In the July Newsletter I explained my experience on buying a new Samsung
Camera, which was virtually ‘ALL’ automatic, and the problem
that it created by resetting to just 25asa when a none DX film
cassette was loaded. Thankfully this was taken care of by simply
buying stick-on labels, as sold by Jessop.
This camera was purchased purely as a ‘second’ camera to carry
around when my main camera and equipment isn’t necessary arid
has proved very handy.
For a while I found that my favourite Canon AE1 was playing up and
giving occasional underexposed frames. Eventually this started
to show up physically when I noticed a strange little ‘whir’
on pressing the shutter button. As it wasn’t constant I
allowed this to go on for a while, but obviously it could well
loose me that ‘special’ shot, so a repair was considered.
The first quote I got was around £80. Now I must add that I
bought the AEI in the early 80’s and it has proved completely
reliable with only one visit to the repair shop and how many
miles of film have gone through it I can’t imagine so was
quite reluctant to getting rid of it.
What 1 liked about the AE1 was that while it had automatic exposure, it
was equally easy to use in manual mode, which it was in for most
of the time I have owned it. Auto exposure is fine but of course
only works well in average lighting. By standardising my film to
mainly lOOasa, in bright summer days the average exposure is F8
at 250. Before the first exposure on an outing I would check the
mean exposure on Auto setting and for the rest of the day out,
stay on manual and simply open or close the shutter by up to one
full stop or change the shutter speed. This has kept me in good
stead for all these years.
The only two additions that I felt would be helpful was having automatic
film wind-on. I have forgotten how many shots I have missed
because I hadn’t wound the film on after the previous exposure
and, when taking long exposure, night time shots it would have
been handy to have been able to set the seconds required
automatically. The AE1 ‘s longest shutter speed is two
seconds. However while the camera continued to give me constant
service I was happy with it. Having automatic focusing isn’t
that important to me.
A couple or so years back a work mate, after having a Canon AE1 for as
long as I have, bought one of the latest Cannon cameras with
auto everything, at a cost of around £500. Apart from having to
learn which of the numerous exposure ‘modes’ to use and
missing shots while checking the LDC screen to make sure he had
set everything correctly, the main thing he missed was the
faster F1.8 of the AE1’s standard lens. The super-duper
telephoto lens meant he had to stop taking ‘moving’ shots
long before his trusty AE1 would have. He solved the problem by
using a faster film but of course ‘grain’ started to show up
in his shots and the faster emulsion wasn’t always suitable in
bright sunlight.
Recently he has returned to using the AE1 again. With his experience in
mind when I decided to replace my AEI I wasn’t keen to go to
that expense and perhaps not feel completely happy with my
photography therefore I considered the possibility of going for
a good quality second hand model. Over some months I had a good
look around many photographic shop with a second hand display,
eventually getting a good idea of what to go for, though I was
still looking too closely at more up-to-date models, of all
brands.
One day A Canon 150 caught my eye. It appeared to be a slightly more
modern version of the AEI. It used the same lenses, which would
save having to replace my wide angle, telephoto and
close-up lenses. However this camera didn’t quite appeal to
me. Some while later I came across a Canon 170, which is the big
brother to the 150.
A close look at this camera and a demonstration by the salesman made it
appeal to me more and more. It had all the modes I desired
without being over burdened with computerised gadgetry, film
rewind and, time exposure countdown, shown on the LDC screen.
For time exposure it is not possible to pre-set the seconds countdown.
While pressing the shutter button, manually or by use of a
release cable, you simply stop the exposure on reaching the
desired exposure duration as shown in the LCD screen. This
avoids the need for a separate stopwatch.
On Self-timer it bleeps as each second is counted then gives a series of
short warning bleeps two seconds before the shutter fires.
AUTO
PROGRAMME AVERAGE SETTINGS
The
170 has two methods of auto exposure reading, ‘average’ which reads all over the viewed
scene and ‘Partial (AEL)’ which is centre biased to
concentrate exposure on the main interest. This is ideal for
against the light shots where the exposure meter would
concentrate on the main subject and avoid under exposure. Ideal
when you don’t want to use the harshness of fill-in flash.
The ‘AEL’ stands for Auto Electric Lock, which means that the
aperture reading is ‘locked’ in the memory chip when you
hold the shutter button half way down. You can ‘hold’ this
as your preferred exposure then re-compose your shot into a
duller or brighter part of the scene and then take the shot.
In ‘manual’ mode you are free to set the shutter speed and simply
using the auto exposure reading as a guide.
There are three “Programm& modes. For simple point and shoot, set
on ‘programme’, both shutter and aperture are taken care of.
In ‘programme (Tele)’ mode the camera chooses the fastest possible
shutter speed, which can be used for ‘stop’ action shots or
to avoid camera shake while using a telephoto lens, hand held.
In ‘programme (Wide)’ mode the camera chooses the smallest possible
aperture, which is ideal for scenic shots and extreme
depth-of-field when using a wide-angle lens.
The two modes will prove worthwhile as while I used the AE1 in Manual
and compensated where necessary I often found, while using the
telephoto lens, that exposures were still a bit on the ‘low’
side and wide angle shots a bit bright.
In ‘programme’ mode the shutter will use a wide range of speeds
taking advantage of half speed settings. However a shutter lock
allows you to set the speed you want and leave the auto meter to
take care of the exposures.
All the settings are displayed on a LDC screen on the right hand side of
the camera with the modes set by holding down the ‘mode’
button and pressing a Up & Down buttons to select the
setting you want.
The viewfinder displays a ‘P’ or ‘M’ icon for either programme
or manual mode, a ‘~‘ icon reminds that you are using centre
loaded metering. Both these will flash to warn of over or under
exposure. An lightening flash icon lights up to confirm when a
flash-gun is fitted and fully charged. The LDC screen is very
sharp and clearand the light diods in the viewfinder brighten
and dim according to the brightness of the scene you are viewing
so that you can always read them.
The camera came out before DX. The ASA (12-1000) has it’s own setting
button, and is displayed on the screen. Shutter speeds are
‘continual’ in programme mode but can be locked on your
‘standard’ setting. e.g. If you were about to take a subject
moving from a bright to a duller scene you could decide whether
to keep the object sharp by fixing the shutter speed or if not
so important allow the programme mode to choose the nearest
shutter speed. However as this would now affect the aperture,
the amount of ‘Depth of Field’ required would also affect
which mode you finally use.
There is no separate setting for continuous shooting, you simply hold
down the shutter button for as many shots you exposure on the main interest.
This is ideal for against the light shots where the exposure meter would
concentrate on the main subject and avoid under exposure. Ideal
when you don’t want to use the harshness of fill-in flash.
The ‘AEL’ stands for Auto Electric Lock, which means that the
aperture reading is ‘locked’ in the memory chip when you
hold the shutter button half way down. You can ‘hold’ this
as your preferred exposure then re-compose your shot into a
duller or brighter part of the scene and then take the shot.
In ‘manual’ mode you are free to set the shutter speed and simply
using the auto exposure reading as a guide.
There are three “Programm& modes. For simple point and shoot, set
on ‘programme’, both shutter and aperture are taken care of.
In ‘programme (Tele)’ mode the camera chooses the fastest possible
shutter speed, which can be used for ‘stop’ action shots or
to avoid camera shake while using a telephoto lens, hand held.
In ‘programme (Wide)’ mode the camera chooses the smallest possible
aperture, which is ideal for scenic shots and extreme
depth-of-field when using a wide-angle lens.
Thes two modes will prove worthwhile as while I used the AE1 in Manual
and compensated where necessary I often found, while using the
telephoto lens, that exposures were still a bit on the ‘low’
side and wide angle shots a bit bright.
In ‘programme’ mode the shutter will use a wide range of speeds
taking advantage of half speed settings. However a shutter lock
allows you to set the speed you want and leave the auto meter to
take care of the exposures.
All the settings are displayed on a LDC screen on the right hand side of
the camera with the modes set by holding down the ‘mode’
button and pressing a Up & Down buttons to select the
setting you want.
The viewfinder displays a ‘P’ or ‘M’ icon for either programme
or manual mode, a ‘~‘ icon reminds that you are using centre
loaded metering. Both these will flash to warn of over or under
exposure. An lightening flash icon lights up to confirm when a
flash-gun is fitted and fully charged. The LDC screen is very
sharp and clearand the light diods in the viewfinder brighten
and dim according to the brightness of the scene you are viewing
so that you can always read them.
The camera came out before DX. The ASA (12-1000) has it’s own setting
button, and is displayed on the screen. Shutter speeds are
‘continual’ in programme mode but can be locked on your
‘standard’ setting. e.g. If you were about to take a subject
moving from a bright to a duller scene you could decide whether
to keep the object sharp by fixing the shutter speed or if not
so important allow the programme mode to choose the nearest
shutter speed. However as this would now affect the aperture,
the amount of ‘Depth of Field’ required would also affect
which mode you finally use.
There is no separate setting for continuous shooting, you simply hold
down the shutter button for as many shots you wish to take in
one go, which demonstrates how fast the motor wind works.
CAMERA
MANUAL
While
the salesman at Tecno (Reading, Berks) was very helpful and gave
me enough information to use the camera instantly, the
instruction manual wasn’t available. However he told me of a
dealer called Old Timer Cameras Ltd. I phoned them and they sent
photocopies of the original manual.
You
receive good quality A4 size photocopies of the original manuals
and prices range from £5 to £10 or more, depending on the
amount of pages. Copies of manuals from Camera Repairs, Focal
Photo Guides to, Amateur Photographer Test Reports, can be
ordered. They claim to have “A listing of every camera ever
mad&. The oldest I came across was an Adams 12 x ¼pl
reflex, of 1892.
If
you are interested give them a
ring at Old Timer Cameras, Ltd., P.O. Box 28, Elstree, Herts.
WD6 4SY.
Tel. 0181-953-5479.
So
with all these facilities available I ask again, is there any
real need for these newer all-singing,
all-dancing
cameras, with so many options
it leaves
you bewildered.
Many modes, which you will either, never use nor understand.
What’s
wrong with a good quality second hand camera, of a price and
range which you may not have afforded when new? For the third of
the price of a new camera I have updated my photographic
abilities to virtually all the modes I need to produce the type
of pictures I generally take and which should keep me happy for
long enough. If the camera only lasts three years I will
I have got good value and if longer it will prove a considerable
bargain.