Years ago I obtained on a fluke, a Canon AL-1 (friend at a garage sale spotted the dusty jewel and bought it for something ridiculous - $15?) Many today have little idea of what a 'fine' camera is/was.. I presume that has gotten only worse.

It cleaned up nicely.
Sleuthing, a few e-mails from experts informed me that this has one of the best rangefinders ever.. working well in low light, etc. It became the model for later Canons. A subsequent trip to Canon for a simple battery-door fix resulted in one of those rarities, too: A Corporation head, aware of why many of us value these beautifully designed devices.. went way beyond mere accomodation. (Camera cleaned and, despite my mild protestations - that and repair done for Free.) #1 corp on my non-shitlist.

In brief - if you can yet find a clean one, this model has an excellent focal-plane shutter; speed from 1/15 sec (+ 'B'ulb) on up to 1/1000 sec. I used a light and scope to verify timings == spot-on within a few %. Has also an 'A' automatic position. Forget whether speed/light weighted. The student doesn't want that anyway.

Defy anyone to notice a difference in negative quality VS any Nikon -- that, partly hearsay from folks who know/care more about ultimate details than do I. The 50 mm \ufffd2 lens is also reputed to be well corrected - not so easily done on the faster, monster pieces of glass. (I peddled my Nikon F-2 + lenses long ago - at a profit! such as things go in Yuppie times.)

Haven't scanned eBay, no idea how easily such a model can be run down; as said - luck got it for me. You'd want to check shutter condition on any older focalplane - there are felts which eventually need replacement - as with pianos (!)


Ashton