Canon AE-1 Film Camera

I bought the Canon AE-1 brand new back in 1986 when I was a photography student. I am still using it after 20 years for weddings and birthday parties along with a 50mm f1.8 lens and a Tokina 80-200mm f4 zoom lens. The picture quality has only improved over the years thanks to new developments on film and photo paper technology. The camera is a little heavier than the new ones, but after 20 years I guess I’m used to it, although I use the tripod a lot. This camera is built like a brick. It has survived several falls and the only thing missing is the battery door.

I highly recommend this camera for its ease of use, automatic and manual exposure controls, robustness, availability of high quality lenses and dedicated flash units. I’m pretty sure that I will go digital eventually, but for what I have seen, the only one that would rival my Canon AE-1 is a Canon 5D but it’s way to expensive yet. For now, I’ll keep holding on to my beloved AE-1.