I'd spent the next couple years working on personal project, part self-documentation, part observation, called " Analog 3086." The sole purpose of the project was to foster a stronger relationship between myself and photography. If you want to save money, it’s a good idea to use out of date film, which can still provide some very good shots. How To Use The AE-1 This camera is ideal for someone that is trying to learn film photography, the shutter priority mode makes it a lot easier for amateurs to take better shots without having to worry about the rest of the settings. This camera really lends itself to a beginner. Is The Canon AE-1 Fully Manual? So profound was the experience of the AE-1, even 40 years on, I would not consider buying a Canon camera. That is how much owning the AE-1 hurt! To focus, you simply have to rotate the end of the lens until you find your image is in focus. You will see numbers in white and orange, the white is in Feet and the orange is in meters, this shows you at what distance you are currently focussing on. It also shows you how close is the closest you can focus, which, in this case, is 0.6 meters, or 2 feet.

So I enrolled in a summer darkroom photography course at the local community college. And much to my excitement, a fully-manual camera was at the top of the list for course materials. You’ll also probably need to replace your light seals which is very common in old SLR cameras. If you are getting light leaks in your images then you definitely need to replace your light seals which is very easy to do as you can see here. Final Word The Canon AE-1 is best for all kinds of photography, it’s suited for street photography, documentary photography, portrait, travel, editorial and much more. Since it has a hot shoe you can use a flash, so this camera is suited to all sorts. Obviously, from a client perception point of view, this camera doesn’t really have a ‘wow factor’, so that’s something to bear in mind if you were to use it for anything client facing like portrait or editorial work. To change the aperture, look at the lens from the top view, you’ll see numbers from 1.8 to 16, or similar. Rotate this ring to choose the aperture that you want. You can also shoot this camera in shutter priority by pushing in the small button about 1cm away from the letter ‘A’ and rotating it until it is in the ‘A’ position. Boring, all this “hate” about cameras, in particular if it is about a Canon product (I am no fanboy!). Nobody would write such a review about a Nikon. My main SLR for many years was a Nikon FM-2. Let me cite one passage and swap brand/camera names: “…the design of the Nikon FM-2 can be described as typical of a Japanese SLR made in the mid-70s, which is a polite way to say almost completely unremarkable. The greatest design triumph on the body is the inclusion of the old-school skinny Nikon logo”. Well, you can easily recognize that this and other passages in this review would apply perfectly to an FM-2 or many other cameras made by different brands during that period of classic industrial design.These days, I still use my AE-1 from time to time for sentimental reasons, but it's largely been retired (replaced by a Nikon FM2). Fortunately, the lessons it's taught have been well-learned, and I don't just mean exposure values. It's taught me how to slow down and reconnect with my childhood photographic curiosity, the one that sent me careening down my present career path some 17 years ago. It's taught me how to slow down and reconnect with my childhood photographic curiosity It is perhaps underappreciated that because new 35mm cameras aren’t being made (or at least not produced in volume), we have changed how we evaluate these cameras as a community. When cameras were being produced like any other consumer electronic device, the longevity of a camera was less of a concern. But now, as we see once state of the art electronics fail over the decades, we’ve placed a priority on simplicity. This consideration makes once humble cameras into valuable objects in the film world.

If you want to buy some film and you’re not sure what to buy or where then this article will solve all of your problems. At its most basic, a viewfinder on a SLR should allow you to compose your shot and obtain critical focus. With a split prism, the Canon AE-1 is able to do that with aplomb, so bravo on covering the basics. However in every other way, using the AE-1’s viewfinder is an act of frustration. If you want to know how this camera compares to others, how much you should be paying, some of its common issues and much more then read on! Canon AE-1 Specs

Canon AE-1 Functionality

Personally, I would choose the A1 but that’s purely for aesthetics and the light meter of the A1. If these things don’t bother you and you want to pay a little bit less, the AE-1 is a fine choice. What Kind Of Photography Is The AE-1 Best For? But then when I needed it most, it reemerged: I was a year out of college and working as an assistant magazine editor , commuting daily from New Jersey to midtown Manhattan. At the time, my life revolved around all things photographic, though I had almost no time on-the-job for actual photography. It was around this point I began to feel a creative emptiness bubble inside me along with all sorts of existential dread. You can't force creative passion, so instead reconnect with what made you fall in love with photography in the first place