What a camera ! ! ! I have two of the Canon A1. One was purchased by my Grandfather in the early 80's. The other by my father around the same time. I have since inherited both of them. I also have several of the AE-1's. Three to be exact. Thank god they both purchased a large assortment of lenses as well. Got them too. All of my Canon cameras take beautiful photographs. They are not as rugged as my old Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic, But that one was made in the 60's and it still works like a champ too.

I have had my Canon A1 for around 25 years I have always loved using it and it has never let me down. When I purchased it, it was expensive and as an amateur I couldn't really justify the cost. Now 25 years later the initial outlay is justified at around £0.60 per year. You can't even buy a decent newspaper for that!
A classic that is still going strong and I prefer the A1 to my digital.

Had mine for over 20 years now.
Brilliant pictures.
Just upgraded to EOS 400D and look back at my A-1 with fond memories.

I have taken thousands of photographs with my Canon A1s, with films ranging from Kodachrome 25 and 64 to medium and high speed color print film as well as a range of black/white film.

The camera has a great feel and balance, and has full manual control for virtually any type of subject matter, from macro photography using bellows or experimental night photography, or "Program" mode when I just want to focus and shoot.

My favorite lens is the Canon 35-70 FD lens, it's not too long or too short, and I like the collar ring zoom which makes it easy to focus first, then crop the scene. Canon's standard 50 mm lens is a 2.8, but I prefer the 1.4.

I've made enlargements up to 11 x 14 and I have been quite happy with the results. Recently I purchased an Epsom Scanner with high enough resolution to scan film and slides, and I have decided to hold off on buying a new digital Canon SLR for a while longer.

Starting last year I decided to get back into photography after leaving it alone for 20 years, so I joined a local club and blended into the background and watched and learned. I purchased a couple of Nikon autofocus SLR's (F55 & F65), but the results were disappointing, then I spotted a Canon A1 on Ebay and took a risk and purchased it for £45. Also included in the sale was a Canon 28mm f2.8 wide angle lens. This combination and the amazing Fujichrome Velvia 50 slide film this year won me (best slide, best colour, and most original slide) a great haul in my first year. I will never part with my A1, but most of all I wish to thank all of you who have switched to digital and helped top quality film gear to be purchased for peanuts.

The Canon A1 35mm SLR is a classic camera, surpassed only by the F1.

I have had mine since about 1980, and have four lenses: 2 zooms and two fixed focal length. I also have the 199 Speedlight which is very powerful, and will work with lenses as wide as 24mm. I did have the motor drive (now sold) which was quite remarkable. It would consume 36 frames of film in about 5 secs, and the batteries didn't last much longer. The Speedlight could keep up for bursts of 4 or 5 frames before needing to recharge.

From being state of the art, it now seems a bit dated, being large and heavy - very heavy with a 300mm lens, motor drive, and flash. However, it was always forgiven for this as the quality of the transparencies or prints was superb. There was never any concern about enlarging Kodachrome64 to 20" 30".

Swapping lenses is a simple one-handed job, and when I dropped my f4 35-70mm zoom, it was reset by a specialist in Liverpool.

Over the years I have it serviced there several times, and only a broken battery door ever needed replacing. It has been frozen in the foothills of Everest, soaked in Snowdonia and fried in the Arizona desert. The leather case has protected it, and even though the case itself is all but wrecked, the camera itself is in good condition. It has never failed despite the testing environments.

It is easy to use in all modes, and I found that metering at normal light levels was very accurate.

My greatest wish is that I could change the back for a an 8 Mega-Pixel digital receptor!

I have had my Canon A1 35mm SLR camera for 25 years. It is a good camera, and I have taken many good pictures.

I have considered buying a second one.

I have been using a Canon A1 camera for my coursework on photography at college. It has never let me down once and the last owner used it for 15 years very regularly and never had any problems.

The Canon A1 SLR may be the best manual focus camera ever made. It had features that were way ahead of its time, like the LED readout in the viewfinder, that shows aperture and shutter speed, and the ability to change both with just one knob on the top of the camera. The 'snick' of the shutter is a great sound. It can take beautiful images, and is compatible with many, many great FD lenses. With a power winder, it can be focused without taking your eye from the viewfinder. A fine piece of engineering (except for the DOF Rube Goldberg like control). Buy this camera and a few lenses, and a Nikon F4 and a few lenses, and you are set for life.

When my Canon A1 35mm SLR camera appeared to give up the ghost I put it in a cupboard and forgot about it. That was 2 years ago. I recently got the photography bug again and started to scan the net for inspiration on what camera (digital I suppose) to buy. low and behold all this praise for the antique and humble A1!. Mine is now being serviced and I hope to carry on using it for a few more years with renewed enthusiasm.

A EOS10D, EOS 5 and a T90 before that my Canon A1 was not getting any use. Then just for fun I put a roll through the A1 35mm SLR Cameras!!
All of a sudden I became a photographer again, yes the A1 is my main camera again !!! So if you can get one or even 2 it will never let you down and maybe your photography will even improve !!

I purchased a Canon A1 this summer when I was deploying to Iraq with the U.S. Army. I Have an EOS Rebel 2000, but on previous trips to the desert I have seen Auto Focus systems fail because of sand and rough conditions. I don't agree that this is a delicate camera. it survived a 300 mile road march being bounced around in a humvee. The sand was terrible and we hit bumps that bounced my head off the ceiling. The camera was being stored in a .50 cal ammo can and must have taken a good pounding. It never failed and took great pictures. I also purchased a Promaster 28-210mm lens that is brand new. They do make new lenses for it.

The Cannon A1 is a great camera for general photography.you have AV for landscapes. TV for sports and movement. full manual that you can see and control in the viewfinder. as well as programme that your pet cat could use. it uses the same lenses that the F1N and AE-1 use, and look how many of those cameras are still giving great service.
its able to take a huge range of cheap s/hand lens and runs on a cheap 6 volt battery.
it has metal in the body and guts of it, not lots and lots of plastic that cracks after a knock or a drop.
a local repair person can usually repair it cheaply in a week or so and not have to have go back to japan for 3-6 months.
its a camera that you can grow with, meaning you can try all the options that different metering modes in the camera can give you,rather than just on programme.

I used an A-1 years ago. I remember at that time Canon was still marketing its clumsy two-handed breechlock mount system as 'superior'. But when EOS arrived, Canon immediately dropped the breech ring for a bayonet lock like of its competitors! Back in the late 1970s this was a modern camera, but today there are more modern systems on the market that provide more shooting options. Because it's long since been discontinued, only used cameras and lenses are available. Canon dropped all bodies and lenses for the A-1 some time ago. Good lens bargains are out there, but you must examine them carefully as many now have haze or scratches on the glass, or broken breechlocks.

Canons of this vintage have some problems. The A-1 has a cloth shutter, and tends to stick at times or emit the dreaded Canon 'squeal'. Many used examples have broken or taped battery doors, and the electronic circuitry is fairly delicate - these cameras are easily damaged by use of certain flashguns. Nearly all A-1s will need a good cleaning and replacement of gummy seals at this time in their lives.

Top shutter speed is 1/1000 only, with a slow flash syncronization speed, and since the camera is totally dependent on batteries even in 'B' mode, you will drain batteries fast with long exposures. Because of these issues I would not recommend this camera.

I love the Canon A1 camera too, I've taken some amazing pictures with it.

THE CANON A1 IS THE BEST MANUAL SLR CAMERA EVER PRODUCED