Terrible exposure. Faulty camera or faulty film roll?

RonKolos · Feb 14, 2025

Hi Everyone,
I recently bought a cheap old Canon T50 SLR point and shoot camera. It's a really old thing, but I enjoyed using it. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't have the settings and ability for me to adjust ISO, aperture or anything really. I took 32 photos with my first film roll - Kodak 400 ISO - and I set the switch on the back of the camera to 400 to match the ISO film (this is for the light sensor). The photos that were developed came out really terrible. They were all just dark without any detail or color. I've tried enhacing and improving them on photoshop, but the only way to make them even a little bit acceptance and visible is by adding a black and white filter and crancking up the contrast to the max. Have a look and let me know what, in your opinion, could be the issue here? I wonder if it was a dodgy film roll or if the camera is buggered.
The 3 images below is how they all turned out:

And the below is what you get by trying to improve them somehow:

koraks · Feb 14, 2025

RonKolos said:
I recently bought a cheap old Canon T50 SLR point and shoot camera. It's a really old thing, but I enjoyed using it. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't have the settings and ability for me to adjust ISO, aperture or anything really.

You can set the aperture on the lens. With aperture ring on the lens set to 'A' the camera will work in Program-auto exposure mode. ~~You can set the aperture on the lens to any value you like for aperture-priorty exposure. (not on the T50...)~~ The film speed (ISO) dial is on the top of the camera, left side, combined with the rewind crank.

RonKolos said:
Kodak 400 ISO

Tri-X? TMAX? Portra? UltraMax? How old was the film?

RonKolos said:
The photos that were developed

Developed by whom, and how?

Please show a photo of the actual negatives so we can better see what's going on. Please see here for hints on how to do this: https://www.photrio.com/forum/resou...nsparencies-for-troubleshooting-purposes.461/

Overall, the problems you experience are most likely due to user error and/or digitization/scanning problems. The former is the most likely cause of this problem.

RonKolos · Feb 14, 2025

I had the aperture on the lens set at 1.8 the whole time.
I'm not sure exactly which Kodak 400 it was. Here's a photo of the film canister. I don't know what the expiry date was.
I had them developed at a local photo developing shop where they do film development and printing etc.
I've checked the negatives, and the whole film roll appears to be blank. It's just dark orange throughout and I don't see any images on it at all. I've also checked it all with a little 'Klim K2 Mobile Film Scanner', nothing shows up.
I'm not sure what to do. Should I go ask for my money back, or am I at fault here?

koraks · Feb 14, 2025

RonKolos said:
I had the aperture on the lens set at 1.8 the whole time.

Why?
~~Did you note the shutter speeds the camera chose? Did they make sense?~~ (sorry, you can't do that on a T50...)
What ISO is the camera set to?

RonKolos said:
It's just dark orange throughout and I don't see any images on it at all.

This implies that the film was virtually unexposed. So either the camera chose a very high shutter speed that resulted in inadequate exposure, or the aperture wasn't set to f/1.8 as you thought it was. I think that's at least part of the problem given the depth of field in the street scene with the bridge in the background. The depth of field at f/1.8 would have been very small, yet everything in the scene is sharp. That must have been shot with a small aperture (large f/value).

RonKolos said:
Should I go ask for my money back, or am I at fault here?

I think you should read some basic texts about exposure and then try again with a fresh roll of film of known provenance. If you start with something like Kentmere in black & white, it'll be a somewhat cheaper experiment overall.

OAPOli · Feb 14, 2025

Looks like gross underexposure.

Here is the manual: https://www.cameramanuals.org/canon_pdf/canon_t50.pdf

The T50 is program AE only. It will shoot at 1/60 unless the lens is set at "A". Please check how the aperture behaves when not it "A"; maybe it stops down regardless hence the underexposure.

It's not a point and shoot. It requires manual focusing and setting up the ISO speed (around the rewind knob).

koraks · Feb 14, 2025

OAPOli said:
It will shoot at 1/60 unless the lens is set at "A".

You're right!

I think @RonKolos is best served by getting another camera that gives more control over exposure, combined with studying a basic text/tutorial on metering & exposure. The camera doesn't have to be particularly fancy. Anything that works, allows manual aperture and/or shutter speed control and has a working light meter would be OK to start out with.

RonKolos · Feb 14, 2025

Ok, thanks both.
I'll give it a try with the aperture set to A on the lens next time. I probably accidentally moved the setting to something else why focusing the lens, but the A setting stays locked in place which is good.

koraks · Feb 14, 2025

Yes, they've made the A setting locking for this reason.
Sorry for setting you off on the wrong foot here and there; I was thinking of the T60 I have briefly owned, which offers a bit more functionality.

RonKolos · Feb 14, 2025

That's ok, I knew what you meant actually, because I've got a Canon T70 as well (which I absolutely love). I bought it a few days after the T50.

koraks · Feb 14, 2025

RonKolos said:
Canon T70

Err...that's the one I meant actually. I only had it briefly (unless I still have it in a box somewhere). That was a nice camera despite its minor quirks. Really, I'd use that for a while until you get the hang of proper film exposure and then maybe have another look at the T50.

MattKing · Feb 14, 2025

As you have come to a reasonable understanding about the issue, I feel I can finally respond to this thread with my initial, extremely tongue in cheek response to your thread title, without risking offending you.
Please take this with the humour that it is intended to be read with:

"Terrible exposure. Faulty camera or faulty film roll?"
You missed one: "operator's mistake!"

Have fun with your cameras. As you encounter these challenges, and then learn from them, the reward increases exponentially!
And don't hesitate to continue asking questions.

loccdor · Feb 15, 2025

I once lost a whole trip's worth of photos on a Canon T90 because I was changing the aperture on the camera dial without having the lens set to 'A'. Now I always make sure to dry-fire FD mount cameras while looking at the lens to see if the aperture closes properly, before I use them with film.

koraks · Feb 15, 2025

loccdor said:
I once lost a whole trip's worth of photos on a Canon T90 because I was changing the aperture on the camera dial without having the lens set to 'A'.

I had a similar mishap the other day when shooting a series using studio strobes and a T90. This was the other way around, though - I switched lenses and failed to turn the lens to manual aperture, so the camera left it wide open while it should have been stopped down to f/11. I ended up overexposing part of the series by 4 stops. This was on Kodak Double X and apart from the limited depth of field, the scans and prints came out just fine...

loccdor · Feb 15, 2025

koraks said:
I had a similar mishap the other day when shooting a series using studio strobes and a T90. This was the other way around, though - I switched lenses and failed to turn the lens to manual aperture, so the camera left it wide open while it should have been stopped down to f/11. I ended up overexposing part of the series by 4 stops. This was on Kodak Double X and apart from the limited depth of field, the scans and prints came out just fine...

Now that I think of it, I should try redigitizing those photos. The flatbed I was using at the time couldn't handle that much overexposure, but I bet my DSLR can...

Sirius Glass · Feb 15, 2025

Welcome to Photrio! You have made some interesting progress with your work on this camera.

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