Canon developed the E50 to meet growing market needs for lower priced easy-to-operate, fully automatic 8mm camcorders. It was equipped with the basic features of E30, 8x zoom lens, and newly developed slim-design sport finder SF-200 with miniaturized eye-piece lens for cost reduction as standard equipment (sold separately on the E51 NTSC limited-edition), offering lower price, expanded shooting range, and improved operability.

The E51, marketed only in North America, was carbon grey instead of the iron black of the E50 and equipped with a standard finder replacing the sport finder. In addition, an alternate model, the E53, was also developed for the North American market. It retained the simple operation and high image quality of the E50 while adding a high-speed shutter (1/1000 second) that enabled users to shoot sharp video of rapidly moving subjects. The E53 did not incorporate special playback functions such as fine slow and single-frame playback.