Just Got Canon A-1

djmike · Joined: 01 Apr 2009 Posts: 930 Location: Taiwan

Just received Canon A-1 with FD 50/1.8. The SN# is 22xxxxx. I know this FD 50/1.8 is so so-so but is any body have the experience of Canon A-1? From SN#, which year is it built? Mike

marty · Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 767 Location: Italy

Here a link to the code system for manufacture year of Canon products: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Canon-Lens-Aging.aspx. I own both the camera and the lens. The body has a good manufacture and feels robust and heavy. In the exterior part there is nothing that looks or feels cheap or prone to breakage. Even the battery door, that in other A-series models is known to be weak, seems to be more solid due to the fact that it's protected by the action grip (to be noted that the door itself is the same, excluded AV-1 & AL-1 if my memory is not failing me). The first thing to check, apart from obvious winding mechanism and shutter, are the film door light traps as the foam could be deteriorated from the age. Known issues are the infamous squeak sound, common to all the series, that could develop due to lack of lubrication in the mirror mechanism and led display fault. The former can be cured by a CLA, the latter I'm afraid there's no cure due to lack of spare parts. The battery is the commonly available (at least is Europe and U.S.) PX28/L544.
The only thing I find a annoying is the DOF preview: after been checked the shutter must be re-cocked in order to make the picture. Apart from this I can say it's a good and reliable camera. The metering system is accurate and versatile. Talking about the lens I have the old 50 1,8 SC breechlock. The manufacture is very good and compared to the new FD lenses I own feels more solid (in fact the barrel is almost all metal). Optically is in general a good performer, BUT, beware the situations when flare is to be expected. In this case tends to flare badly, maybe a hood (which I do not have) could help a bit. The f1,4 (which is SSC, multicoated that is) is surely a better option.
Hope this helps.
Regards, Marty.

scsambrook · Expire: 2011-11-18

The f1.8 is good - I've had both versions, sold the breechlock and kept the later one because it's lighter so much easier/quicker to mount and remove. Optics are the same, the later version is multi coated, and flare's never been any more of problem than wth any other lens I own. You can use any old lenshood, either 55mm or 52mm screw-in, the collapsable rubber ones are great - use it fully extended, no worries about vignetting in my experience.

I've never really understood the fascination with the 1.4 ... an extra half stop is neither here nor there, either for low light or diffused backgrounds. Any extra viewfinder brilliance with the 1.4 is down to scattered light which actually reduces contrast in the window ...

Having said all that, I do know you can sometimes pick up a 1.4 for around £30 -35 on eBay UK, so there's no longer any discussion about value for money ! We can all have both these days.

We Canon film users will be in big trouble if the digital folks start using "our" lenses on the new micro format cameras .. bye-bye cheap lenses then.

djmike · Joined: 01 Apr 2009 Posts: 930 Location: Taiwan

Marty & Stephen, thanks for sharing.
Initially I check the body and lens, they are in good shape and not faulty. Body is quite tough, meter works fine and shutter does not squeak. Yep, I shall find a hood in case flare issue. I can not wait for my first flim and shall have some trial after long rain in Taiwan.
1.4 for around £30 -35 seem good but mostly I found is at US100 level. I got this A-1 with 1.8 at £46 and I think price is fair.
Mike

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Hiya djmike,

Hey, my wife is from Taiwan -- town of Tamshui, which is a bit north of Taipei, up by the river's mouth. Cool little place last time I was there, which was about 15 years ago Sad

My first "good" camera was an A-1. I bought mine in 1983, and put hundreds of rolls through it without a hitch. I found my New FD 50/1.8 to be very sharp and contrasty. Never really felt the need for the 1.4.

I think the A-1 works great with broad-latitude films, such as most negative films. Once I started shooting slides, however -- almost exclusively Kodachrome -- I began having exposure problems. I learned it was Canon's bottom-center-weighted metering pattern that was the culprit. My biggest problem was underexposure, which would occur if the least bit of bright light (like the glint of reflected sunlight off a piece of chrome) was within the frame.

