Canon Ae-1 light meter and lens shutter

So I've recently picked up the AE-1 and I'm not 100% if the light meter is working properly or if I'm just not understanding how the light meter works.

 

So in M I'll pick my subject and go to set the aperture in line with what the light meter says but when I change the aperture to what the light meter says it will indicate a new aperture different from the first one. So essentially as I change the aperture the light meter changes with it. So say I said above is something wrong with the light meter or is that meant to happen and I should go off that the camera says originally before I change the aperture?

Look at page 40 of the owner's manual, and assuming you are using an FD lens, "when the aperture ring is not set at the "A" mark, you cannot get the correct exposure in AE photography" So basically to shoot in manual, you need to find the correct exposure in "A" mode, then take the lens out of "A" mode and set it to the previously suggested f stop. Not very convenient if you really want to use the built in exposure system in manual. My A-1 works the same way.

 

Owner's Manual can be found here: http://www.canonfd.org/manuals/ae-1.pdf

That doesn't sound right. Metered-manual is a normal mode with the AE-1. Simply by half-pressing the shutter button you ought to be getting a meter reading. It is up to you to transfer that to the lens, of course.

There's a separate button that just meters, but it's small and in the wrong place, and I've never had much problem with accidentally firing the shutter.

 

The only thing I can think of is that Zane may have his lens stopped down, with the slider on the left side of the lens mount. If that's pushed in toward the lens, the lens is stopped down even when you're just viewing. As you turn the aperture ring, the iris closes down or opens up, and the viewfinder gets brighter and darker.

In normal camera use, you should view the scene, and meter, with the lens at full aperture, and the camera stops the lens down by itself when you take the picture. You would normally only use the stop-down slider to view the depth of field.

So I guess that you're taking a meter reading with the lens set at, say, f/2.8, getting a value f/5.6 and moving the lens to that. If the lens is stopped down, the view is now darker, so of course the meter now wants a different aperture.

To unset the stop-down slider, you press the tiny silver button (which, in fact, can only be seen when the slider is pushed in).

 

You can use 'stopped-down metering' with the AE-1. For this, you would stop the lens down at any aperture setting (other than A) and then, with the shutter button half-pressed, adjust aperture and/or shutter speed until the meter needle points to the lump half-way down the meter scale. I can't think of any situation where this method is better than full-aperture metering.

MY Lightmeter jumps up an down. i might mend it to sell it. i dont use them i can tell the light haha. i use manul lens as well. I am testing a chinon 135 now. ha. alice.

MY Lightmeter jumps up an down. i might mend it to sell it. i dont use them i can tell the light haha. i use manul lens as well. I am testing a chinon 135 now. ha. alice.

http://s117.photobucket.com/user/madalice1/media/CANQ.jpg.html

its hard to any edit on here. i cant do it. not good.

[ATTACH]1285645[/ATTACH]

 

how do i stand the pic up right

 

You do that in your own software before posting it.

You do that in your own software before posting it.

hi. it is right on my laptop but not onhere. thank you. alice.x i cant delete it as well.

That doesn't sound right. Metered-manual is a normal mode with the AE-1. Simply by half-pressing the shutter button you ought to be getting a meter reading. It is up to you to transfer that to the lens, of course.

There's a separate button that just meters, but it's small and in the wrong place, and I've never had much problem with accidentally firing the shutter.

 

The only thing I can think of is that Zane may have his lens stopped down, with the slider on the left side of the lens mount. If that's pushed in toward the lens, the lens is stopped down even when you're just viewing. As you turn the aperture ring, the iris closes down or opens up, and the viewfinder gets brighter and darker.

In normal camera use, you should view the scene, and meter, with the lens at full aperture, and the camera stops the lens down by itself when you take the picture. You would normally only use the stop-down slider to view the depth of field.

So I guess that you're taking a meter reading with the lens set at, say, f/2.8, getting a value f/5.6 and moving the lens to that. If the lens is stopped down, the view is now darker, so of course the meter now wants a different aperture.

To unset the stop-down slider, you press the tiny silver button (which, in fact, can only be seen when the slider is pushed in).

 

You can use 'stopped-down metering' with the AE-1. For this, you would stop the lens down at any aperture setting (other than A) and then, with the shutter button half-pressed, adjust aperture and/or shutter speed until the meter needle points to the lump half-way down the meter scale. I can't think of any situation where this method is better than full-aperture metering.

 

If you read the manual for the AE-1 and A-1 you will find that they have no manual mode but only what they called manual override.

The AE-1, AE-1 Program, and A-1 do have manual modes. It's just that the meter does not react to the lens aperture ring when it's rotated, which is an annoyance, but not an insurmountable one. Let's assume we're shooting outdoors for this example (indoors will probably require a flash and you'll probably want to use a dedicated one for that). Set the shutter speed to an appropriate value, e.g., faster than 1/60, then take a look at the meter readout in the viewfinder and see what aperture the meter is recommending for the photo. Then set the aperture ring to that value, recompose and shoot. You should have a photo that is properly exposed. Provided, of course, there is nothing unusual about the lighting in the frame, which can throw the meter off.

[ATTACH]1285645[/ATTACH]

 

how do i stand the pic up right

 

Here it is corrected and resized slightly:

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/msowsun/Photo17/1550230_1024.jpg