I will be focusing on the subject of this camera, but also adding in some other things that are currently going on and being worked on throughout this Blog Post.

I have made a YouTube Video while I shot this roll if you would like to watch it or give it some feedback, but let’s first get down to the details of this roll.

Camera: Canon AE-1 Program (obviously)

Lens: Canon FD 50mm f/1.8

Film: Kodak Gold 200

I have documented so much of this and so much has changed in this time frame. I got the camera in May and wrote a blog about it. I also just changed my scanning process to camera scanning which has been just amazing.

I changed the company I was having develop my negatives because the previous company was bulk loading to many rolls and scratching the shit out of my film so that was something else I wanted to change this time too. It has not been an easy process.

I don’t want to name the company because I don’t want to tarnish their business from possibly one mistake, I have not used them enough to say this is an ongoing/common issue and honestly could have just been a one time incident.

You can notice it most in this photo which was the last photo of the roll that there is a deep scratch through the middle of the photo. This was spotty throughout the entire roll of film and at this point I was sick of editing it out and just said fuck it.

In other photos it can be seen where water or solution spots had sat on the negatives causing some blemishes and I believe even some discoloration. It is a bit upsetting to switch from a company for issues damaging film to find a company and having the same and more issues but trial and error. Honestly it’s film photography and to me that expected that not at all times can everything be perfect.

With that being said, I enjoyed shooting this roll of film; a lot. I finally have my dream 35 and I finally shot a roll of Kodak Gold that wasn’t expired. I will say that some of the colors and tones are not at all what I expected but I am still happy with every single photo.

The focus on the lens too compared to any Nikon, Minolta, Sears, or even Sigma lenses I have used on film cameras the Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 felt way more free when focusing. What I mean is it wasn’t as touchy for focusing I felt like I had full control and more spin to focusing than others.

The shutter of the AE-1 Program is my favorite part and probably my favorite shutter sound of any camera I have used so far.

I forgot to mention that I did not shoot any of these photos in the Program mode, everything was metered using Light Meter on iPhone and shot manually. I will use the 3rd roll in Program only mode because I have already put a second roll through it going back and forth between Program and manual settings. This is going to be used lot though. Like a lot.

In conclusion, I love it. The camera, the photos, the scratches and blemishes, I love it. I had a lot of fun shooting this roll and also filming the process of it. I wish it was easier to film doing this so I could have gotten more but it was a lot of fun going back and watching the video because it was a 3 month process on shooting the roll sending it off getting the negatives back and processing those negatives.

I got a lot of cool photos of friends, and things that I would like to remember and that’s the point of photography. I will be using this camera as my main film camera for weddings and engagements and am already looking forward to shooting more film stocks with this camera and trying films that I have wanted to for a very long time.

Just an Update before I post the Gallery from this roll of film.

I am growing tired of updating the website. The traffic I have received has been pretty bad weekly. I will have days where people come and read about a filter review I wrote almost a year ago but on anything new it’s dead. I know the blogs I write really are just for personal sharing but even the email campaigns I send out are ignored by more than 50%. I have 8 subscribers to my ‘‘Newsletter’’ and 2-3 will open them. I am 1 of the 2-3 that receives the Newsletter and opens it to make sure everything sent good.

I have paid for this website for well over a year and it has brought me 0 customers. I havre made $0 from the website and it has been a $40 a month subscription of photos that I have on 3 hard drives and my cell phone.

It’s discouraging and while I am talking to myself has fucking sucked so bad. I have done so much to try and utilize this website to do as much as I can and even show what I can to try and photo other families and people affordably and conveniently but the aspects you think would matter just don’t.

I have gone through 3 different card designs to try and give out to people, I just got my second batch of brochures to try and help but I don’t even want to hand them out to people because of how bad this website has done it just feels pointless.

Flooding family and friends texts with photos on a daily basis I just feel annoying. Post on subreddits and mainly get ignored or downvoted. It’s just so many things adding up that I am just to a point where I don’t care anymore, but I also don’t want to put in effort towards the website when I can utilize this time elsewhere.

I think that’s enough of the side mind shit in this post, I just wanted to get it out. I am tired of feeling like a shit photographer when I am not.

Thank you for your time.