Today I went to a pawn shop I visit to check out cameras. I found an EF50mm 1.8 MK1 metal base lens I wanted. They won't sell it without the body. I know these lenses can sell for over a hundred (because I sold one for that once). They went down to $135 for the lens and the EOS 850 body. I know nothing about that body. I can find nothing about that body on any search I run. I want to buy that combo, keep the lens, and sell the body along with a nice little zoom I have on eBay. Can someone tell me if this might be a sellable auction item and any info about that particular body would be most helpful?

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), January 30, 2001

Answers

I don't know much about it, but let's face it, anything seems to be saleable on eBay. I know it is a very basic body, and you can check out specifics at:

www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/f_camera.h

-- Brad Hutcheson (bhutcheson@iname.com), January 31, 2001.

for some reason, the entire link didn't get pasted.

www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/f_camera.html

-- Brad Hutcheson (bhutcheson@iname.com), January 31, 2001.

Hey Todd,

Introduced in 1988, the 850 is just like the 750 except it doesn't have a built in flash. It is an auto only camera with two modes; Program and Depth. No manual! It prewinds the film, Rebel like. It fires at a maximum speed of 1.2 frames per second, has shutter from 2- 1/2000 seconds and flash syncs at 1/125 second.

It's the lowest of the low in the EOS line. I'd rate it even behind the EF-M, which didn't have autofocus but did have other features.

The 700 was the next step up and all these predated the Rebel. I have seen the 850's sell on Ebay for nearly $100 without a lens. Obviously someone isn't paying attention.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), January 31, 2001.