Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week. Me? So, So. I've been dealing with Kidney Stones. UGGH! But today so far a good day. The other day Robert (my photo wingman) and I were going to the Virginia International Raceway to shoot a car festival. But on the way to Virginia the Pain from my Kidney stones got so bad that we had to turn around before we got there and come home. We'll make it to VIR in the future. But we had a good 4 hours worth of driving and lots of good talk and of course if your talking to me lately film will come up. I know film is old science compared to all of the new digital cameras but there is just something about it that I like. Anyway he said that he had some cameras that someone had gifted him and he had never shot film before so I told him I would have a look at it and run a roll of film through it to see if it worked or not. He brought me the camera and it was a Canon AE-1 Program. Now I have heard about the Canon AE-1 before and what I didn't know is that there are a few versions of the basic AE-1. The AE in the name of the camera stands for Automatic Exposure. The original came out in 1976 and can shoot in Shutter Priority and Manual and is very solid camera and became a favorite among photographers. In 1981 the Canon AE-1 Program came out and its about the same as the AE-1 but can also shoot in program mode where the camera basically becomes a point and shoot and all you have to do is focus. It will also shoot in shutter priority and Manual.  Then there was the Canon A-1 which will shoot in shutter , aperture and program mode and manual. Does it all but is a little different design from the AE-1 and AE-1 Program.  Confused yet? LOL I was too I had to do a lot of research to figure out these camera's. So from what I could deduce from online is that the AE-1 and the AE-1Program were the more popular camera's and the A-1 although it can do more wasn't. The Canon AE-1 series of camera's was very popular for Canon and in 1984 the olympic were coming to the US and Canon even had Olympic versions of the cameras. This copy isn't that it was built after the Olympics in 1984.

So I got this camera to test out and first things first I had to figure out what kind of battery does it use and how to get it installed. This camera must have a battery to operate not like most of my camera's that only need a battery to work the meter. So I googled and figured out that the battery compartment is on the front of the camera and found that it uses a 6 volt battery 4LR44 just like that my medium format  camera uses so I had some batteries. I loaded it with a new battery and looked through the viewfinder and the meter was functioning (I'll check accuracy later) which was a plus.  I cocked the shutter and pressed the shutter button and it made an awful squeak when it fired. Which made me concerned that it may need to be sent off to have it CLA'ed (Cleaned, Lubricated and Adjusted) I cleaned it up the best that I could It has been sitting on a shelf with lots of dust bunnies on it. I stuck a roll of  Kodak Portra 400 in it and went around the house just shooting all kinds of stupid stuff just to see if it worked. I did check the meter against 2 different meters I have and it was about one third off in the overexposed range which is fine by me. It squealed and made all kinds of noise but seemed to work great. The viewfinder was brighter than any other of my 35mm cameras which I like having old eyes .  I shot on shutter priority mostly and one or two on manual and one or two on just program mode. When I developed the roll they all came out great no exposure problems at all. Which means all of the shutter speeds seem to work well and the electronics in the camera work well. The only problem was that horrible squeak. I got on Youtube and saw a few videos on how to lube the squeaky part to make it quit. So I tried .  I may have put more oil than I was suppose too but I did get it to stop squeaking and it sounds correct. I gave Robert my results of what I did to the camera and all of the research that I had done. He told me to keep the camera that is was better for this camera to be used than to sit on a shelf collecting dust.  I am very grateful and glad to add this camera to my film collection.  This camera will replace my Pentax MX that I have been using for a lot of my film project work. Now with a new camera system I will need some goodies. It has the 50mm f1.8 kit lens that it came with and I have just ordered a 28mm lens. Thats a great combo for what I'm going to use it for mainly street/photowalk  type stuff. People ask me when they find out I'm a photographer what kind of camera do I use and I say I shoot Sony. But this will make my 5th Canon that I own. Three film and a point and shoot and one that had been converted to IR. So maybe I'm a closet Canon Shooter. But don't tell anyone! LOL 

Now I'm the only one that I know that actively shoots film. I know a couple of other folks that can and have shot film but don't mess with it too much now. I'm one of the few people that have the time to do all of the developing scanning and now worry about how sharp the images turn out. I love the look of film. So Robert and I are planning to do a film only photoshoot. He has never shot film before. So it will be fun to see him learn how to operate, and load film into the camera and how it may change the way he shoots. I don't think that he will convert to film because it's quite a process from the time you click the shutter from the time you see the image. He's used to instantly seeing the image after clicking the shutter. Well that's it for this week . I'll let you know how the film photoshoot works out. So until next week Get out and shoot!

PS. Hey Ya'll! I wanted to share an experience with you that I just had. As you probably know I've been into film camera's this year and a good source for equipment is Ebay. We've all heard the horror stories of bad deals and people not getting what hey ordered. I have just aquired and nice little Canon AE-1 Program that came with a 50mm lens but I wanted a 28mm to go with it. So I got on Ebay found one for 60 bucks and ordered it. When I got it , It was not what I ordered it was a Canon 2X converter for the AE-1 Canon. I quickly sent a nasty gram to the seller and to my surprise she refunded my money overnighted the lens to me and let me keep the 2X converter. This was the only camera stuff that she had in her online store and think she didn't know much about it and was glad to get rid of it. Anyway I ended up with a free lens and a 2x converter for free. I can honestly say that I've never had a bad experience on Ebay (but I know they happen). Cheers!