CHG_CANON wrote:
The 1976-84 Canon AE-1 is a historically significant SLR, both because it was the first microprocessor-equipped SLR and because of its sales: backed by a major advertising campaign, the AE-1 sold over 5.7 million units, which made it an unprecedented success in the SLR market. The camera and sales gave Canon the confidence to bet the company in the late 80s in their EOS revolution. The rest, they say, is history.
Agreed. They sold so many because they were selling HOPE. Hope that the user would never have to endure thinking about scene lighting and contrast and exposure and aperture and shutter and... (again).
I watched way too many kids wander around yearbook workshops making all the wrong exposures for their scenes. It wasn't JUST the AE-1 camera, though. Most of the early automatic exposure bodies got misused. People stopped reading manuals, not that they read them much before, but if you did, you had a fighting chance of understanding that auto exposure was not a panacea. 20% of the time, you really had to THINK and adjust. If you want results in marginal situations, you have to understand the variables, and how to manipulate them, and WHY. The automation revolution threw oil and BBs in the path of that process.