Camera Feature: Canon A-1 (and how I started photographing in film)
In 2019, a family friend gifted us a Canon A-1. Up until recently it had been sitting on our bookshelf as an ornamental piece; something only to look at. I had hesitated to try to get it to work again until June, when I finally had the chance to visit a local camera shop (Southeastern Camera). After seeing their vast collection of film cameras and equipment, I asked if they could help me restore my own, and they happily agreed!
"Restore" is a bit of an overstatement because it literally just worked after popping the battery in. One of the staff at the store helped me get acquainted with it which was much easier than I thought.
I rarely fall in love - much less with objects - but soon enough, I found myself wanting to hold it and take a photo any time I had the chance. Its construction is just so solid, and the controls are simple and tactile. The beauty in the design of this camera is second only to the photos it takes through its 50mm f/1.4 prime lens - here are a few from the first roll I shot with it:
A slice of Downtown Raleigh's skyline taken from Boylan Bridge.
Piedmont 78 - the last train to Charlotte for the day - leaving Raleigh Union Station, headed by an EMD F59PH (RNCX 1810 "City Of Greensboro").
A Motrec MC-480 baggage handling vehicle sitting pretty, waiting for the soon-to-arrive Carolinian 79.
Milo!
Of course, the human who hits the shutter is what really matters, and we all have to start somewhere. At the same time, I was also figuring out my own film scanning workflow. As it turns out, a large factor in the quality of my results came down to how I edit the scans - a process made a little simpler by the free and open-source NegPy. You probably noticed inconsistencies with the white balance of some frames, or some weird casts, which I learned to work out as I scanned and edited more frames.
At this point, I feel like I'm confident enough with my editing to post my work. Even with Kodacolor 200 - Kodak's supposedly "budget" offering - colors come out fantastic. The only thing is that the sharpness of the scan is severely limited by my setup, but for now I'm fine with 8MP - it's just about 4K!
In the future, I plan to buy a secondhand wide-angle or zoom lens for this camera after upgrading my scanning lens. This is one benefit of the Canon FD mount - cameras and lenses are ubiquitous. I've already posted some more photos taken with this camera, and as it is my main workhorse, you can expect them to make up the majority of my posts down the line.