About this same time, I had become desirous of exploring the nuts and bolts of photography more, and learned another shortcoming to the A-1 (and to all other A-series Canons, except for the AT-1 and AV-1, I believe), namely that the aperture ring is not coupled to the meter, so that when shooting in manual mode, I would always have to look away from the viewfinder to check my aperture setting. So, I bought an FTb. Gawd, I loved that camera. It was everything the A-1 wasn't -- selective metering area, which was perfect for slides, and match needle metering. Within the year, I bought my first Old F-1, and never looked back. The A-1 was relegated to duty as an occasional backup, or for metered low-light situations.

Still, it is a solid, capable camera that has withstood the test of time. Within its limitations, it does an excellent job. I certainly took many outstanding photos with mine.

Best,
Michael

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

****and learned another shortcoming to the A-1 (and to all other A-series Canons, except for the AT-1 and AV-1, I believe), namely that the aperture ring is not coupled to the meter, so that when shooting in manual mode, I would always have to look away from the viewfinder to check my aperture setting. **

..isn't that a problem with most cameras? Out of my collection of mainly cheaper cameras, the only camera that shows the aperture in the viewfinder is the Minolta X-700 (well IIRC and without checking them all).

djmike · Joined: 01 Apr 2009 Posts: 930 Location: Taiwan

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

ermm You said........ "shortcoming to the A-1 (and to all other A-series Canons, except for the AT-1 and AV-1, I believe), namely that the aperture ring is not coupled to the meter".

Well you have confused me in that most cameras will show the shutter speed changing in the viewfinder when manually changing the aperture, and you said "you have to take your eye away from the view finder to see the f-stop you are selecting"...........indeed you do for most cameras BUT not for the X-700.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

apersson850 · Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 3 Location: Traryd, Sweden

You do remember correctly.
The Canon A-1 displays the shutter speeds in white (normal times) with a black background on the dial, when set to Tv (shutter speed priority).
When you switched to Av, the other half of the dial became visible, and there you had the aperture scale in black on yellow.
The lens was set to A for both modes.

Canon did have an aperture coupling on their FD lenses, and quite a clever one. Unlike Nikon, who required the user to make the typical fork connect to the camera's sensing system, Canon's system was internal to the mount, and also works both ways, due to the spring loading.
Thus the same lever can be used to tell the camera which aperture the lens is set to, but also for the camera to force the lens to a certain aperture. It only takes that the lens outpowers the weaker "information spring" in the lens, when the camera wants to execute an aperture setting.

That Canon opted for automatic aperture with their first automatic exposure cameras for the FD system, the Canon EF and AE-1 (if we don't count the F-1 with Servo EE finder) was probably because they could. Due to this clever aperture mechanism, Canon could fairly easily design a camera with automatically set aperture, where several other manufacturers had to use shutter speed automation.
For the kind of photos I often try to take, a fixed shutter speed is better, if I have to choose only one. So that's the reason I ended up with Canon, since I evaluated Canon EF against the Nikkormat EL. Canon had shutter speed priority, so they won.

I also have the Canon T90, and none of these automatic cameras has any match needle style metering when metering fully open. Only when using stopped down metering do they have that. In the EF, you match the needle to a mark, in the T90 you have the exposure scale and the OPen/CLose marks.

But if you want to set the exposure fully manually, you either have to make your own decision, or look at the aperture scale in the viewfinder of the Canon EF, then set that or whatever aperture you like on the lens, when you look at the lens.
The shutter speed was easy to adjust on the Canon EF, though. Today, you can operate the shutter speed dial when looking through the viewfinder, but back then it was not that easy. Many camers had it located on their top, in such a way that you had to change the grip of the camera to grip the dial. But the Canon EF was a pioneer with the shutter speed dial protruding out over the edge of the camera body, making it easy to adjust whilst looking through the viewfinder. In the viewfinder, the whole bottom part (below the actual image area) consists of a long scale with all 17 shutter speed settings the EF supported (another pioneer...), and a fork which frames the one you have selected.

trev · Joined: 30 Jun 2010 Posts: 580 Location: North Wales - UK

Great camera/lens combo. Forget the shortcomings, get out and enjoy the camera and take loads of pictures and you will soon learn enough to overcome any shortcomings.
I MUCH prefer to use my A1 rather than my other cameras including my Canon 20D digi.
If you're worried about exposure get a hand held exposure meter and learn that way