Canon AE-1

Coleman Photography

A family member gave me this canon AE-1. and was just messing around tonight and took some shots of it.

leaforte

Unique lines. Go Canon!

rainbow

This was once their 1DsIII of the line...

Next up: take some shots WITH it!

System

I had one of those. I also had an FTb and an A1 as well as several Canon lenses. I sold them all and bought into the Nikon line

David_S85

32 years ago. Brings back good memories. And the smell of stop bath stinking up the bathroom and brown D-76 developer half gallon jugs, bulk film loaders and using my enlarger head timer for other creative uses.

Your AE-1 sports the FD series f/1.4 50mm lens, the better one that they were packaged with. The other was a slower and cheaper f/1.8. The high end f/1.2 was part of the A1/F1 groupings. 1.4 was the best bang for the buck by far.

Cut my photography teeth with a Canon AT-1, which was the all-manual version of the AE-1. At that time (1978), the F1 was the 1DsIII of the line, and the A1 (even more computerized automatic modes) was the 1DIII/IV, if I remember correctly, making the AE-1 equivalent to today's 5DII. Manual was a must for photography classes, and photo teachers were afraid of students using those new evil automatic cheater modes.

The Canon History museum tells us the AE-1 broke new ground as the first automatic SLR. But (and Ziggy could correct me easily if I'm wrong), I also remember Olympus beating Canon to the punch with their OM-1.

W.W. Webster

My first SLR. Ahead of its time. Still got it.

Then moved onto an A-1, then a T-90, then an EOS-1. What a journey. All great cameras.