Canon T80?

Fellow Apuggers,
Today I was given a Canon T80 with an incredibly dated looking AF zoom lens attached. Both seem in good condition but I know buggerall about either. It appears to be auto everything. Honest opinions required please, don't be shy. TBH, I've no real use for it (I was given it by a bloke who was re-wiring our house) and in all probability I'll end up giving it away, but I'm curious all the same. Regards, B.

I don't know much about the T80, but you can gave it a try, you might like it.

Jeff

Canon T80

The Canon T80 is an Auto-only type SLR. There are very few setting you can make yourself. If yo do not have fast lenses then by all means use fast film. This will allow the camera to use a high enough shutter speed that you won't get blurred images. The T80 is capable of good results with the right lens and in the right lighting conditions. Mostly the T80 is interesting historically. In 1985 Minolta introduced the Maxxum 7000. This was the first practial and mass produced auto focus SLR. Minolta changed its lens mount when the camera came out but used the screw driver method for focusing the lenses. The motor in the camera turned a crew driver which engaged a slot in the lens. Gears inside the lens caused the elements to move back and forth. The Nikon N2020 and Pentax SF-1 also used the screw driver method. In the case of Nikon and Pentax, this allowed compatibility between older manual focus lenses and the new AF bodies. Canon had a different idea. Canon thought the focusing motor should be in each lens. A smaller lens would need a smaller motor and a larger lens would get a larger motor. This set-up was first used by Canon in the T80. The T80 retained the Canon FD mount but the focusing motor was in the lens assembly. When the Canon EOS 620 and 650 models were introduced in 1986 they continued to use this concept. Many years later Nikon started to switch over its AF lenses so they had focusing motors in each one, just like Canon. The focusing motors in the EOS cameras were more advanced but the concept goes back to the T80.

I'm afraid the T80 was a dead-end in the evolution of Canon cameras. I never used it, but it was reported in it's time to have a fiddly AF, and the rest of the features was just average. Anyway, it should carry all FD lenses, in which you can find gems.

Think of it as a manual focus point&shoot. A fast FD lens and fast film, (400,800), can give you very decent results. User settings are minimal and pretty useless but I found that to be a plus. I didn't get lost in the technicalities of the camera and just set it on program and concentrated on composition. The dedicated autofocus lenses are slow and finicky but you can get an FD 50/1.8 for almost a song.

I would love a T-80. Think about street shooting with this baby
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/7200/canont80.jpg

This Malaysian site is great on Canon F, A and T cameras and their lenses:
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/photography.htm

This is the T-80 main page:
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/SLRs/canont80/index.htm

See the short market time of the T-80.

It's certainly a dinosaur. Listening to the AF grind and hunt is always amusing. Also entertaining are the occasional "What the bleep?" double takes you'll get from others. People see the big red ring on the lens and think it's some new L glass.

OTOH, the lenses are decent and the camera takes fine pictures. I'll bet that if you threw some Ektar 100 in it, the results would surprise you.
The controls and program modes are self-explanatory.
The one unique feature is the small button on the front, just left of the lens mount. Pushing the button adds 1.5 stops (I think) to the exposure, supposedly useful for shooting back-lit subjects.
I've got a pdf of the manual - holler if you can't find it on-line. (Canonfd.com seems to have conked out.)

Go shoot the thing!