Camera Review: Canon AE-1

A note about my camera reviews, I'm going light on the specs. There are sites that give extensive lists of features for all sorts of cameras. I don't need to repeat any of that.

My uncle was looking to get rid or this one, so, I told him that I'd sell it for him. He had an entire kit:

Canon AE-1 camera body

Canon FD 28mm wide-angle

Canon FD 50mm normal lens

Canon FD 135mm telephoto

Canon 300 EZ speedlight,

My idea was to purchase the whole thing from him, run some rolls through it and then re-sell it. I was mostly interested in the historical significance of the Canon AE-1. I had to throw out the flash; the leak from the two AA alkaline batteries was too much to clean. The rest, I'm either going to sell on ebay, or see If I can trade the whole kit for a new lens that I really want.

The growth of consumer microelectronics in the 1970's allowed the big Japanese camera companies, (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Minolta) to start selling quality, reliable, automated SLR cameras at a price attractive to non-professionals. In 1976 (the same year of the first Apple II), Canon introduced the AE-1. The AE-1, (including it's improved successor: the "AE-1 Program") was produced until 1984. The AE-1 was aimed at offering an inexpensive, quality machine to the enthusiastic amateur snapshooter, and was very successful in this realm. It was a true volkskamera which they sold through a long-running and brilliant "So Advanced-It's simple" advertising campaign. 

The AE-1 is a lightweight, mostly plastic, but classic looking machine. The top and bottom are plated in a bright, creamy chrome. The controls feel firm and solid. It has a useful shutter lock lever. I do loathe the depth of view preview lever, an overly complicated affair that is not worth trying to use. A PX28 6-volt battery is inserted behind the door on the front face of the camera.

The AE-1 takes Canon's excellent manual focus "FD" series lenses. They have metal barrels, and fine glass. They feel feel nice and rugged, and focus smoothly. Unlike Nikon, Canon changed it's entire lens mount when it went autofocus, so you need older cameras to enjoy the FD lenses. The AE-1 is a very affordable way to do that.

The AE-1 has two modes: shutter priority automatic and manual. The "AE-1 Program" has full program automatic. You can use this camera in full manual, theoretically, but, you have to go through a lot of hoops to accomplish that.  When you meter the scene, the needle in the viewfinder points to the recommended f-stop for the shutter speed you have chosen. This is the only information that you have inside the viewfinder. It doesn't tell you what your actual settings are, or how off your exposure is. I cannot recommend the AE-1 to anyone wanting to get serious as a photographer and looking for a camera to grow into. 

It's not a manual camera. I repeat, it's not a manual camera.

This camera is really meant to be used in shutter-priority auto, and in this mode the camera truly shines. You pick the shutter speed you want to use for your shooting situation. Then, you just need to concentrate on focus and composition. In this way, the AE-1 is easy and fun to use.

Camera Review: Olympus Trip 35, the solar powered point and shoot.

I wandered into an estate sale, keeping my eye out for old cameras, when I discovered this interesting old gem. I purchased it for $5.00, and looked it up on the interwebs to try to figure out how to use it. Online is where I learned about the Trip 35's cult following. I couldn't wait to see what the fuss was about.

The Olympus Trip 35 was produced from 1967 to 1984. It was made as the perfect little camera to take on a trip, hence the name. It was meant to be a sort of photographic travel notebook, and actually has similar dimensions to a Moleskine journal. In spite of it's simplicity, this is not in the least a "toy camera". It has a real glass (and very sharp) Olympus Zuiko 40mm f/2.8 that puts beautiful images on the film, and the body is made of metal. It's such a cult favorite that today it is easy to find sites that sell accessories for it such as custom leather or leatherette covers, new light seals, lens caps, etc. Check out http://www.tripman.co.uk/

The fascinating thing about the Trip 35 is it's sheer genius. This camera takes automatic exposures without needing batteries...ever. There isn't even a place to put a battery. This is how it does it:

There is a ring of selenium photocells surrounding the lens. The cells do two things. First they gather light for the meter. Second, they make just enough electrical charge to power a very simple elecromechanical exposure system.

