Canon EOS 650

Yes, you read that right it is an EOS 650, not a 650D. This camera was launched in March 1987 on Canon’s 50th Anniversary and at the time it was a pretty big deal. It was Canon's first EOS camera, long before EOS digital, and their first to have an Electro Focus mount. The design was very innovative, placing the focusing motors in the lens rather than the camera body and naturally, Canon made a huge song and dance about it at the time of launch.  

Well, for an early autofocus camera this model is pretty impressive. We obtained a 50mm f/1.8 lens for it and took it for a spin and the autofocus works really well, though sometimes backlit subjects, or horizontal stripes catch it out, but that's just nitpicking. The viewfinder is nice and large and in terms of buttons and dials the offerings are pretty minimalist, so it's not as intimidating to use as more modern cameras. 

 

The flash sync speed is 1/125, and the camera has a DX code reader, but you can change the ISO settings with the buttons on the back panel. There are other buttons for exposure compensation and depth of field preview. 

 

The camera uses matrix metering (six segment evaluative) by default, or you can choose spot metering. If you want to take a reading for a backlit subject you should use the ‘partial metering’ function. 

Continuous mode shoots 3 frames a second, and the self timer gives you 10 seconds to get in the frame.

There are 5 shooting modes: Programme, Time Value, Aperture Value, Manual, and DEPTH. DEPTH makes everything in focus between a preselected point in the foreground and another in the background.

The fastest shutter speed is 1/2000 and the slowest is 30 seconds, but there is also a bulb mode, which counts the number of seconds of exposure for you on the display.

All in all a neat and very capable camera. We were lucky to find one in such good condition. If you're used to cameras indicating under- and overexposure wit a +/- bar in the display, you may find this camera's instructions to 'Op' and 'Cl' (i.e. open aperture/close aperture) a little confusing at first. Otherwise the controls are pretty straightforward and loading is completely idiot proof. 

This camera slots into our collection at an interesting point. It shares many features with the Minolta Dynax 5 yet is two decades older and roughly contemporary with our Olympus OM101. This one is a little more primitive than the Dynax, and more 'grown up' than the OM101. The OM101 is aimed more at consumers in that it is almost completely idiot proof with an emphasis on fully automatic pointing and shooting. It also lacks autofocus, instead offering power focus, which is an electronically driven manual focus. So all in all a very different shooting experience. The Dynax is a highly sophisticated machine with automatic everything, snappy response and a plethora of shooting modes, which we can see making their way into the market via the EOS 650.

The EOS 650 also marked the introduction of a whole new range of EF lenses which are still compatible, desirable, and expensive today. Olympus made the power focus lenses specifically for the OM101, so they are not in high demand now and are reasonably cheap, however, they are jaw droppingly good optically. I'd hesitate to claim therefore that the Canon is better. There's no point comparing chalk and cheese. The cameras are very different and both great fun.