking slowly, twice per second, warns of a risk of camera shake (1/30 s or slower): flash or tripod. If it blinks fast, the picture can’t be taken.

Which lenses?

Canon FD mount, and FD lenses only. Line up the red dot on the lens with the one on the body and turn until the release button clicks.
With the aperture ring off A, the shutter speed stays at 1/60 s and a red M appears in the viewfinder.
Not suitable: FL lenses, the TS 35 mm f/2.8, the Fish-eye 7.5 mm f/5.6, the Reflex 500 mm f/8, the Macrophoto 20 and 35 mm, and extension tubes and bellows without AE signal pins.

The flash

X sync at 1/60 s, direct contact on the hot shoe.
The manual recommends the Speedlite 244T, designed for the T50: it sets the shutter speed and aperture (f/2.8, f/4 or f/5.6) by itself according to distance. Switch to flash when the green P starts blinking.
With A-series Speedlites, the 533G or the 577G, the shutter speed and aperture set themselves when the charge lamp is lit.
The flash-ready lamp in the viewfinder lights up when the flash is charged.

Good to know

In the L position on the selector, all circuits are switched off, for safety.
Stated battery life with alkalines: 75 rolls of 24 exposures or 50 of 36 at 20 °C, 9 and 6 at -10 °C.
Below 0 °C, keep the camera and spare batteries close to your body: a cold battery can come back to life once warmed up. Remove the batteries if you’re not using it for three weeks or more.
If the mirror stays up after rewinding, press the rewind button: it drops back into place.
With the back open, don’t touch the shutter curtain.

T50 specifications

Format: 135 film, 24 × 36 mm frames
Mount: Canon FD, FD lenses only
Shutter: vertical-travel focal-plane, electronic, from 2 s to 1/1000 s, 1/60 s off A
Metering: through the lens, centre-weighted, silicon cell, EV 1 to 18 at ISO 100
Sensitivity: ISO 25 to 1600 (ASA), set by hand
Viewfinder: fixed pentaprism, 92% of the image vertically and 93% horizontally, 0.83× magnification
Flash: X sync at 1/60 s, direct-contact hot shoe, automatic flash with the Speedlite 244T
Film advance: built-in motor, about 0.7 s per frame, automatic loading to frame 1
Power: 2 AA batteries (1.5 V), LR6 alkaline or zinc-carbon, no Ni-Cd
Dimensions and weight: 150.2 × 87 × 48.4 mm, 490 g (body only)