I spent months lusting after film cameras. Specifically this one, the AE-1 Program. I didn’t know much about it or why I wanted it, I just knew that it was a legend, and it was a Canon. And that was good enough for me. Every day I would look at Craigslist, hoping to score a deal, and every day, I kept finding them just out of reach, unable to justify spending $150 on an old camera. And then, I found it.
Sitting idly in a class, I came across an ad with no pictures, just a title and a brief description. “Two Canon AE-1, 6 lenses. $100.” Too good to be true? Maybe. But it seemed to be flying under everyone else’s radar given the lack of info or photos. Well, it was worth a shot, so I sent the email, and long story short, picked up the bodies, lenses, 6 rolls of unshot film and a vintage Leica film bag in a mountain town in North Georgia. I couldn’t believe it.
There’s really not much to say about this camera that hasn’t been said by someone else already. I loved this thing so much I spent $30 just to get that little plastic grip made in the 80s for it. I shot my first film rolls ever on it, reveling in the change of pace from digital. I took any excuse to pick it up and look at it, run my fingers over each surface, play with the little mechanical dials. You’d be hard pressed to not feel something when you pick up this thing, it’s a work of art, perfect, simple.
This is all to say that the specs, the 1/1000 max shutter speed, the electronic shutter, the program mode, you can read about that anywhere. I’m not here to tell you about that, I’m here to tell you about the impalpable, the untouchable, the feeling of the thing, the emotion. You’ll never feel cooler than you will with an AE-1. It’s an icon. A thing so instantly recognizable to the older generations, the film buffs, the photographers, the hipsters, but so foreign, so novel to those not in the know. It’ll make you better than the smart phone toting, Instagram posting masses around you, even though that is you. But seriously, it will make you stop and think, consider each shot, slow down a little bit and just enjoy the act of making a photo. It’s just advanced enough to give you room to play, and not so much that it gets in its own way. With the Program modes, it can cater to anyone from the beginner to professionals, offering fully automated exposure, as well as shutter or aperture priority.
In the time I had with mine, I took it all over town, shooting friends, cars, buildings, and did an entire portrait shoot on a roll of expired black and white I found in the bag. Half of the pictures were terrible, but it was my first foray into film, so what do you expect? Now you may be wondering, Why do I keep speaking in the past tense? Well I’ll tell you; my beloved AE-1 Program is dead. On a sunny summer day, my girlfriend and I decided to take a little picnic to a sunflower field, a perfect opportunity to shoot a little film. And then, 12 shots into the roll, the camera just kind of clicked. It did not slap, as it should when the shutter activated. It clicked. A dull, quiet, tinny click. And that was it. The shutter would not fire, the film advance would not crank. I pulled off the Tamron 24-70 I had mounted, and, to my dismay, found a mysterious piece of sharp plastic sticking out of part of the mechanism. And just like that, she died.
Now do not let this dissuade you from finding your own AE-1 to love. They’re nearly 40 years old, shutters wear out, things happen. There’s plenty of them still out there, albeit trading at ever higher prices. Get one while you can, have it gone over, do whatever preventive maintenance you can, and go shoot. Because these cameras are special, and you deserve it.
Thanks for reading, if you liked this review, please leave a comment, check out my other writing or photographic work, or find me on Instagram @willwanderphotography.
