Ae-1 Program Manual
Florentina Holcombe
Hey guys,
I'm new to this. I discovered that my father owns a canon AE-1P and now I'm excited to use it. So for so good but there's one thing I don't understand and it's this: They say the ae-1p has full manual (check), full auto (check) and shutter priority (check) but no aperture priority, no check.
For example if I turn the arpeture on F2.8 and the shutter on Program - so the camera should choose whatever shutter is right to expose, am I wrong? Isn't that a Aperture Priority? Or does it not work that way? I noticed that the Aperture in the viewfinder changes when doing it that way... hmm.
Anybody an idea?
cheers
12:32PM, 6 February 2014 PDT(permalink)
No aperture priority.
It gets its full auto by self selecting a shutter speed and then matching a corresponding aperture.
If you do as you say, select an aperture, then put shutter dial on to Program, it will just select a fast shutter speed and the exposure will not necessarily be accurate.
You will read on these pages that it can be done, but it is only the latitude of the film that is correcting the exposure.
So I suppose if you use a print film with 3 or 4 stops of latitude, you could get some good results.
Don't expect the same if you are using slide film.
ages ago(permalink)
I get it, so in order to get aperture priority, you use shutter-speed priority?
I think we are getting our priorities mixed up here.
The OP's question was can aperture priority be achieved by selecting the aperture on the F stop ring and the shutter dial to Program? The answer is no.
Obviously, you can achieve the desired aperture by turning the shutter speed until it indicates the F stop you desire. Something yourself, I and many other on this forum have done.
By selecting a shutter speed to match desired aperture is not aperture priority. Only a camera that when you select its aperture giving a corresponding shutter speed is aperture priority.
Priority goes to the initial selection.
I have bought some new film today, so I gonna take some photos.
ages ago(permalink)
The Canon AE-1 Program came out in 1981 and was aimed squarely at the advanced amateur market. This plastic SLR piggybacked off of the success of the AE-1 that came out 5 years earlier. The most noteworthy feature of the AE-1 Program is right there in the name; programmed auto-exposure. This allowed the photographer to focus on composing and focusing instead of fiddling with settings.
To change your ISO, press the silver button next to the window and then move the tab on the far side of the rewind knob. You should see the numbers move. I would recommend setting this number to the same number you see on your film, at least in the beginning.
This dial contains all our shutter speeds as well as our program mode. It should rotate pretty freely on its own. The manual speeds all correspond to fractions of a second and tell us how long the shutter will be open. If you set it to 1, that means the film will be exposed to light for 1 second. If you set it to 1000, it means the shutter will be open for 1 one thousandth of a second.
Above and to the right of the shutter speed dial is our shutter release button. This is how you take a photo. If you slightly press this button, the light meter will activate. Pressing it a bit further will fire the shutter and take a photo. The shutter button has a threaded hole meant for use with an off-camera cable release.
A larger aperture number correlates to a more narrow opening. This lets less light in, but gets more things in focus. Apertures like f8, f11, or f16 will give you a wide area of focus, which is great for landscape photography and environmental portraiture.
Nothing will happen when you turn the ring, but it is possible to preview your aperture before firing the shutter. To do this, press the black tab on the bottom right of the lens mount (when looking at the camera from the front). You should see the aperture close down.
Above the aperture controls are the focus controls. Both the focus ring and the hyperfocal scale are used in combination to make your subject sharp and in focus. The Canon AE-1 Program is a manual focus camera only.
The focus ring tells us what distance is in focus. As you turn it, the number that lines up with the orange line below is the distance your subject should be. If you set it to infinity, anything far away will be in focus. This 50mm lens can focus on anything from infinity to 0.45m, making it great for general photography and capable of decent close-ups as well.
On the lens mount itself there are two buttons, one black and one silver-rimmed. The black one is an exposure lock button. This will take a meter reading and then memorize it so you can reframe. Below that is a meter button that basically does the same thing as half-pressing the shutter button.
