Canon A-1 metering problem.

June 11, 2007 8:45 PM

Does anyone have any experience with the Canon A-1 (or other Canon A-series SLRs)?

I just picked up a used but in very good cosmetic condition Canon A-1. Everything seems to be in perfect working order except for the camera's meter, which is underexposing by about 2 stops. The strange thing is that it seems to vary in how much it wants to underexpose, and sometimes it even gives accurate readings. Turning the Exposure Compensation dial to 4 seems to solve the problem for the most part. My question is whether this could be caused by a dying battery, or does the meter need to be recalibrated? I've heard that these old Canons drained the battery even when the circuitry was switched off, and when I received the A-1 in the mail this morning the switch was set to 'A' (on), and had been that way since being shipped to me Friday morning, possibly longer.

posted by Venadium to media & arts (14 comments total)

I have a Canon AE-1 which I think is similar. I got it used from a family member and took a few nice photos with it before loosing interest in it. When I first got mine, I did have to replace the battery before the meter worked properly.
When I was fooling with my AE-1, I found this site invaluable. It has a lot of excellent info about the A-1, the AE-1, and many other old Canon cameras, including all the info from their original manuals.
posted by raygan at 9:15 PM on June 11, 2007

Owner of several AE-1s. I have never had to replace a battery in any of mine, but you should go ahead and replace yours if you have a metering problem.

My profuse apologies if I am stating the obvious (since I don't know your level of expertise with old manual cameras) but did you set the ASA to the proper film speed? It's manual on those; there was no DX-code reader then. And shooting at the wrong ASA setting would give you consistently wrong exposures.

Being set to A shouldn't drain the battery much, if at all. Pressing the shutter down halfway activates the meter. But the battery could have been weak for a long time.
posted by The Deej at 9:25 PM on June 11, 2007

I have an AE-1P, and while I don't know how similar its electronics are to the A-1, but the metering issue definitely sounds like something that could be related to a battery. I'd get a new battery, a clean roll of film, and try it out. If it fixes itself, hooray. If it doesn't ... it's not like you spent that much money on it.

On some older rangefinders that I've used, the battery voltage can definitely affect the meter's reading. This is particularly common on ones that were designed for use with mercury batteries, because they have a pretty flat discharge curve. When Hg batteries disappeared, camera meter designs changed, and they're not quite as sensitive to battery voltage, but who knows what a very low one could be doing.

I think the battery for the A-1 is a 4LR44 cell, which should be easy to find in any Radio Shack or Ritz Camera.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:28 PM on June 11, 2007

I haven't shot a roll with it yet, but I had the ASA set at 400 since that's the speed of the Ilford film I've got laying around which I had planned on using it it. The values I was getting from both Av and Tv modes would have left any pics I had taken way underexposed.

Anyway, I may have jumped the gun a little in posting this as it seems the problem has disappeared. I've been using my D80 to take pics at the values the meter was giving me to confirm the underexposure, and I changed the ASA on the A-1 from 400 up to 1600 just to see what would happen. At 1600 the meter was accurate with the Exposure Compensation set at the default 1. Same at 800. I went back to 400 and it seems to be working fine now. Maybe the ASA ring hadn't 'snapped' into place properly and wasnt making good contact with whatever it makes contact with inside the camera?

Crap. Nevermind. New symptom: the meter was working fine until I cocked the shutter. I pressed the shutter release halfway, got the correct meter reading, then the shutter speed jumped from 30 to 125 (in Av mode). I'm going to have to assume at this point that it's probably not a problem with the battery.
posted by Venadium at 9:55 PM on June 11, 2007

Great camera.

Right now you can pick up what just a few years back was extremely expensive top of the line technology for pennies on the dollar, unless you want a Leica M; they still fetch top, top dollar, yet their shutter, it is like butter, sssschhhhlk (but basically you have to have your ear touch the camera to hear it). mmmmm. Am I the only weirdo who thinks these are cool, (and who appreciates a 1932 double clutch tranny, with a nearly 400hp engine driving a 1700 lb chassis.
posted by caddis at 9:56 PM on June 11, 2007

You are not alone caddis. I shoot mostly film. My favorite camera is my Yashica Electro. (Self link to self-portrait)
posted by The Deej at 10:02 PM on June 11, 2007

My favorite camera is also a Yashica, though it's the 124 (non-G) TLR, which at the moment is waiting to be sent to Marc Hana for some repairs before I take it on vacation with me next month.

And I may have been wrong again, though right at the same time I suppose because at this point I'm 90% sure it's the battery. I think charging and firing the shutter put enough strain on the battery to screw with the meter. I also re-tested the battery with the button on the camera and it's definitely blinking a lot slower than it was earlier. The manual says 2 blinks per second indicates a dead battery, and when I first pulled the thing out of the box I'd guess it was blinking maybe 4 times per second. Since I've never used the camera before I figured that was quick enough and the battery would be OK, but I guess I was wrong.
posted by Venadium at 10:14 PM on June 11, 2007

The Yashica 124 is great! I shot with one for years. Now I have a Seagull TLR which is surprisingly good. It doesn't see much action though.
posted by The Deej at 6:03 AM on June 12, 2007

I have an A-1, and the batteries seem to last forever. It sounds like there is a problem with the meter, or maybe a loose wire.

caddis, I'll add analog meters, mechanical watches, and side draft carburetors to your list. If someone steals your digital camera, you might be pissed 'cause it cost you money. But you don't mourn a lost friend.
posted by Killick at 6:12 AM on June 12, 2007

Killick: Since you have one, then let me ask you: when you press the battery test button with a good battery in the camera, how fast does the red LED blink? Should it be as fast as it blinks when using the self-timer or slower?
posted by Venadium at 6:37 AM on June 12, 2007

I'm away from home for a few weeks so I can't check -- I'll send you an email.
posted by Killick at 7:03 AM on June 12, 2007

I love my A-1.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 7:39 AM on June 12, 2007

This is a long shot but... on my old AE-1 the ASA/ISO select button and dial somehow got "off." In other words, if I selected 400, it was really 100, 800 was 200 etc. It ended up being a simple fix for a camera repairman with a fair amount of knowledge about the a series, cost me $30 to fix and worked perfectly up until I sold it. You should be able to verify this problem with a eternal light meter and a grey card.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 7:47 AM on June 12, 2007

then let me ask you: when you press the battery test button with a good battery in the camera, how fast does the red LED blink?

I finally remembered to check mine while I'm home. After finally figuring out which unmarked black button was the battery test... it blinks really fast and is really bright. Almost fast enough to be on constantly.

Incidentally, I think my A-1 was set to on (A) for the last few months, at least. Oops. No worries, because I don't think it does anything at all that uses the battery when the shutter button isn't pushed in. The L setting is really just so the shutter doesn't get pressed in your bag.
posted by smackfu at 8:50 PM on June 14, 2007