There are just two shutter speeds, 1/200 and 1/40. You turn the aperture ring to "A" and the camera begins at 1/200 at f/22. The camera then stops up the aperture to give you the correct exposure. If there is not enough light wide open, the camera then changes shutter speed and tries the same process at 1/40. If there is still not enough light, a little red flag pops up in the viewfinder and the shutter won't trip.

There is a very simple night photography trick. The camera has a working aperture ring. This is for overriding the autoexposure system for flash photography. Let's say that your goal is to shoot nighttime cityscapes, or portraits by street lamp, or whatever. By moving the aperture ring to f/2.8, you are telling the camera that you are shooting with a flash, but the camera does not know that you don't have one, so it will trip the shutter when you ask it to. This works. I have a photo below to prove it.

The Trip 35 has a zone focusing system. The focusing ring has stops with four settings, from headshot to landscape, each setting is labeled with a little icon. This estimated focusing works really well. The viewfinder is nice and clear. Remember to keep your subject inside the frame lines and watch out for parallax when shooting close.

Olympus made it's reputation with clever smaller cameras, and the Trip 35 was ultimate expression of how Nikon and Canon's little brother has always been good at thinking outside the box. It feels sturdier than it looks with it's metal construction. It is easy to use, and just fits in one's hands well. It begs you to take it with you wherever you go. It excels at allowing you to just compose and shoot. These are 40 year old cameras though, and some of them are not in great shape. I was lucky; mine just needed new light seals, and light seal kits are easy to find online and use. My trip is really as good as new now. 

Here is a pair of photos that I took with a roll of Ilford XP2.

A hazy morning in late summer.

A nighttime urban landscape using the f/2.8 trick

Camera Review: Olympus Stylus Epic with expired film.

I was meaning to kick off with a review of the Canon AE-1, but, there was a death in the family, and it will be a few days before I get to the lab to retrieve my film, so I'm going to start off with a pair of Olympus point-and-shoots that I had previously reviewed in my older blog, which is going into a non-photographic direction now. Posting to this blog will help to occupy my mind with other things during this time.

A note about my camera reviews, I'm going light on the specs. There are sites that give extensive lists of features for all sorts of cameras. I don't need to repeat any of that. I'm going to talk a little bit about my own personal shooting experience.

I was cleaning out my basement when I came across my old Olympic Stylus. This was one of my first favorite cameras. I hadn't seen it in years and thought I had thrown it out or sold it. In short, I thought that it was lost to me forever. Well, there it was, with a dead battery and a half exposed roll of Fujicolor Superia 200 still loaded. So I was able to do three things at once: shoot with a beloved old camera and see if it still held up to my memory, try shooting with expired film, and do a review.

The Stylus Epic was introduced in 1997 as part of Olympus' popular Stylus line of 35mm cameras. The stylus cameras from this era had very distinctive smooth lines and sliding protective front covers. Other Stylus models had zoom lenses, but look for the Epic because of it's fast and wicked sharp fixed Olympus 35mm f2.8 fixed lens. The plastic body is covered in a nice, creamy gold paint. The back door has a window to let you know what kind of film you have loaded. The direct viewfinder is nice and clear. When closed, the shell protects everything in the front of the camera, the lens, the viewfinder, and the light and focus sensors. When closed the camera has a nice, rounded shape that is unnoticeable in your jacket pocket.

The camera is point-and-shoot easy. It has a smart multi-point auto focus, and very few controls to worry about, just compose and take a picture. It has a quality lens and is  just fun and easy to carry around.

The expired film ended up looking kind of cool.

First Post: Why Film?

