Canon A-1 – Vivi Somnium

Is Old Film any good?

As we were doing a bit of a sweep through our belongings in storage about a year ago, I came across a heap of old photography kit. Amongst the cameras, projectors, and other accessories there was some old film. At least four rolls of it.

I’m not sure what I was more intrigued by, whether the old film would be any good or the price that I paid for it way back when. All of the film had an expiry date of sometime in 2002. So basically 20 years old. In addition to that, it had spent the past five years in up to 40C (during the Summer) so wasn’t exactly looked after.

The first thing I did was to consult the Interwebs and read a few articles like this one – The complete guide to shooting expired film. Apart from noting all of the things that could go wrong, the key piece of information is around what adjustments need to be made, and there is really only one that needs to be done at exposure time. Basically, what most guides talked about is to set the film speed one stop slower per decade over the expired date, when setting the film speed on the camera. So for the Fujicolor Superia 200 that I had, twenty years pest its expiry date, I set the camera ISO to 50. That seemed quite straight forward.

I loaded a roll into the Canon A-1 and set the ASA to 50 (yes, the camera is that old but ISO and ASA numbers are interchangeable). As I started to take some photos I realised just how slow ISO 50 is. I mean, really slow. Even with an f1.8 lens I had to keep an eye on the shutter speed if I wasn’t shooting outside during the day. I have no idea how my Dad used to use Kodakchrome 64! Now, I’d like to skip over the part where I loaded the film and shot loads of photos only to realise that it hadn’t engaged properly in the take-up spool. However, lesson I learned from this, and I will share with you now, is that it doesn’t pay to be tight with film and try and get as may frames as possible onto the roll. It’s better to wind on with the back open and visually confirm that the film has been taken up. The other thing that I realised is that on the A-1 the winder knob set into the ASA ring should rotate as the film is advanced. Something to keep an eye on for the first frame or two. Anyway, enough about that. The film was reloaded, properly this time, and I took some more photos.

Now might be a good time to mention the risks of using old film. Whilst the adjustments to exposure are straight forward, to me there are only really two risks. Loss of memories and loss of money. If the film wasn’t useable then the photos taken are lost, and the money spent on developing them is wasted. So, don’t use old film for important photography and don’t be surprised if the money spent on development is wasted. It does add a frisson of excitement to the whole thing though.

Anyway, I digressed there for a moment… I did have the film developed. Obviously as with loading the film for the first time in a couple of decades, taking a film in for development was also something I’d not done in a while. The difference is that there is now an option to have the developed negatives scanned and shared instantly on a cloud service, and by not having the photos printed there is a cost saving. Winner winner. However, at A$25+ to develop and scan the 24 exposures it’s also a lot more expensive that I remember.

I was sent an email with a link to a Dropbox folder and I downloaded my TIFF files straight away. It should have been the same day I dropped off the film but it turns out the machine was broken so they had to send the film interstate to get it developed.

What I got back had quite a distinctive look, and not to bad I reckon. Colours were a bit washed out but the photos had a… look about them. I like. What I don’t know is whether there was any compensation applied when the photos were scanned in, but as I had to collect the negatives within two weeks and I now have them I should really look closer to answer that question.

The second roll of film is now in the Canon EOS 500N and I’ve not slowed it down quite as much. This time I’ve gone for ISO 80. The film has been sitting in the camera for a while now so I need to get a wriggle on and finish it off to see what the photo look like.

In summary, the twenty year old film that I found in the shed still works… sort of. I will probably use it all up over the next few months and suck up the development costs just because I can.

There is also a black and white roll that I need to use. I can guess how the remaining two rolls of Fujicolor will turn out, but the roll of Ilford is an adventure yet to be lived.

A Lifelong Love of Cameras

I’ve always been fascinated with cameras, and what they can do. When I was very young I used to watch with fascination as my Dad took photos with his SLR. I think I loved the idea or being able to change the lenses. I had my own little Fisher Price toy camera, and I remember using a used toilet roll as a telephoto and popping it over the end of the toy camera lens. Of course back then toy cameras were just toys, not actual cameras for young children which is what my kids later had. My brother and I used to take our little Fisher Price cameras with us whenever we went on a family outing, which from what I remember, was quite a bit.

When I was eight, I think, my grandmother gave me own proper camera for my birthday. It was a Polaroid, but not one of those where the photo comes out of the front… with this one I had to pull the exposed photos out of the side, let it sit for five minutes or so and then peel the photo off the backing. It was quite messy and the chemicals could get everywhere. But it was a camera, and I did used it as much as I could. The downer was the cost of the film, so I was a bit limited in how many photos I could take.

