Hey man I'm doing a little photo project, can I take your picture?
The Canon AE-1 is a 35mm SLR film camera. It was manufactured in Japan from 1976 to 1984.
The model I have here is the later upgraded version which is called the AE-1 Program, Canon manufactured
this after listening to users that wanted a program auto exposure mode. Program mode sets
both the shutter speed and aperture automatically. The user focuses the camera and then presses the
shutter button. This ease of use feature was the main focus of Canon's marketing campaign
and both the AE-1 and the AE-1 program were enormous financial successes, in part because they pioneered
cost-cutting measures that competitors had difficulty matching. The AE-1 Program's automated
features and simple controls helped introduce many new consumers to the SLR camera. So I bought this
camera back in 2018 and it cost me $170, I'm not sure how much that is in pounds today...
So yeah about 130 quid, which is actually quite a lot, uh, but it did come mint condition. If you
go on ebay you can find these japanese camera stores and i think they buy old cameras and
refurbish them. Make them mint condition and sell them on. So this was the first film camera
that I bought and I used it a couple of times in China. Not that many if I'm honest with you,
I was happy with the images, I was happy with what I got from it, but I only ever used colour film.
Now, this camera uses the old Canon fd mount which is pretty cool because you can find some really
good second-hand lenses. Sometimes at a good price sometimes not, but um, this one it came with this 50mm
f/1.4 which is a really smart lens. It produces a really sharp image and um it's..
Just the overall build quality is great, you know, back in the day they used to build things properly.
It's solid. I would like to try something like a 28mil or a 35mil because, as I'm into street photography,
those focal lengths are more suited towards street photography. So perhaps i'll look into
buying one of those when I can. I almost forgot one of the most important things we need to do here.
Don't you just love the sound of the 70s the 80s whatever it is. I just, i love it
I absolutely love it. So the way I'm gonna test this camera is i'm going to shoot my three favorite
genres of photography, which are in no particular orde,r architecture, street and portraits.
I really like to shoot those three genres so that's what I'm going to be focusing on. No pun intended!
I honestly didn't mean that, I, I didn't mean that pun then.
Good lord! So for this shoot, I'm going to be using the Ilford XP2 Super 400 film.
If I can get the damn thing open. Ilford photo is a uk manufacturer of photographic materials,
known worldwide for its black and white film. Unlike most of the black and white films
XP2 super can be processed using the same chemicals as color print film, which uses
the c41 process. This produces a monochrome negative despite the development process.
I thought I'd start by coming to our crown jewel, The Transporter Bridge and I believe
that there's only five of these working now in the world. i'll have to check that but i believe
it is five. I just googled it and there's only two, two working in the world. It's a pretty moody day.
Actually I haven't shot in the rain for quite a while. It has a very industrial feel
and this would work well with this film so let's see, let's check it out.
The next place we'll go is to the town center
and we'll attempt some street photography. Hopefully, we can get some decent photos.
So what I'll do is I'll strap the GoPro on and you can see what I see.
Just gonna wait for those two ladies to cross the road.
Now... got it.
Hey man, I'm doing a little photo project, can I take your picture? All right, is that okay? Thanks man.
It's old film it is.
That's awesome thanks very much!
This building here is my old university in fact.
I want to get two shots of these pigeons. One of them sat there,
and two, I'm gonna make them fly away.
Let's see how close I can get actually.
F**kers
I don't really know how that turned out to be honest but we're gonna see.
Well i've got like six or seven shots left so i think that's
that's it for the city centre and the urban shots.
Well I really enjoyed that it's been a while since i've been
on the streets with a camera. So I've got six or seven shots left on the roll
and I'd like to try some portraits with this film. So that's what we're going to do i'm heading home
I'm going to grab Zhibek and we're going to do some portraits.
I've grabbed Zhibek and we've come to a place which I wanted to come to for quite some time actually and do
some portraits. I'm not sure if we've got the best light for this film at the moment,
but we're going to try it anyway and let's see what we get. Okay I'm just going to try this one.
No, can you put your.. can you have your head like straight? i'm just gonna have half of your
face in the frame. Look into the lens please. Okay, ready, keep your head straight.
Look slightly towards the right, no your right, the other way sorry, your left.
Yeah hold it, hold it, don't blink, three, two, one..
As casual as possible. Three, two, one..
All right yeah what if I come close to, like close to the face this time, like mid sort of a
yeah, not full-body, sort of a medium shot, okay you ready? Three, two, one.. don't blink!
Okay no, I don't like the tree in the background sorry.
Let's try it this way, with this. That's better, yeah I think it's better, this one's better.
Can you go just back three steps? I'm trying to get the grand scale of this bridge.
That's a good pose, keep it like that. That pose that's good, no that's fine, ready?
Oh wait there forgot to cock!
Ready? Three, two, dreamy eyes.. Sorry I made you laugh! Three, two, look into the lens..
One.
Oh? Oh, that was a good shot as well! Oh well I'll have to get it next time.
So that is the end of the film.
This little beauty really did well and the Ilford XP2 400 is a fantastic film and i will be using
this again. Um, so I just want to say thank you for watching again and I'll see you in the next one!
So, I'm not gonna bang on about this camera too much...
I'm not gonna bang on..
BLEUGHLALALUGHBA!
[a very annoying doorbell chimes]