Canon AE-1

31Mar08

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, but I thought I should have a little chat. A while ago I was browsing Flickr as usual, looking at film camera’s photos specifically. I was contemplating all sorts of things, but the priority in my mind was a medium format film camera, such as a holga, or old TLR of sorts. Once I got over this idea I thought a 35mm camera would be more suitable, particularly because I have access to B&W 35mm film at school and the facilities to develop and print them myself.

So then I set about looking for interesting 35mm cameras and it turns out that there is no real thing unless I went for something like a lomo camera, but those are surprisingly expensive, so I thought I’d have a look at old SLRs from the 70s – 80s. I love the look of these period cameras, such nice chrome and faux-leather, they look great, and the Canon AE-1, (or similar, i.e. A-1, AE-1P, AV-1, AT-1), really shone in my view, mainly because they were being discussed as reliable and nice to use whilst durable.

So, eBay was my next point of call and for about a week I was looking at all sorts of different Canon film SLRs, (whilst also researching the various ones, and other brands such as Olympus and Nikon), again I came back to the Canon because it was very common on eBay, (obviously was popular in it’s day), and thus there were good prices too, so when I finally saw the chance I swooped in and bagged an AE-1 in stellar condition with an aged leather case, manuals and lovely bright red strap for £21.

What I find funny about this price is, that’s £479 less than what my 400D cost me, and already I find myself having more fun and taking better pictures with it, predominantly due to the lack of deleting/infinite shots! So, the camera is great, and I thought I’d just share a few photos from it with you.

This photograph is of a bookshelf at home, and I really like it. The 50mm f/1.8 lens on the front of the camera is deadly sharp and provides a lovely DoF which you can see here.

This photograph was done on Ilford HP5+ film, which I processed and printed at school in our darkroom, and I think it came out well.

After I used up my first roll of HP5+ I remembered that there was this ancient Kodak colour film lying around our house, and I thought I may as well try it and see if anything interesting would come out.

It seemed like it had not worked when I gave it to my photography teacher to get printed in town, (we can only process B&W at school), and it didn’t appear to have come back. I enquired into it, and it turned out that it had, and that the film had worked! Low and behold, the very old film brought out some photos that I really like!

Here is one of the colour prints, the film doesn’t even look that expired, the actual negatives are a little murky, which shows the age, but the prints seem to have done fine, although I think the printers may have done them up a little, (they scan the negatives and digitally print the images).

I really like this shot for the vivid colour of the bricks, and the light window. Furthermore, what you can see through the window I like, the shallow DoF throws it out of focus, but there is in fact a sunset on the other side, which I think works really nicely, and is my favourite point to do with this photograph.

Anyway, it is safe to say that I am really enjoying the AE-1, and it was a sound investment of £21 for a camera that I can imagine myself using for quite some time yet. There is currently a roll of HP5+ sitting in there, with some photos from Switzerland on it, (I went skiing), and still a couple of frames left, so I will be using those up and then seeing how they come out!!

Hope you’re well. Charlie -

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Tags: AE-1, B&W, Canon AE-1, film, photography, photos