Even in my earliest days of photography, I was a Canon man. Throughout high school I shot with Canon SLRs (and the occasional Sure Shot). I used a Canon AE-1 for most of my school assignments. Later, I bought myself a Canon T-50. I couldn’t afford the T-70. At the time, I considered the T-50 to be uber-futuristic! I have several Canon cameras in my current collection; a Canon EOS Rebel G, a Canon P rangefinder, two Canon Canonet QL17s and three Canon point-and-shoots. When I recently saw a Canon AE-1 for sale on Facebook Marketplace, I knew I had to have it…again.

I could tell from his Facebook ad that the seller was a camera nerd like me. He mentioned in his ad that he’d consider trading his AE-1 for an Exacta with a waist level viewfinder. I actually have two of those and offered a trade. We met up at a local coffee shop and talked cameras and photography for a while. We exchanged Instagram accounts. You can check his out here. Turns out he wanted the money more than the camera, and I was fine with that. I bought it with the very capable 50mm / f1.8.

I could tell from his Facebook ad that the seller was a camera nerd like me.

The Canon AE-1 is a classic piece of gear. It was manufactured from 1976 to 1984. So, when I was using it in the mid-80’s, it was relatively new. Today, at a minimum of 40 years old, it’s vintage.

Today I loaded it up with a short bulk-loaded roll of Arista EDU Ultra 400 and went out to make sure my newest aquistion works. It does. Even the light meter performed just fine. I couldn’t be more pleased to have a Canon SLR back in my arsenal. I developed the film with Diafine.

Because of the extreme heat we’re experiencing, I only shot eight frames before heading home. Seven of the eight are below. The eighth I threw onto my Instagram page.