First round of shots on Canon A-1

[Ben Jennings]

Hi everyone,

I recently acquired a Canon A-1 with a 50mm 1.8 and 135mm 2.8 lens. After seeing Hamish's massive Nikon collection, I was quite jealous to say the least so I decided my life would not be complete without a few more vintage cameras in it. Absolutely love the A-1, beautifully made camera, sturdy, simple and still working so many years after it's birth. I won't go on anymore about how much I like it. So I stuck a B/W film in it and popped around Reading on my lunch break to try and capture some interesting shots within short walking distance of my work. This was my first film in the camera and also the first time I have shot in B/W, so be kind (of course you will!). I haven't edited the photo's other than cropping them back to their original size (my scanner only does A4).

I have included a couple of my favourites here, but the full set can be found at Canon A1 BW 1 (Unedited) - a set on Flickr



Let me know what you think.

Cheers

Ben

 

[Fidel Marcus]

Beautiful photos Ben, My FTb is sitting in the closet hybernating and waiting patiently for me to pick it up & have some fun, I call those old Canons "The Brick" since it feels like one compared to the modern digital rounded corner models haha
I've always had a deep love and passion for these cameras, my FTb is what introduced me to the world of SLR when I started years and years ago.
I really like the composition and overall feel of the photos you shot, the only thing I am wondering about is how soft they look, I remember my B/W's looking a bit sharper than that which is something that should have happened here since you have a much better and more accurate camera than my FTb, I'm willing to bet it wasn't your fault or your way of shooting.

Being so old these cameras & lenses tend to suffer from their age and require resealing of the film compartment and overall reconditioning of the glass & shutter so if you have no known history on the camera's use & service I would strongly recommend (to anyone who gets one of these vintage models) to take it into a certified service facility and have them give it an overall refresh you'd be surprised at the improvement it may yield, best part is you'll pay much less to have this camera worked on that a modern digital

Might I add that I am jealous I keep saying I'm going to wipe the dust off my camera run a few rolls through it but never actually get around to doing it, this is quite inspirational...

 

[Fidel Marcus]

I forgot to ask, what ISO film did you use?

 

[Brian Moore]

Nice set, Ben! I especially like the wall one. (How did it feel to shoot film for a change?)

 

[Ben Jennings]

Fidel - I think the slightly soft look is down to two things really, one is my rushing/inexperience with shooting in manual focus (always trying to take picture as quickly as possible and sometimes get the focus slightly off) and the second reason is down to my dodgy eye sight (I'm long sighted so a lot of the distant shots are ok whereas a lot of the close ups are slightly out of focus/forgot my glasses). I'll have to keep praticing with it, it really is quite amazing how much you can rely on auto focus. I used ISO 400 film (Ilford XP2 400).

Brian - The shot of the wall is one of my favourites too, I really love how the dof turned out on it, that was using the 135mm lens standing about 10m back from the wall. It's the first time I have used a 135mm lens and I really like it, I might have to get one for my newer Canon. I am really enjoying shooting in film at the moment, it feels a bit more special than shooting in digital, don't get me wrong I love using digital most of the time but there's a much different feeling when shooting in film and the anticipation of finding out what you shots turned out makes it all the better. It also really makes you think about what you are doing before you do it which is a good lesson to learn (stops me being so snap happy).

 

[Fidel Marcus]

I agree, with the old film cameras you have to get all the settings (all manual) just right, even the built in meter isn't going to be quite as accurate as what you find in a modern DSLR or a modern film SLR, though from my experience I have noticed that the effects of film brand, film age and iso yield far more drastic results than on digital.

I never found a roll of film above 400 iso that gave me a satisfactory print, specially outdoors now that also is in part due to my camera/lens combo and their condition but using 100-200 iso outdoors did result in much more crisp quality to the images I was shooting, specially B/W.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Great stuff Ben, and good to hear you are getting into film shooting, its a much better route to take to learn!
I dont think the softness matters in these as it adds to the feel!

I comment on using xp2, as it is colour process and most D&P shops are a bit ****, you tend to get this blue or green cast, in this case it is blue... its not really an issue i suppose, but i always tend to drop the shots into lightroom and switch to B&W ... that way you get a proper B&w shot!

The wall shot is indeed really nice! I think i might have showed you me 135 nikon lens? Its a great focal length! Get Allice to model for you with a nice leafy background for a head and upper torso shot, you will find it gives a very flattering image!

On the subject of shots of Alice, next time, focus on her face (eye) then re-frame to put her eyes along the top third line with her left eye on the left third line ... Its a basic rule, but it gives a great simple compo!

 

[Ben Jennings]

I was looking at the prints last night (sticking them in an old album so they are just stuffed in a box somewhere) and rather than a blue or green cast they almost look like the have a red cast, might be my eyes tho.

With regard to the portrait do you mean a bit like this (cropped very quickly and badly in paint to illustrate the point):

 

[Hamish Gill]

pretty much yeah... like this

Red cast... a new one on me, but it wouldn't surprise me!

 

[Ben Jennings]

I see, I was almost there with my quick crop, ha ha.