Stopped Down metering

<p>Hello everyone!<br>

I'm a bit of a newbie to the world of photography. I've been avidly shooting pictures for the last two years; however, it was all by point and shoot. I've just graduated to a Canon EOS 50D and a Canon AE-1 program film camera.<br>

I'm still getting used to settings and learning the effects of aperature and shutterspeed. I didn't know if this would be better suited for the beginners forum, but I thought since it dealt with the Canon FD mount, you guys might be able to help out.<br>

I have a Canon FL 55mm 1:1.2 lens that I'm currently using for the Canon AE-1 program camera. I'm in the process of shooting my first couple rolls of film, but I'm having a little trouble figuring out the stop down metering that has to take place with the FL lens on the FD mounted AE-1 program. My manual is a little sketchy on this and I was wondering what I need to do besides selecting the stop down metering button. Any pointers would be appreciated.<br>

Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Welcome, Jason. 50D and AE-1P...you reached the fork in the road and took both ways at once!</p>

<p>In the day, automatic exposure was the rage for amateur photographers. The AE-1 Program and its contemporaries in the Canon line were intended as automatic cameras with manual override possible. From that perspective, full-manual and stopped-down automatic exposure are not as intuitive as they might be. But it's not hard, all the same.</p>

<p>First, remove the shutter speed dial from the "Program" setting. Under your left-hand fingers lies a little black slide. With your FL lens mounted, and its preset ring (if present) set so that the diaphragm is open, depressing the camera's stop-down slide will close the diaphragm. Press the shutter release to the halfway point to activate the camera's meter, then adjust the FL lens aperture ring until the meter readout indicates f/5.6. Release the shutter, make your photo, and you're done.</p>

<p>You'll notice a tiny square adjacent to the "5.6" indicator in the viewfinder. That's to remind you where the stopped-down metering index point is.</p>

<p>You can do the same thing with the preset ring set to close the diaphragm, but you still need to depress the slide on the AE-1P for a proper reading. The FL lenses lack the full-aperture signal pin that tells the camera how much to compensate for lens speed, so you cannot meter accurately in any other automatic mode.</p>

<p>You can also use the same stopped-down metering procedure with any FD lens if you remove it from the green "A" mark (which may appear as a green circle on early FD lenses).</p>

<p>Happy shooting. Post some of your work here when the May "FD Photos" thread starts in a couple of weeks.</p>

<p>Jason, Alan has given you the correct procedure to use the camera in stopped down metering mode. Just to clarify what is going on here, it helps to recall that SLR cameras of those years used an analog meter to show the exposure using an index mark (usually a small circle) and a needle in the viewfinder. Correct exposure was indicated when the needle matched the index mark. Needle below the mark indicated under exposure and above it indicated over exposure.</p>

<p>With the AE-1 Program in stopped down metering mode (when the little black slide switch is activated), the aperture digits that glow on the right hand side of the viewfinder function as a needle. The index mark is the little square beside the f number 5.6. When you move the aperture ring, various f numbers glow. The glowing number should be imagined as the position of an imaginary needle. When 5.6 glows, along with the square, one should assume that the needle has matched the index mark, thus indicating that correct exposure will take place as metered.</p>

<p>Alan and H S,<br>

Thank you for your responses. They were very helpful and they provided me with a better understanding of how stopped down metering works and how to properly use my FL lens on the Canon FD. I look forward to shooting this next week. Thanks again!</p>

<p>I must have glossed over that section of the AE-1 Program manual. I'm going to have to go home and check out this stopped-down "match needle" metering mode. Very cool. Always fun to learn something new about my toys... I mean tools.</p>

<p>I myself have not got this to work the way I think it should. Both methods should give similar settings, right? Right now I am sitting in my living room and giving this a go. I'm using my AE-1P with the 50mm 1.4. with the shutter speed set to 1/8th and the aperture set to A, the aperture reading turns out to be 5.6<br>

If i leave the shutter speed alone and stop down using the lever and meter, I adjust the aperture ring until the reading is 5.6? doing this gives me a setting of 1/8th and 2.8. What did I miss?<br>

Thanks<br>

Aris</p>

<p>On the AE-1P, stop down metering should only be used with non-FD lenses, or when FD lenses are attached to the AE-1P with a non-FD accessory (e.g., a bellows, a non-FD extension tube or teleconverter, a lens reversing ring, etc.). In other words, stop down metering will not work properly with an FD lens attached directly to the AE-1P. This is addressed in the section of the AE-1P manual on <em>Shooting with a Non-FD Lens</em>.</p>