The most common user errors with film cameras all have something in common: the film itself.
- taking pictures when the camera has no film
- not loading the film correctly so it doesn’t wind on
- opening the back of the camera before the film is rewound
- not setting the light meter to the correct film speed
Film loading in particular was difficult in the early days, cameras like the Leica were loaded from the bottom. Companies invented various “easy load” and “quick load” systems but none fixed the problems entirely. The ultimate solution was automating film handling. It became popular and soon even the most basic consumer-level cameras had it. This was good because these were the people that needed it the most.
Canon introduced automated film advance and rewind in their T-series in the early 1980s. The cheapest T50 only had motorised film advance; the T70, T80 and T90 had motorised film advance and rewind.
The film loading system introduced in the T-series was used in the first generation of EOS film cameras that followed them in 1987. Later EOS models differ only slightly.
