Canon A-1 Problem

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During my holiday my T-90 failed, and I could obtain an A-1 body as a quick replacement allowing my to use it during the remainder of my vacation. Unfortunately, this A-1 shows some strange behaviour:

I mainly use the camera in shutter-speed priority automatic exposure mode. When taking the first picture after a while the camera has not been used, the camera does not employ the shutter speed as selected by the dial (AE mode selector in "Tv" position), but instead uses the smallest aperture of the lens (e.g. 22) and selects the shutter speed appropriate for that aperture. This means that the shutter gets opened much longer than expected, and therefore, the picture gets blurred. The second and following pictures are exposed correctly as intended. This fault of the camera means that I waste some film, because usually the first picture of a series gets spoilt by the wrong shutter speed.

I have to contact the vendor of the camera anyhow. However I would be most interested in knowing if this problem is known and what has to be done with it.

Many thanks in advance.

-- Christian Sperber (Christian.Sperber@t-online.de), January 13, 2002

Answers

Christian, are you sure that the smallest aperture is selected? The reason why I ask is that A series (and T series & the F-1n) cameras can develop a sticky shutter magnet when the first image after a long wait is overexposed because the shutter does not close when it is supposed to. I bought my F-1N used and the previous user had not used it for over 10 years. The camera would often give a 1/2 second exposure instead of 1/125. A cleaning of the magnet assembly in the base of the camera solved the problem. Hopefully, your A-1 has this problem and most any repairman familiar with the camera should know what the problem is and how to address it.

Cheers,

Duane

-- Duane k (dkucheran@creo.com), January 13, 2002.


Sorry for leaning off-topic but I'm more curious about the details of your T90's demise, as my T90 has recently had indigestion and I'm researching possible failure modes. You can reply privately to me if you don't want to clutter the forum.

-- Robert Segal (robertsegal@juno.com), January 14, 2002.

Thanks for your replies.

It might be the same A-1 problem as described by Duane, however I noted once, that the viewfinder display switched between the selected shutter speed and the shutter speed appropriate for the smallest aperture (i.e. 22).

My T-90 seems to have a problem with the shutter (HELP-display, won't open). This sounds similar to problems already reported in this forum. In addition, it does not rewind at the end of the film. I think I will send it for repair next month.

-- Christian Sperber (Christian.Sperber@t-online.de), January 22, 2002.


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