Happy National Camera Day (for yesterday!!). We've been so busy putting all our energies into all the new work here at IMPACT 20twenty, with weddings and portraits over at Justin Krause Photography & Film and with trying to find the new normal and juggle the new work/life balance (and failing miserably at the moment but we'll get there) that it (and blogging to mention it) had totally slipped my mind until about midnight last night! Anyhoooo.... Had to put up a shot of this wee beasty, the Canon AE-1. If you don't know why this was chosen to upload then suffice to say that it's a modern classic. It also looks incredible. I rescued this beauty from a car-boot sale (for our friends across the pond, it's like a yard sale but in a field where *carbooters* sell stuff they don't want anymore that they have piled into the boots - "trunk" to you - of their cars/vans. I spotted a very battered, faded, leather cracked camera case with the canon badge on it from about 20 meters away and homed in on it like a guided missile. I picked it up and the casing nearly fell apart in my hands. I opened the cover and saw this AE-1 in a sorry state. Acting all cool and nonchalant, I asked the seller about it. It looked like it had been left out in the elements for a couple years - dirty, dusty, grimy with surface corrosion on the casing. The seller didn't know anything about it other than it was a camera, it was old and it was maybe working, or if it was special at all and picked a figure out of thin air. To me it was worth every penny of the asking price. £5 ($6USD)!! I couldn't believe my luck! I was stoked! Another AE-1 I had been watching, and had been tempted with, had just gone on ebay for £60! The lens was crusty with a bit of fungus, (nothing to worry me) and the aperture ring was stiff. This one was clearly a gamble. The winder didn't work and the shutter button didn't do anything but I was very happy none the less, even with it as a display item or a paper weight in the office. Trying to control my grin, I paid the lady, secretly praying it just needed a new battery (£2.99 for two on Amazon) and not because it was fully dead and ruined from being left outside.
Look at the state of it! Poor thing. Sat beside the new tech, Canon R6.
The old battery
After a scrub and some TLC.
Think the case has had it. Jack may try to make a new one using his leather working skills using this as a pattern though.
I got it home, got a toothbrush and a couple cloths and set about cleaning it up, digging out all the dirt and grime from the nooks and crannies of this angular work of art. The battery arrived, I tore open the packaging and put it in with bated breath....the AE-1 came to life! The metering works, the winder, the shutter works, the self timer works! I need to get a film and throw it through it and I can't wait! I'm such a geek and I don't care who knows!
It's the little things in life eh?
Happy National Camera Day!
