Anyone who knows anything about cameras...

[RA_pierce]

New question at the bottom



Firstly, merry Christmas, and I hope none of you bought lasers for your significant other.

I found my dad's old camera and I want to use it, however, I don't know what all the stuff on this camera does.
I took some pictures of it and I was hoping some of you may be able to help me out.
The things boxed and numbered in red are the things I am clueless about.
If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated!

Here's how I think it might work:
(I kept the size large to preserve detail)

Here's some more pictures of all the fancy buttons and levers:

 

[rocketparrotlet]

What the...?!

That is a strange-looking camera!

-Mark

 

[brtaman]

Not to familiar with that lens

Just a quick note, the aparature is located at the beginning of the barrel

...the 4, 5.6, 8...etc

The 100...135....210 are are all the focal lenghts.

the 1000-B are shutter speeds 1/1000....1/125 of a second etc. then 1/2 sec 1sec 2 sec and B (Bulb keeps shutter open as long as you keep your finger on the button)

the 1:4 1:7 etc are the macro ratios

If the end twists seperatelly from the knurled part (which is for the zoom as you said) it is the focus, just point the slr at something adjust zoom and twist the end part, thats the cool thing with SLR camera, these things are pretty easy to figure out just by looking through the eyepiece and playing.

 

[solowgregg]

Hahaha a Cannon AE-1 that was my first decent camera.

Pic No1:
Zoom and focus are correct
box 3 is your f-stop (how big your aperture opens)
box1 is your focus curve - specific f-stops aren't available at certain zoom lengths
box 2 Focal length numbers
Pic3: The knob adjusts how long your shutter stays open
B: "BULB" the shutter stays open until you manually shut it. This is for long exposure (low light) pictures
yellow"2": 2 seconds
white 1: 1 second
white 2: 1/2 second
white 4: 1/4 second

and so on

the flash symbol next to your "60" means that your particular camera is capable of syncing it's flash up to 1/60th of a second in speed. If you go to a faster shutter speed your flash will not keep up.

The bracket in front of your film advance lever is telling the camera to operate in AUTO mode at the moment... Leave it there until you know what you are doing. Once you get the hang of it there are other things you can control besides shutter speed.

Picture4:
That is your film rewind lever - make absolutely sure you depress the small black button underneath the camera when you try to rewind your film. Failing to do so will tear your film

The button has to do with your green numbers. These numbers are to be set according to your film speed (sensitivity to light). Press this button and move the very small lever to adjust this. REMEMBER: higher speed films for lower amounts of light

Last picture:
The series of numbers next to the green A are your aperture numbers, they tell you how much light is making into the camera body itself.



Let the camera do as much as it can in auto until you are comfortable with incorporating more into your photography.

Hope this helps.

 

[nikokapo]

Was gonna answer but i think you've got everything, solow.

I think the zoom auto-focus(es) when you turn it, if not, then yeah, you've got most of it right.

 

[solowgregg]

The AE-1 unfortunately does not auto focus, that huge knurled ring both slides bad and forth (zoom) and rotates (focus). If that camera auto focused it sure would have saved me a lot of time. ;D

 

[brtaman]

The AE-1 unfortunately does not auto focus, that huge knurled ring both slides bad and forth (zoom) and rotates (focus). If that camera auto focused it sure would have saved me a lot of time. ;D

Wow you really went into detail with the explanation.

Nice description of all aspects of the camera, mine was a bit quick and definitely not as thorough.

+1 for helping a member out.

 

[RA_pierce]

Thanks a lot everyone who helped. It's much appreciated. I've been playing around with it and getting familiar with how everything works. It's more fun than digital cameras, I think.
The lens is great. It has really good magnification.

How about cleaning it?
There are a few specks on the lens that are noticeable when looking through the viewfinder... I wanted to get rid of them but I wasn't sure what I should use to clean it... I was thinking I could just wipe em off with a q-tip or something (gently, of course) as the lens isn't that dirty... And it's not on the big lens (is there a technical name for it?) but the lens inside the camera. I don't really want to go out and spend any more money, as I've spent enough on Christmas already, so if there is a cheap solution it would be nice to know.

And what is the function the bracket in front of the film advance lever?

Oh... and the battery... I'm surprised the one inside still works. Is there any place in particular that sells them?

I found this helpful:
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/SLRs/ae1pgrm/html/basic1.htm

It says that shooting in AE mode is only possible with the canon lens...
What exactly is AE mode?


Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[RA_pierce]

I need some help again... pleeeease!

I played with the camera a bit and used up a roll of film...
But when I went to get it developed, there were only 3 exposures and they were SHITTY! The three that came out were under exposed and grainy.
I got some new batteries and checked all the camera settings... the battery that was in there was fine, it was still at 5.9V (from a 6V 4lr44). The film speed setting was correct, I changed it to 400 for 400 speed film.
I don't know what the problem could be. The film was new and I'm sure I installed it correctly...
I've been doing some more reading on the camera but as of now I don't want to use any more film until I'm sure the pictures will turn out.
:'(

Any ideas?

 

[rkcstr]

Sounds like it may be out of tune... being that old, things might be sticking or not working/timed properly since these cameras were mostly mechanically driven (hence the lever action).  Should probably have it sent out for a clean and check.  Call or go to a camera shop, they can guide you on where you can get that done.