A geek and his camera: Canon AV-1

Classic looks of the Canon AV-1

The eleventh camera in my Twelve months of Film project is the Canon AV-1. It was introduced by the company in 1979 and is very similar to the AE-1, which was released in 1976. The key difference between the two is the fact that the AV-1 is an aperture priority camera, where as the AE-1 is shutter priority. For me personally, the AV-1 suits my style of shooting more, as I tend to photograph in either manual or aperture priority mode. There is no full manual mode on this camera so aperture priority it is.

Canon were amongst the first companies to use plastics on their SLR's to keep costs low, thus attracting more buyers. This policy definitely seemed to work, as more and more people could afford the AE-1 or AV-1, and they sold by the tens of thousands. Such was the success of these Canon bodies, companies like Nikon were forced to design and produce something similar, thus the Nikon EM was born. Although predominately plastic, the AV-1 feels sturdy in the hand. Not as solid as say, an Olympus OM10 or Fujica STX-1, but plenty solid enough.

The layout is very simple, the top plate uncluttered. The shutter makes a fairly loud ping sound when fired, but the camera just works. In fact, I enjoyed using this camera so much during July, that I accidentally ran a second film through it. Whoops. Coupled with a Canon 'nifty fifty', it was a great little package, and if you can hunt down a good one, I would highly recommend you snap it up. This particular camera had just had an overhaul, new batteries and seals, and it worked like a charm.

The camera consistently produced sharp, contrasty images, and coupled with Agfa Vista 200 film, it captured great colour too.

Top plate showing film advance lever

Film rewind and ISO dial

From the back

View from above

If you had read my post from last month about the 1940's festival in Woodhall Spa, you will know what a great event it was for indulging in a bit of street photography. If you have yet to read it, you can find it here. http://brettgardnerphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/woodhall-spa-40s-festival.html. These images were taken at the festival, where I carried around a digital camera body and the Canon AV-1. The Canon was great in this environment, small and unobtrusive. It allowed me to take some truly candid images of people dressed in period costume, and by trying to isolate the subject, I was sometimes able to capture scenes that could've truly been from a bygone era.