serious Canon complications.

notelliot · Nov 21, 2005

so first, i'll explain that it's not my camera. i use nikon equipment normally, but my batteries died..so i borrowed my mother's Canon AE-1 Program.

i've got to say :lmao:

what a piece of ****.

i went through 24 exposures and all but one are out of focus. now, i know what you're thinking: 'owner's manual'...'learn how to focus'... but, i focus fine with my nikon f75. i'm convinced that this camera requires compensation for correct focusing.

anyway, my question is: why did this happen? i've never been so confused/angry/dissappointed with photography.

danalec99 · Nov 21, 2005

stoopid canon!

KevinR · Nov 21, 2005

Did you use the split screen focusing? What where you trying to shoot?

Mitica100 · Nov 21, 2005

notelliot said:
so first, i'll explain that it's not my camera. i use nikon equipment normally, but my batteries died..so i borrowed my mother's Canon AE-1 Program.

i've got to say :lmao:

what a piece of ****.

i went through 24 exposures and all but one are out of focus. now, i know what you're thinking: 'owner's manual'...'learn how to focus'... but, i focus fine with my nikon f75. i'm convinced that this camera requires compensation for correct focusing.

anyway, my question is: why did this happen? i've never been so confused/angry/dissappointed with photography.

Don't be angry with photography, we all go through things like this. :mrgreen:

And now...

Nikon F75 is an auto-focus camera, Canon AE-1P is not. Are you sure you manually focused the Canon? :greenpbl:

If you did focus manually, what aperture did you use? What lens is it?

Outside of the manual focusing 'problem' I am thinking of a few others that might give you unfocused shots:

1-lens was taken apart and put back together by someone that didn't know how to do it;
2-film pressure plate is not there (open the Canon door and see if it's still there);
3-someone messed with the lens mount on the camera and now the lens is not aligned correctly.

Despite how you feel right now, Canons are great cameras and will last a long time if cared for.

photoboy15 · Nov 21, 2005

Im not trying to degrade you. Im just asking. Did you focus is? Did it look in focus when you looked through the view finder?

notelliot · Nov 21, 2005

Mitica100 said:
Don't be angry with photography, we all go through things like this. :mrgreen:

And now...

Nikon F75 is an auto-focus camera, Canon AE-1P is not. Are you sure you manually focused the Canon? :greenpbl:

If you did focus manually, what aperture did you use? What lens is it?

Outside of the manual focusing 'problem' I am thinking of a few others that might give you unfocused shots:

1-lens was taken apart and put back together by someone that didn't know how to do it;
2-film pressure plate is not there (open the Canon door and see if it's still there);
3-someone messed with the lens mount on the camera and now the lens is not aligned correctly.

Despite how you feel right now, Canons are great cameras and will last a long time if cared for.

the f75 is optional in focusing modes.. AF or M. 90% of the time i focus myself. i'm 110% sure that i focused the Canon.
i was using a 50mm 1:1.8, and a 7-210mm 1:4.5 Macro-Zoom . the aperture was set between 1.8 and 2.8 for the fifty, and 4.5-11 for the macro.

i'm fairly sure the camera wasn't taken apart, nor was the lens mount adjusted. (it's my mother's camera and she's taken excellent care of it.

i'm leaning towards an exposure issue - i was reading through some notes i made and came across "WTF is up with the light meter?"

i should read the manual.

notelliot · Nov 21, 2005

KevinR said:
Did you use the split screen focusing? What where you trying to shoot?

i think this model pre-dates split-screen. it's pre-1990.. (?)

i'm assuming split-screen focusing is bringing two areas into focus?

df3photo · Nov 21, 2005

I have noticed with an old canonA-1 (and others, pentax etc. older cameras)that after years of use and abuse(by the previous owner...of course...) that sometime the focus rings can be alittle loose and touchy. if you have a repair shop that you trust they can fix that for sure.

notelliot · Nov 21, 2005

df3photo said:
I have noticed with an old canonA-1 (and others, pentax etc. older cameras)that after years of use and abuse(by the previous owner...of course...) that sometime the focus rings can be alittle loose and touchy. if you have a repair shop that you trust they can fix that for sure.

nah, like i said, it's my mother's camera and she takes excellent care of it.

nice hair though. hahah i always wanted to see what an inverted mohawk looked like.

usayit · Nov 21, 2005

I'm sorry.... this might be a little harsh but there are many people who will disagree with you. The AE-1 was a very popular camera in its time and I still know several still in service. As in those "which camera" discussions... its the photographer not the camera... well unless the camera has a problem.

Exposure causing focus problems?

Perhaps a "What did I do wrong?" will gather better responses than "what a piece of @#$"....

DocFrankenstein · Nov 21, 2005

notelliot said:
i think this model pre-dates split-screen. it's pre-1990.. (?)

:lmao:

This thread is even better than your typical: "My point nshoot made better pictures than my new DSLR. I just wasted a grand"

Stick with Nikon dum dum! :lol:

Just kidding. :hug:: Check if the focusing screen has come off, although it's probably the cranial capacity of the button pusher which is the limiting factor.

Mitica100 · Nov 21, 2005

OK, I'll show you how to check if the lens on your Canon is out of whack. It'll also tell you if the lens mount has been tampered with to the point where it affects the focus.

Take a two page from the Want Ads (from your local paper) and tape it to a wall. Take a ruler and a marker and draw a straight line up-down on the left page, smack in the middle.

Put camera on a tripod, make sure you have some BW film in there, cheap ones will do ok. Elevate tripod and arrange the camera so the newspaper fills entirely the viewfinder. Look again at the camera and see that is perfectly parallel with the wall/newspaper. Use a hand held meter for exposures, focus and take 6 to 8 shots at different apertures, starting with 1.8 (on your 50mm). You should have a few frames or more left. Now move the camera to the left of the paper so it makes a 45 degree angle with the marker line on the left page. That marker line should be smack in the middle of the frame. Now focus so the letters just to the left of the line and the line are in focus, take a picture at f8. For the next picture you focus on the letters just to the right of the line and take also a shot at f8.

Develop and print (cheap 4x6 prints will do). Check the prints to see if the focusing problem still persists. If it does, your camera/lens setup has a problem, if it's gone, you had a problem.

Good luck.

BTW, if you still think Canon is a piece of **** I'll buy it from you for $15.00.
:lmao: