Canon AE-1 Review

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Canon AE-1
4.5 stars
Average rating for this product is: 4.5 out of 5

From 8 ratings and 27 reviews

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Thomas B..'s Review of Canon AE-1 35mm SLR camera

Overall Rating

2 stars
  • Value for money
    3 stars
  • Features
    3 stars
Good Points

Simple, sturdy


Bad Points

No longer made, lenses no longer supported by manufacturer, parts no longer available, so-so reliability record


General Comments

Had an AE-1 years ago that I eventually traded for a Nikon. Canon's lenses for this mount are very good, but you'll only find them on the used shelf as Canon obsoleted this entire lens mount (not the first time they've abandoned older Canon owners). For this reason and because of reliability issues I switched to Nikon.

Only buy this camera if it's in excellent working condition and you have access to lenses, because there is no parts support from Canon for this old dog, and lenses for the mount are climbing in price as their rarity increase.

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Members' Comments onThomas B..'s Review

  • rz0bwr on 24th Oct 2003

    I have had an AE-1 canon camera since 1979.
    For the most part it has been a great camera, very reliable and exceptional quality pictures. I would say I have taken 7000 pictures or more with it. However, in the past six years it has been in the repair shop 3 times for shutter repairs. Do not understand why the shutter fails so much recently. These are not cheap repairs either. Parts availability scarce.
    Also, manual focus a big pain in the age of automatic focus and digital world.
    Also with automatic exposure that is supposed to get great pictures, shadow pictures, even with flash are disappointing.
    Power winder option a great accessory that I purchased many years ago. A real collectors item, but totally out of tune with todays digital world.

  • zann Rank: Lance Corporal on 12th Feb 2004

    i agree. canon told me that they dont service this camera anymore. WHY...

    now i have a canon ae-1 with a dirty len.