The split prism is the circle in the middle with a horizontal line through it. If you rotate the focus ring on the lens while looking through the viewfinder, you should see the top and bottom sections of this split prism move left and right. Your goal is to make the top and bottom line up! If you do that, whatever is in the center of the frame will be in focus.
The light meter in the Canon AE-1 is a series of LEDs that show up on the right side of the viewfinder. The LEDs are numbers that represent different aperture values. Depending on your mode, this is the camera either recommending an aperture or telling you which aperture it will choose based on your shutter speed.
If you feel like you just want a camera that works, you can always check our website. We have trained mechanics who inspect and repair AE-1 Programs every week. It costs a bit more, but it can save you money in the long run and give you a welcome peace of mind.
Like the A-1, the AE-1 Program has a right-hand "action grip" on the front of the camera. It also supports the A-1's Motor Drive MA; this requires another electrical contact on the base plate. The AE-1's Power Winder A, and a new, faster Power Winder A2, are also supported. The viewfinder uses LEDs to show information to the user.
Also like the A-1, the AE-1 Program supports interchangeable focusing screens. Unlike the A-1, though, which specifies that screens should only be changed by the factory or by experienced service technicians, those on the AE-1 Program can be changed by the user. The camera came standard with the new split/microprism screen, but seven others were available. The focusing screen on the AE-1 Program is brighter than any previous focusing screen on any Canon manual focus camera, allowing the user to focus with greater ease with "slow" lenses (up to f/5.6). It is the same focusing screen design that is used in the newest model of the top-of-the-line Canon F-1 (known as the New F-1).
The AE-1 Program retains the older A-series type electromagnet-controlled cloth-curtain shutter that limits top shutter speed to 1/1000 of a second, together with a rather slow flash sync speed of 1/60 second. In the years since the AE-1 Program was introduced, this shutter design has also proven to be more maintenance-intensive than modern vertical-travel metal blade designs. The camera's electronics and electromagnets are powered by one 4SR44, PX28A, A544, K28A, V34PX, 4LR44, or L544 alkaline battery.
The additional electronics used for the program features of the AE-1P have resulted in more electronic gremlins over the years, and the model is considered by some[by whom?] more difficult to repair than earlier and simpler A-series cameras. In its day, however, the AE-1 Program's automated features and simple controls helped introduce many new consumers to the SLR camera.
The AE-1 Program is a 35mm SLR camera made by Canon in 1981. Canon describes it as a successor to the enormously successful AE-1, released five years earlier.[1] though in some ways it is also accurate to call it a budget version of the more upmarket A-1. Many users wanted an entry-level SLR with the 'Program' (auto exposure) mode found on the A-1, whereas the earlier AE-1 has only shutter-priority AE (and metered-manual exposure). For this reason, when designing its successor, Canon added a program AE mode to the specification, and the AE-1 Program became even more popular than the AE-1.
Program mode on this camera is considered fairly intelligent for the period, as it prefers moderate apertures in good light with normal film speeds (preferring f/5.6 and f/8 when possible) but gives workable solutions in all kinds of light conditions. The meter is activated by one of three buttons; the lower of the two buttons on the lens mount (placed for the photographer's left hand) activates it normally, as does depressing the shutter-release halfway, while the upper button on the lens mount both activates the meter and locks the current reading for as long as the button is held down.
When the meter is on, the aperture being selected is lit up by LED's to the right of the viewfinder. A "M" appears when the aperture ring is not at the "A" position (for automatic aperture selection), but the recommended aperture will still be correct; it is possible to benefit from the meter while shooting manually. A green "P" will appear if the shutter dial is set to "Program," indicating programmed auto-exposure is active. The aperture number will flash if the aperture being selected is out of the range of the lens, and the "P" will flash if program mode is selecting a speed below 1/60th of a second, to indicate that a tripod should be used.
With certain flashes, the camera has partial automation. If a compatible flash is connected and the camera is set to 1/60th, the camera will display a lightning bolt in the viewfinder when the flash is ready to fire, and the aperture selected on the flash is communicated to the camera automatically. (At the time, this normally involved setting the range to subject on the back of the flash.)