Digital photography is great. If you are a pro, there is really no other choice, it's just good business sense. If you shoot news, you can get your images uploaded to your wire service from the field immediately, and if you don't your competitors will. If you shoot events or products, the volume of a handful of SD cards means that the number of images that you can present to clients is limited only by how many files one person can practically edit in Lightroom without going insane. The rest of us regular folks can take pictures on our phones and get them up on Facebook or Instagram the minute they are taken. If I shoot an event for my company, it's always on my DSLR so I can put the files up into dropbox the same day. Film no longer has the advantage in quality anymore, either, not by a long shot. Last week I was walking through an outdoor art show at a county park. The photography there blew me away. A medium format or full frame DSLR will produce huge enlargements with so much detail, it's like you are there. If you are a novice, a prosumer DSLR will give you a tack sharp image with nice even exposure and perfectly rendered color, and it will do all of this for you, so all you need to think of is composing your shot.

So, what on earth is so great about using film besides the hipster appeal? First there is simplicity. The owners's manual for the Canon AE-1 is 72 pages. The owner's manual for the Nikon F3 is 46 pages. The owner's manual for the Nikon D90 (I know that it's obsolete, but, it's the most advanced camera that I currently own), is 278 pages. A 278 page owners manual!!!! Let that sink in for a minute.

Pick up a 35mm SLR from the 1970s or 1980s. Look through the viewfinder and turn the focusing ring on the lens and see the image smoothly come into focus. Turn the shutter speed dial (click, click, click). Turn the aperture ring (click, click, click). You know what is going on with the camera from tactile feel. It's a wonderful, confidence building experience. Most SLRs from this era have manual focus, and manual exposure (with a built-in electronic light meter). Maybe it has one automated exposure feature, if any, usually it is aperture priority. And that's it! Yes, you do have to pick an ISO and stick with it until the roll of film is finished, but, everything you really need to take a beautiful photo is at your fingetips with switches, knobs, and buttons, and no annoying layers of menus to swim through.

Composition, focus, and exposure are the three things that you need to control to take a good shot, there is nothing else to worry about until it is time to turn that light information on your film or on your SD card into a physical photograph. Manual film cameras give you the best hands-on control of these three things. Watch the needle on a simple meter move up and down while you turn the aperture ring and the shutter speed knob and the relationships between aperture, shutter speed, and exposure exposure stop being an esoteric concept.

My D90 is great, but it is a poor substitute for an actual manual camera for shooting manually, so I usually end up just using it in AF with one of the idiot modes.

Most classic 35mm film SLRs have the same controls in pretty much the same place (and when they don't they are easy enough to find) so, if you know how to use one, you can pick up another and start shooting with very little time looking it over. This common control layout is finally making a return on gorgeous, compact, digital camera bodies now, such as the amazing Fujifilm camera lineup...if you are ready to spend $1,000 dollars on a new camera body, that is.

Film makes you think a little differently. Don't try to compete with the fidelity offered by digital, unless you are shooting large format. Instead, try a black and white film with a cool grain structure or silky tones, or a color film with a vintage, romantic look. Having black and white film in your camera forces you to look for black and white shots. You are challenged to ignore the color information in your mind's eye, to look for light, shadow, texture, to "see" in black and white.

You only have 36 (or 24) exposures per roll, so you want to try to make each shot count for something. I go out and try to take one photo a day. Sometimes I don't even get that one photo because I don't see a shot on my walk every day. That's fine, though because going out and looking is what counts.

You have a real glass viewfinder, not an LCD. You don't have a rear display, and I find that to be a good thing. We are all looking at little, tiny screens all day. I find my smartphone distracting enough. I'm a social media addict. Right now, as I type this piece, I am fighting the urge to check Facebook for the 200th time since I woke up this morning. With film, you can't check your shot after you take it. You need to move on and hunt your next photo. It keeps you inside the world that you are shooting, not observing it on a computer monitor. The very mechanical-ness of film cameras make them very satisfying tools for the photographic craft, and when you find the right one for yourself, you will hate leaving your home without it.