quick Q: what do "A", "L" and "S" stand for on Canon cameras?

<p>I always wondered about this and do not recall ever seeing a definition. These symbols were, IMHO, the norm in older fl and fd mount cameras. I am not sure, but looks like T-series and EOS cameras do not have "A" or "S".</p>

<p>"L" seems to be easiest: Lock.</p>

<p>"A", Action?</p>

<p>"S", sleep?</p>

 

<p>Aperture and Shutter priority? Just a guess.</p>

<p>Aperture priority and Shutter priority modes?</p>

<p>Sorry I didn't elaborate. These characters do not denote the mode for shutter priority or aperture priority. These characters appears just beside the shutter release button (AE-1 Program in my case). The "A" position is when the camera is ON. The "L" position of the switch is to switch the camera off and the "S" position of the switch is used for the timer operation (10 sec usually).</p>

<p>RTFM?</p>

<p>I have an AE-1 Program too. You are right L stands for lock. I am not sure what A stands for but it is for regular shooting mode and S is Self Timer. Sorry I thought you were talking about letters on the shutter speed dial of a modern camera not an AE-1 Program. :)</p>

<p>Charles, read my OP, first sentence?</p>

<p>Kyle, yes "Self timer" looks like it for "S". Thanks.</p>

<p>HS - my apologies.</p>

<p>Charles, no problem. You are very gracious.</p>

<p>The 'A' goes way back to Canon rangefinders, and it is the position for normal shooting, as Kyle said above. Look at <a href="http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?CanonP.html~mainFrame">this page</a> on the Karen Nakamura site (the third picture down), and you can see the 'A' mark by the release of a ~1960 Canon P.</p>

<p>I believe someone on the Canon FD list has said it stands for 'Advance', but your guess of 'Action' works too. I always used to think to myself that it meant 'Armed'! That seemed to make sense to me.</p>

<p>hmm .. Armed appears to make more sense than Advance. Interesting.</p>

<p>The earliest I saw A and L were on my Dad's Canon FT QL SLR camera when I was a little kid. Incidentally, that is the camera I used to start shooting photos.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Similar AE-1 Program question, I have had the AE-1 Program for about 13 years... since high school and shooting it in manual mode (not program) I have always read the light meter as the combo of shutter speed and aperture that puts the number at 5.6 is the correct exposure, though sometimes I feel like this is a little over exposed. Am I using the meter correctly? Is 5.6 supposed to be optimal exposure?</p>

 

<p>If you post your question on the Canon FD forum, HS, you'll likely get a more "definitive" response.</p>

<p>HS, actually, I think 'Advance' is probably correct, and it makes sense if you've used a Canon rangefinder. </p>

<p>On my Canon P, there are two settings for the switch around the release. One just has a tick mark, and that's where you set it in order to rewind the film. It disengages the ratchet mechanism on the film advance winder, like putting in the clutch, same as the button on the base plate of your AE-1P. When you want to shoot, you rotate the switch to 'A', which engages the ratchet so you can <em><strong>advance</strong></em> the film. </p>

<p>Aha! I never really used a rangefinder, so perhaps that is the link I was missing in understanding this nomenclature. Thanks everyone.</p>

<p>Kyle, from my understanding so far, that f/5.6 index mark is used <em>only</em> in the case of using non-fd mount lenses on the AE-1 Program. So, there are two cases:</p>

<p>Case 1) Using fd mount Lenses.<br>

In this case, if the main dial is in PROGRAM mode, and the lens is in automatic "A" mode, aperture and speed are automatically set.<br>

If the lens is not in "A" mode and the main dial not in "PROGRAM" mode, the lens is in manual over ride mode. Then pressing the shutter release button half way shows the aperture in the viewfinder that the camera would have selected automatically. This number can be used as a guide to set the aperture manually by the photographer. But the camera will eventually use the aperture that is set on the aperture ring by the photographer. For example, if pressing shutter button half way show 11 in the viewfinder, then the photographer should choose f/11 on the lens to agree with the camera, but can choose anything he desires; f/8 for overexposure by 1 stop or f/16 for underexposure by one stop. That index mark beside the f/5.6 has no meaning in this case.</p>

<p>Case 2) Using non-fd mount lenses.<br>

In this case, the full-aperture metering is not used (as is used in Case 1 above), but stop-down metering is used (using the that depth of field preview button beside the lens). The lens' aperture ring needs to be rotated to proper aperture for proper exposure. The amount of light metered is shown using the glowing LED f-stops, those below f/5.6 mark indicate under exposure and those above it indicate overexposure. That is, imagine that there is a matching needle on the right hand side of the viewfinder and that it lights up the LEDs corresponding to its position. The position of this needle shows the expected exposure, and the objective is to rotate the f-stop ring on the lens so that the index mark of f/5.6 lights up. This would indicate needle matching up with the little square beside the f/5.6 number.<br>

Check out AE-1 Program's manual, pp. 56--57, for further details.</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>HS thank you that is very helpful and what I suspected. So any lens that does have the green A on the aperture ring then would be an F mount lens? I suspect that is why my exposure when overriding the automatic mode was so inconsistent because I was using the light meter as you described in case 2 but never case 1.</p>

<p>AE-1's are still great cameras! The FD glass is sweet too. Their only real fault is that "easy to unintentionally move", shutter speed dial.</p>

<p>The shutter speed dial, is right below the film advance. These had a nasty habit of accidentally spinning above the camera's sync speed. With flash this can produce disastrous results.</p>

<p>From the FWIW Dept : The Canon AE-1 was the first ever micro processor (CPU) controlled camera. Now days this isn't very impressive. But in 1976 this was way ahead of it's time.</p>

<p>In camera sales it was a huge success. In fact it outsold the Nikon F by more than 5 times! More than 5 million AE-1's were sold. Compared to less than 1 million Nikon F's.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Age/Sex/Location</p>

<p>I always wondered on the "A" and "L" on a switch on the Olympusflex (1952) which also has the "Action" and "Lock" function; see an image of it at:<br>

http://www.tlr-cameras.com/Japanese/slides/Olympus%20Flex%20B1.html <br>

I would not be surprised if the naming goes back to some old german cameras, which at that time stood model for the Japanese camera development: the "A" could mean "Auf" (=open) in German.</p>