arhphotographic

When I purchased this camera it was advertised as not working. So why buy it? It had a working meter which told me that there may be a chance of getting it working. I have taken a few cameras apart, cleaned, and successfully put them back together again and still have them working! Since the Canon AT-1 is controlled by circuit boards which often get dirty and stop the camera from working I thought I would give it a clean and who knows get the thing working at best or at the very least learn a little.

The circuit boards are housed under the top plate. which requires taking the plastic plate around the cameras lens mount off.

The film rewind and shutter wind-on have to come off before the screws securing the top plate can be undone and the top plate removed.

I gave the circuit board a clean with some surgical spirits and then proceeded to put the thing back together. Image my joy when the camera now fired on all speeds and wound on. Sadly the cable securing the meter mechanism snapped when refitting the top plate. More about that another time.

At least I could now use the camera albeit using a light meter, my trusty Weston Master III. Here are some of my photos on my first outing with the camera.

One of the Robins that has been a regular visitor during lockdown.

One thing that concerned me was that the shutter speeds I used all sounded the same?? I clearly didn’t need to worry as the images all came out as well exposed.

Until I fix the meter I can’t really give a review of the Canon AT-1. However like all the Canon’s in the A series its light, feels good in the hand and does a good job of taking photos without too much fuss.