Canon EOS 650, a really late review
Released in March 1987, Canon's first EF Mount SLR body has a lot to offer in [insert current year].
When I say a lot, I mean really a film camera is mostly a box that contains film, a shutter, and a way to connect a lens. There's very little to it.
As long as the mechanical bits work - in this case your shutter doesn't stick as is common with the EOS 650, the film motor is still good, and the light meter is still accurate (Canon SLRs have fairly bulletproof light meters), the camera shouldn't let you down.
The quantity on offer then is really the almost 40 years of top quality EF lenses available - which can be found everywhere in both the new and used lens markets.
The EOS 650 then is a lightweight, sturdy feeling body, with a decently deep hand grip. It's made mostly of engineering plastic - which is still plastic but feels high quality. It shouldn’t crack and smash on the first drop, but flex - and in worst case - deform slightly but keep it's shape. The grip is black rubber and will likely separate from the body due to the age of the glue with a moderate amount of handling. This is an easy fix though.
It lacks all of the focus points of late generation SLRs and DSLRs, but really, who cares. Focus and recompose is your friend. It's rare I set the focus point other than an expanded center on my main DSLR body in any case. It's fast enough, although it can struggle in low contrast scenarios. I found myself confirming focus has worked by focusing near and then back onto my subject just so I can visually see the image in the viewfinder snap back into focus.
I purchased the EOS 650 body in a lot of two cameras from a seller on FB Marketplace, along with a Nikon body. I was only really interested in the 650 as it would allow me to use any of my EF lenses with film. It's really in great shape. Almost no visible wear, it looks like it was gently used over the years. It still has some signs of age as the shutter does show some black grease and a few times when shooting vertical I have had sticky shutter.
(Your shutter experience may vary, I didn’t find any rhyme or reason as to when it would fail, vertical or horizontal. For some reason, the 2 rolls of HP5+ had the worst of it.)
It takes a fairly uncommon battery, although you can still find it on Amazon, you might have trouble finding it locally. Based on this, it's not a cheap battery at $15-20 CDN. It's a disposable lithium, non-rechargable. So there's that. But it supposedly will last for 50 to 100 rolls of film. I guess that's not bad? I took a backup battery with me on a recent trip, just in case. I've put 14 rolls through the EOS 650 and the battery meter is still showing 3 out of 3 bars. It's powering the focusing motor, lens IS, exposure meter, and film motor. Not bad! I just find it unfortunate that Canon didn't switch to rechargeables this early in the EF lineup.
Shooting with this camera is a breeze, and should feel very familiar to anyone who has shot with a Canon DSLR before. I personally shoot almost exclusively in aperture priority, however full manual is also an option. The online chatter on this though is that people complain about manual mode being cumbersome. From what I've seen, it's little more than having to hold another button to change settings. Hardly a difficult task. Something that would take only a few minutes to build muscle memory for.
Other than that, if you're looking to get into film photography while using your collection of high quality EF glass, the EOS 650 is a great option. If it's for the historical aspect of this camera - being the very first EF Mount Canon camera, it should go well on your shelf.