When I was ten , my Dad dusted off his very first camera that I believe he received as a 21st Birthday present from his parents. It was a Voigtländer Vito B, a fully manual camera with no built-in light meter. He bought me a new light-meter and a roll of black and white film and taught me the basics of aperture and shutter speed. Focus was manual based on judgement – there were not focusing aids. This was the first proper camera I used, and I am now glad it was because I had to learn the basics. I completed the first roll of film and we had it developed, with a contact strip print to look at the results. Overall I thought I did quite well, and from that time on I switched to colour negative film.

As I took more photos I started to dream of having a proper SLR, like my Dad had. As he had a Canon A-1 I was only really interested in Canon so I started to look into buying one with my savings. I ended up going for the Canon T70, which I got as a kit with a Tokina 28-70mm lens, from what I remember. I must have been about 14 or 15 at the time and I finally had a “proper” camera. The T70 was a very capable and at the time, advanced camera. It was the 1980s version of the Canon AE-1, with a addition of three program modes. I certainly enjoyed using it, but film was still quite expensive so I tried to make every shot count and shied away from experimenting with photography as a whole. As the title of this post implies, it was always the cameras that I loved and I was fascinated that I could capture a scene and look back on it for ever via a photograph. But a photographer I was not.

Over the years I continued to use the T70, switching to transparency (slide) film and taking photos to document my life, such as outing, holidays, etc. I moved from Kodak Ektachrome to Fujichrome, something that happened by accident as I was on holiday and needed a new roll of film, and all that was available was Fujichrome. It turned out to be a blessing, as I discovered film stock that was more vivid and pleasing to me and have stuck with Fujifilm ever since.

At one point when I was about 18, I lent my T70 to my brother to take on a Summer trip that he was going on with a friend. I then found myself also heading off for a week with friends, and didn’t have my trusty T70 to hand. My Dad was kind enough to lend me his Canon A-1 along with a couple of prime lenses so that I had something decent to take photos with. My Dad had been using his A-1 ever since I could remember, and it was a privilege to be able to borrow it. It was also a moment of realisation for me. The T70 was no A-1. For all the digital tech, auto-winder, slightly more modern looks, to me using the T70 could not compare to using the A-1. What I had been missing was aperture priority and perhaps a more engaging experience taking photos. To this day the Canon A-1, specifically my Dad’s one, is my favourite camera of all time.

At some point in my early twenties I decided that it was time for something more portable, something I could take anywhere. I bought a Canon Sure Shot Max, loaded in some negative film and took it along with my T70 on a holiday to North Eastern USA. It was a great camera for group photos and carrying around a city when I would otherwise have felt a bit uncomfortable carrying the T70 around.

About ten years after I bought my Canon T70 an opportunity came up for a good deal on a Canon EOS camera, along with a couple of kit lenses. Being a new system there was no point in buying an EOS body as I couldn’t use my FD lenses on it, even if my lens collection numbered only two by this point. The kit that I bought was the Canon EOS 500N with 28-80mm and 80-200mm zoom lenses. It was all quite basic, but what really excited me is that it would be the first camera that I owned that would have the now standard PASM (program, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual) modes, and would therefore finally match the Canon A-1 in functionality. This was a good upgrade on the T70, and I confess I didn’t really miss the older SLR after I made the switch. For me the 500N was a great camera at that time – it had the PASM modes of the A-1, the auto-winding of the T70, a built in flash, a couple of useful lenses, and a few other new features such as autofocus. This was the camera that would enable seamless transition to Canon DSLRs down the line. I also bought it just before the first affordable digital cameras started to appear. The sun was setting on my 35mm film camera days.

Canon A-1. Best… camera… ever! (IMHO)

Straight up, this is my favourite camera. Not only this model, but this particular one. It was my Dad’s and he gave it to me about 20 years ago now. It has been sitting in storage, but when I found it I tested it, gave it a clean, applied some oil to the mirror mechanism, and here we are.

My Dad bought it with three lenses I think – I’d have to ask him to be sure. The 50mm f1.4 is now the one always attached as I like to shoot with a standard prime on this camera. When I was a kid it usually had the 28mm f2.8 mounted as that seemed to work best for the sorts of photos that my Dad took, which were mainly travel (landscape, cityscape, and the odd family group shot). He also occasionally used a 80-200mm f4 tele-zoom lens. All three lenses have the silver breach lock ring, and are original Canon FD. I have all three lenses now, along with a Canon 2x teleconverter and a Canon Speedlite 199A bounce flash that he also bought.

So here it is. My favourite camera… specifically this one. It has immense sentimental value to me, as I remember my Dad using it when I was a kid. It’s wonderful to use and has all the basic functionality – I believe it was the first SLR to introduce the now standard PASM modes. Too easy.