Over the last couple of years, a lot of Canon SLRs from the 1970s and 1980s went through my hands in the camera store and while I didn’t really want to dive into another camera ecosystem, I could not resist the A-1! Earlier this year I managed to buy one off eBay that was advertised as defective, but turned out to be completely okay except some minor cosmetic flaws which I certainly don’t mind. While I hadn’t bought the A-1 body from our camera store, I had asked my boss to fix the “Canon Asthma” with a squirt of oil in the right spot which worked beautifully. I was also able to get the FD 28mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.4 lenses and also the 28-85mm f/4 and 70-200mm f/4 zoom lenses. I’m also trying out a Tokina 24mm f/2.8 wide angle, but any wider or more light sensitive is definitively out of my budget.

I’ve already shot a test film in our city in September, which was the first film I completely shot and developed myself. The results were amazing and I also took the Canon A-1 to Berlin in October and December and while I haven’t developed all of the photos yet, the first two rolls were already brilliant too. As good as my “heritage” Praktica B200 is, I really like the Canon A-1 and it will probably be my main analog camera for now.

The A-1 was Canon‘s top semi-professional SLR from 1978 until the mid-1980s and at least in my opinion is the best of the A-series next to its predecessor AE-1 and the other variants including the feature-similar AE-1 Program. The unconventional way of selecting either the exposure time or the aperture is fascinating and unique – and easy to handle! Having a little digital display inside the viewfinder showing both aperture and speed is also amazing for a camera that is just one year younger than me. I’m glad that I’m able to afford such a legendary camera nowadays, because back when it came out the body alone was 1200 DM in Germany.