TriX wrote:
BUT, if you knew how to use it, it was a solid body. I bought it instead of a Nikon FM or FE because it was shutter priority which suited my shooting style better than AE or manual at the time. I had 2 - one with the motor drive, and one with the winder and accumulated a stack of FD lenses. I carried it as a travel camera literally all over the world with the 35-105 zoom, and it very rarely produced an unacceptable shot. Sold both when I moved to an F1 and after 20+ years of use, the only thing they needed was a battery. I consider that it was an excellent consumer body, and the world did also as they sold a ton of them. The “P” or program version had several advantage including being able to see both the aperture and SS in the finder even if you never used the program feature (I didn’t).
BUT, if you knew how to use it, it was a solid bod... (
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Yes, any camera is capable if you know how to use it. The odd thing about the early automatic exposure SLRs was the tendency of folks to buy them, assuming automation would take all the guesswork and mystery out of photography. They were glorified "point and shoots" that you had to focus.
I'm not Canon bashing here... I used Canons off and on for years. I still have an A-1 and two FD/FL lenses.
There was a marked shift in the quality of yearbook photojournalism in the late 1970s, as automatic exposure cameras came to market. It relieved one of the perceived "barriers to entry" into the world of "good" photography. But that was a problem! Suddenly every kid with a generous uncle or a good summer job bought one. The net result was, "I want a Canon AE-1. Um, what is that?" Ready? FIRE!!! Aim? WTF is aim?
We had a conference room at the Delmar yearbook plant. We kept hundreds of yearbooks from the last few decades on the bookshelves lining the walls. We usually kept the best 10-15 schools' books from each year's production run of approximately 1200 high school and college accounts.
When I signed on as an AV Producer in Spring, 1979, I often spent my lunch hours in the conference room with my boss, going through old yearbooks. He had noticed the quality of yearbook photojournalism fall off dramatically over the last couple of years. It was as if someone flipped a light switch and the consistency of candids in yearbooks evaporated. He wanted my thoughts.
When I went to my first summer workshop conference to teach a session on photography, I met seven of the suspects I mentioned above. They were complete greenhorns with zero experience behind a camera. All had Canon AE-1s. One had read her manual and exposed half a dozen rolls of film through it. She showed me some half-decent images, and had lots of questions. The others mostly acted a bit dazed, confused, and lost.
I also had four other students who were serious. Individually, they understood their Pentax Spotmatic, an older Canon FTb, a Nikkormat FT 2, and a Nikon F2AS with three lenses. Their work stood out because the four of them had read their manuals, taken introductory courses in photography, and just needed help with darkroom skills and "editorial decisions at the viewfinder."
The newbies left with a list of things I recommended for them.
GENERAL TO DO LIST:
> Read The *Fine* Manual.
> Practice what you learn on each page.
> Get some basic books on photography and read them.
> Go use the camera as much as you can.
> Find an advisor or other mentor who can give you constructive pointers on how to improve your work.
LEARN:
> Long shot, medium shot, closeup.
> Bird's eye view, worm's eye view, size perspective.
> Rule of thirds, vanishing and leading lines, layer cake.
> Contrast and color contrast.
> Negative space and positive space.
> Situational ironies, contrasts, and comparisons.
> Anticipating decisive moments.
> Recording sequences of events.
> Side light, back light, front light.
> Diffused and specular light sources.
> Flash fill, flash bounce, off camera flash.
> Available light and pushing film.
> Composing for cropping options.
> Cropping for emphasis.
> PLANNING for assignments.
I remember keeping a list of their names and schools so I could review their books in the Spring of 1980. Four of the AE-1 users did a decent job with the candids in their books — better than average, and better than the previous photographers at those schools. The other three AE-1 users either dropped off the yearbook staff, or had paid no attention to me, or made no effort to learn. Their books were mediocre, and two of their names weren't mentioned on the staff pages of the books. The four experienced photographers using manual cameras had done a stellar job, since they understood their complete responsibilities for their photographic outcomes. Their editors sang their praises.
I saw the guy with the Nikon setup and the girl with the Pentax Spotmatic at the next summer's workshop. Unsurprisingly, they came back for more! The girl with the AE-1 who had read her manual a year earlier was also there. Good performers never stop learning. They take time to sharpen their saws...
Top professionals and advanced amateurs generally understand they cannot rely blindly upon automation. They apply overrides as needed. Today, they have the modern luxury of "chimping," which film photographers do not. That makes a huge difference.