Beginner canon a1 lens question

dan_yell

dan_yell

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Hello. Not used film for so long, feeling like a beginner...

Bought a canon a1 from another lovely forum user - starting off in P mode until I get back on track - the stuff I've been reading says to use P, the lens needs to be set to A - I have a couple of lenses with the camera and the vivitar 28mm f1.8 does not have an A on the lens. I've tried Google and I can't seem to find out if this means I cannot use this lens (or any other lens which doesn't have A on) when using P.

Does anyone know? Or am I talking utter gibberish?
 
Putting the lens on A when using an FD mount on an A series Canon allows the camera to control the full range of apertures by controlling the movement of the aperture control lever on the back of the lens.

Try setting your lens to whatever the minimum aperture is (probably f22) and see what happens.

If you look through the back of the camera when operating the shutter you should be able to see if the camera is controlling the aperture properly.

HTH

David
 
AFAIK the A1 is FD mount?

Personally I'd use Aperture priority and set the aperture ring on the lens to the aperture you want as appropriate and let the camera set the shutter speed :D I'm not sure what to set the Vivitar to if you want to use program mode and it hasn't got an "A" setting but if it doesn't work in P you could always use it in Aperture priority and set the aperture yourself.

PS. Crossed with David.
 
Thanks guys, maybe I'll do aperture priority instead - I don't really want to go shooting a roll of film on P if its not going to def work. I have a film loaded and some shots taken using a different lens (with A on) so can't do the visual check.

Maybe I was using the wrong google terms to try and find an answer or maybe I didn't look hard enough...
 
simonblue said:
Some help here :)

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Canon-A-1-35mm-Camera
Click to expand...

yeah ive read that before but it doesnt mention about lenses that do not have an A on - i was hoping somewhere a post would talk about the A setting when using P, and say "some lenses available for the A 1 do not have an A setting, this means you cannot use them with the P setting and therefore you should do X" or "some non canon lenses dont have the A setting, but you can achieve the same thing by X as this is the same as the A setting on a canon lens" - but no articles seem to mention a lens *not* having an A on it.

thanks though :)
 
Just put the lens to minimum aperture for all modes except manual. This might seem strange for Av, but looking at the pictures in the link, in Av, the aperture is selected on the camera, not on the lens
 
i would hazard a guess that A is obviously auto ( the fuji XE1 lenses have this mode ) and when in one of the settings on the camera program, Shutter prioity or APerture priority the lenses with the A on will set itself based on the camera settings for aperture.
without the A function the aperture on the lens will most likely stay as the default when the camera is switched on ( or may change to whatever aperture you select.
you could of course test this by firing the camera without a film in on a bulb exposure shot with the lens set at both its widest and narrowest in all 3 modes to see if there is a change in the aperture.
otherwise you would most likely be strictly limited to full manual only.
 
Yeah I know what the A function does, I am just trying to find out if the vivitar & other lenses have some other symbol on the lens that means the same - or if the absence of A just straight up means the lens cannot be used on the A1 models P mode (which is like auto on a moderb SLR/DSLR). I wondered if anyone else here had experience of the a1 & a range of lenses and knew the def answer.

Cheers tho :)
 
Apologies to all - the answer was in the manual..... I had read the manual but before looking at the other lenses & seeing it didn't have an A on it so it didn't twig! Sorry.

However the film winding sprocket has now cracked so I won't be doing anything in near future (& lost the photos I had taken)
 
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