Canon AE-1 Program and Fomapan Classic 100

October 04, 2019

Canon AE-1 Program and Fomapan Classic 100

I apologise for my lack of publishing of late. I have a very good reason though! Our new front garden is testament to the hard work that Kim & I put into removing very large Yucca and Dracaena plants, not to mention the huge Cycads, that were there when we moved in 10 years ago. We now have a softer much more colourful garden that will look wonderful once the new plants have established themselves.

Anyway, here I am again!

I was contacted back in May by Cathy, an ex-RAAF colleague with who I have been able to stay in contact with thanks to the wonders of modern day social media! Sadly, her husband Graeme had passed away and she was now going through his things. He'd been an avid photographer and she asked me if I would be able to use a couple of his old cameras she had found in the cupboard. A Canon AE-1 Program 35mm SLR with a Cosina MC 35-70mm f3.5-4.8 Macro lens and a Canon T50 with a Mitakon MC 80-200mm f4.5 lens.

If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I am always more than happy to welcome a vintage camera (or two) into my collection. Each camera I have is different in it's own way and I take it in turns to load them with film to keep them active! Of course, I said that I would love to add them to my collection!

They arrived and I had them out of the box before you could say 'Ansel Adams'!

The lenses were clean and without any mould. The cameras looked to be in perfect condition but, unfortunately, the batteries had not been taken out of the Canon T50 and they had corroded badly. I eventually got them out and cleaned out the battery space and terminals but there was obviously more damage done to electrical components as a result and I couldn't get a heart beat. On the upside though, both of these cameras are an FD lens mount so, I may have missed out on using the T50 but the lens with that camera will work with the AE-1 Program camera!

The Canon AE-1 Program on the other hand, was in perfect condition! All it needed was a dust out and an air blast and it was ready to go. It has the sweetest sounding shutter I have ever heard.

The AE-1 Program has Shutter and Aperture priority controls but can also be used in fully manual mode. There are LEDs inside the viewfinder to provide information to the photographer. Shutter speeds up to 1/1000 and a flash synch speed of 1/60 (which is still a little slow but it's the same as I have on a fav Pentax and I haven't had any problems there).

I wanted to use a black and white film for the testing of the camera and lenses and so I chose a Fomapan Classic 100 for the occasion. This film has a wide exposure latitude, which makes it good for varied lighting conditions, a fine grain with good resolution and sharpness. You can judge the outcome for yourself!