How do you read the Canon AE-1 light meter when shooting in full manual?

<p>This is driving me insane, and I can't for the life of me find the answer anywhere. </p>

<p>Ok, so the AE-1 is primarily intended to shoot in shutter priority mode, but I want to shoot in full manual. How the hell do you read a correct exposure when setting the shutter/aperture manually? There's a black mark at f/5.6 on the meter in the view finder, but I get the impression that this is not an indicator of a correct exposure. </p>

<p>Also, do you have to use the Stop-Down Slide when using anything other than the largest aperture (so the light coming into the camera is what will actually hit the film) so the light meter will read it correctly? My first roll with this camera is IN the camera, so I haven't seen the results of my metering experiments yet, and I'd love to have some sort of educated place to be deciding from before I blow through the entire roll blindly. </p>

<p>Help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>

<p>So, you select your shutter speed, move the aperture ring off "A" into the aperture scale, and half-depress the shutter button. The aperture/exposure pointer in the viewfinder should shift to indicate the aperture that the camera would use for that shutter speed when in Auto mode. You then set the aperture to conform, or ignore it...your choice. Isn't this happening?</p>

<p>Sorry Snuffle, I should have responded to the second part of your question: No, the stop-down facility is just there to show you what the image will look like at the aperture you've selected, so you can judge depth-of-field, background effects, etc. In auto mode the camera will meter and make the shot at the aperture it selects, or at the aperture you've selected in manual mode. You usually shoot with the stop-down slide dis-engaged.</p>

<p>I hate to actually ask this but have you read the manual? It can be found a couple of places on the web for free.</p>

<p>Basically what Rick said, but don't forget you can go "shutter priority" manual or "aperture priority" manual. Shutter priority would be exactly as Rick said, aperture priority would be where you pick an aperture and then adjust the shutter speed until the meter indicates the aperture you've chosen. Presumably though, you are doing this because you want a different exposure than what the meter suggests so adjust according to whatever effect you're trying to achieve.</p>

<p>Rick: Ok, I get all of that, I think James had the nugget of info I was missing. What was confusing me was that if I do ignore the aperture the meter is suggesting (say f/5.6 at 1/250) and just chose whatever I wanted (say f/1.4 at 1/250) there's no way to know what the hell the correct exposure is, and it seems like that would produce a seriously overexposed image in that instance. But if I've chosen f/1.4 and then I adjust the shutter until the needle hits that aperture, it sounds like _that_ would be a correct exposure. Right?</p>

<p>Mark: Cover to cover, and read about 3 dozen message boards on the topic. There was a lot of answers that conflicted to me, and didn't address the particular question I had. Maybe there's a disconnect in how I'm trying to understand it and how the camera was intended to be used, if that makes sense. </p>

<p>James: Oooooooooooook, I think that finally answers it for me. So the needle indicates a correct exposure when it lines up to the aperture selected. a) That makes sense, b) Jesus Christ that is not intuitively designed. </p>

<p>The black mark next to the 5.6 is your battery indicator. When you press the black button on the top left of the camera and look through the viewfinder if the needle points to below the 5.6 the battery is still good. When it gets above the black indicator the battery is weak.<br>

<br />The black indicator is also a reminder of the correct aperture reading when one uses a bellows unit for closeup photography. </p>

<p>How to read the exposure is detailed in the manual. see here:</p>

<p>http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/SLRs/ae1/basic4.htm</p>

<p>Jeffrey: Ok, so the f/5.6 mark is _just_ the battery indicator. </p>

<p>I've read that page in the manual several times, but it still doesn't describe how to read the meter when manually setting both the aperture and shutter speed like what James said above. I didn't get that the meter is kinda set up to read like it's in a weird Aperture Priority mode when not in AE mode, where you manually setting the shutter speed based on the aperture it's reading. I think I get it now, but again, totally not intuitively designed. :) </p>

<p>As Rick noted in his initial reply, the AE-1's meter needle will always point to the aperture that the camera would select in shutter priority automatic exposure mode. In other words, the AE-1's viewfinder will <em>always</em> indicate what its meter believes to be the correct exposure.</p>

<p>Let's say that, for a given situation, the needle points to f/5.6 when the shutter speed is set to 1/250. If you have a backlit situation and you want to increase exposure by two stops, simply turn the aperture ring from the green "A" to f/2.8. The needle in the viewfinder will continue to point to f/5.6, but the lens will close down to f/2.8 when the exposure is made.</p>

<p>Refer to the section entitled "3. Manual Override" in Part II of the Canon AE-1 Owner's Manual:</p>

<p>http://www.cameramanuals.org/canon_pdf/canon_ae-1_pt11.pdf</p>

 

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<p>Subject: How do you read the Canon AE-1 light meter when shooting in full manual?</p>

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<p > </p>

<p >Answer: Exactly the same as when shooting in Auto.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >The meter is VERY SIMPLE to read, you choose the shutter speed, and the needle shows you the aperture that will give you "correct" exposure. That's it, it doesn't depend on what you do with the aperture ring or what mode you are in</p>

<p >What else do you want to read? The AE-1 meter wont tell you the EV reading like a Pentax spot meter, it doesn't show you the recommended shutter speed like a Nikon FE or a Pentax ME super, it doesn't show you that your exposure will be + or - like the Nikon FM or Pentax K1000, it doesn't show you how many stops you are under or over exposed like an EOS 1Ds mark III</p>

<p > </p>

<p >You get confused and you get lost because you think the needle shows the aperture you set in manual mode. Like it or not, it DOESNOT SHOW the aperture you set, it IS only the meter as always.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Now, if you really trust (or depend on) the meter, keep the aperture ring at A (this is auto mode)</p>

<p > </p>

<p >If you think the meter may be wrong for some reason, turn the aperture ring to a smaller number to get a brighter picture or turn the aperture ring to a greater number to get a darker picture (this is called manual override) </p>

<p > </p>

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<p ><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=6127040">Snuffle Muffin</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"></a>, Jul 07, 2010; 03:55 p.m.</p>

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<p>Jeffrey: Ok, so the f/5.6 mark is _just_ the battery indicator.</p>

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<p>That is not right. The battery indicator is also used for the stopped-down metering mode. Only that if your lens is an FD lens, you cannot use stopped-down metering mode. If you want to use stopped-down metering mode with an FD lens, the best camera is a T90</p>

 

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<p> totally not intuitively designed</p>

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<p>Intuition is something we have to work hard to develop. Some of us have better intuition about some thing and less intuition about some thing else. Women intuition is different from men intuition. Animal intuition is different from ours</p>