MrFatbooty

So I've decided to ditch my autofocus 35mm film gear, because good lenses are too damned expensive. Manual focus lenses however, are not. I'd rather have good glass and focus for myself than have average glass and let the camera focus for me.

For reference, when Canon came out with auto focus, they switched lens mounts (their auto focus lenses are called EF mount), so their old manual focus lenses (called FD mount) are completely incompatible with their current auto focus cameras. Nikon has just kept updating the same lens mount over the years.

I can get SWEET lenses for Canon manual focus cameras for like 50 bucks or less a pop. For example I just picked up a Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/2.8-4 zoom which has great optical quality and can do 1:2 macro for 30 bucks on ebay. Because of the general collectibility of old Nikons in general, and the ability to use old manual focus lenses on newer auto focus bodies, the lenses and bodies and everything else are a good deal more expensive than old Canon stuff.

I really do like old Nikons a whole bunch, but since I want to primarily use the camera rather than collect it, even though I do like old Nikons a ton, I'm gonna go with Canon. I've got two bodies I'm looking at for one specific reason: they have LED readouts in their viewfinders. I do lots of night shots so the ability to see the settings in the dark is a must. Nowadays all cameras have this, but in the 70s and 80s it was pretty rare.

I'm considering the A-1, or the T90. The A-1 was introduced in 1978 and looks like yer typical old school manual focus SLR but with some extra doodads stuck on. The T90 was introduced in 1986 and looks and acts like a modern auto focus professional SLR, but takes the old FD mount lenses, and obviously can't auto focus. A comparison:

Canon A-1





Shutter: silk cloth material, speeds 30-1/1000 sec + bulb
Meter: center-weighted averaging pattern, range EV -2 to 18
Exposure modes: program auto, shutter priority auto, aperture priority auto, flash auto, manual
Flash: guide number based auto fstop settings with dedicated flash
Film handling: manual loading, advance and rewind; with optional Motor Drive MA, continous advance up to 5 fps, motorized rewind
Viewfinder: shutter speed, f-stop, split image rangefinder w/ microprism ring; 94% coverage, .83x magnification w/ 50mm lens
Dimensions: 141 x 92 x 48 mm (HxWxD); 620 g

Canon T90




Shutter: titanium material, speeds 30-1/4000 sec + bulb
Meter: center-weighted averaging, 10% partial, 3% spot (up to 8 spot readings may be taken for zone system calculations) patterns, range EV 1 to 20
Exposure modes: program auto (with 7 vari-programs), shutter priority auto, aperture priority auto, flash exposure lock highlight/shadow control, manual
Flash: A-TTL, TTL and flash exposure lock operation with Canon Speedlite 300TL
Film handling: automatic loading, advance and rewind; continuous advance up to 4.5 fps
Viewfinder: shutter speed, f-stop, AE lock indicator, flash charge indicator, exposure compensation indicator, exposure meter bar graph, split image rangefinder w/ microprism ring (covers spot metering area), partial metering mark; 94% coverage, .77x magnification w/ 50mm lens
Dimensions: 153 x 121 x 69 mm (HxWxD); 800 g

All this info, translated into English: the A-1 is a relatively basic camera nowadays, but it was pretty much the first camera to have all 4 of the now-standard auto exposure modes: program, aperture, shutter, manual. It has a light meter that's sensitive down to a coupla stops less light than the T90 so it's more reliable for metered long exposures than the T90. It's a nice, metal, manual feeling camera and not all that big. Walking around with it I'd be relatively inconspicuous, cuz it looks (and is) old.

The T90 on the other hand is very much an electro whiz bang camera with all the automation of any modern camera except for auto focus. It looks like one, operating thru its menus and whatnot is the same, etc. That said, it has some pretty crazy metering tricks it can do for tricky lighting situations that it was pretty much the only camera ever to do them, before or since. Still no camera since the T90 has had as good of a flash metering system. It's that good. But it's a big honker, would be about $100-150 more to accquire on the used market, and even with old-school lenses it still looks like a modern professional camera which gets people antsy when you're walking around taking pics near them.

So yeah. Vote away.

Akkord

The A-1 has tons of character, and I love cameras from that era (I treasure my 30 year old Minolta XE-7). My vote goes to the A-1.

Andy

I'm pretty sure my dad still has an A1, at least from what I remember comapred to your pictures. It was a manual focus and he had an addon unit that automatically advanced the film for the next shot but was definately from that family and time period. It's a good camera and I know he was always happy with it.

fstop128

canon T90 is my preference but i like them both..

qtiger

A-1. Used it. Love it. Can't get my dad to give it to me even though he never uses it.

MrFatbooty

See the thing is, the T90 has definite advantages, it's just up to decide if, in using the A-1, I will I really miss those extra things the T90 does. So let's see here.

Flash metering - this is a biggie. The A-1, with a dedicated flash, has a very basic flash system. It's pretty much yer typical external auto thyristor flash but with a bit of an improvement. When you attach the flash the camera sets to 1/60 sec sync speed and then sets the F-stop to what you've selected on the flash. You still have to set the fstop on the flash based on the focused distance on the lens, and exposure is determined by the sensor on the flash itself rather than something looking thru the lens.

The T90 on the other hand is super trick. With a dedicated flash it has several TTL (thru the lens) flash metering modes. It has a center-weighted TTL-off-the-film flash sensor. In A-TTL mode, the flash unit sends out an infrared preflash to detect the distance to the subject, the camera sets an exposure to give a decently exposed background, and then during the exposure the flash sensor looks at the light as it hits the film and shuts off the flash at exactly the right time. This works well as long as your subject is in the center, because of the shape of the metering pattern.

For off center subjects is where it gets really trick. It has flash exposure lock with highlight/shadow control. In this mode, you point the center of the viewfinder at your subject then press the spot meter button (it's right next to the shutter button). The flash sends out a preflash 1/20 of its full power, and the ambient light meter reads the exposure of just the very center of the frame and stores a reading. Once it gets a proper exposure it puts up a dot at the center of the exposure bar graph on the right hand side of the viewfinder. Then as you recompose the picture it shows a live readout of the exposure of the background compared to the exposure of the subject which will be lit up by the flash. You can adjust the balance of background ambient light exposure to subject flash exposure with the highlight/shadow buttons. The T90 is the only camera ever made that can meter flash exposures like this. Granted there are more tricky auto flash systems out there, but this is a pretty quick process and is utterly and completely precise.

The other big huge gottahaveit feature of the T90 is its multi-spot metering. With the A-1, the light meter reads the brightness of the scene one way: an average reading with more emphasis towards the center of the frame. The T90 can do this too, but it has a couple other options. Partial metering considers only a central circle that takes up 10% of the frame. Spot metering is the same but considers only the center 3% of the frame. These are all pretty standard on modern multimode cameras. MULTI-spot however, is again unique to the T90. You can take up to 8 separate spot meter readings and average them together. Each time you take a reading, the camera adds a dot at a point on the exposure graph in the finder. So let's say you have a subject with a bright background. You take two spot readings off the subject's face, then one off the background. The camera averages the three readings, and since two of em are from the subject, you have emphasis of the exposure towards the subject's brightness but tilted a bit in the direction of the background to bring out some more detail there. It's super trick.

Other stuff is less of a big deal. The T90 looks modern, has a nice big hand grip like a modern camera, a built in motor drive, auto bracketing, etc. So basically I have to decide if I want the cooler (imho) old-school A-1 and can take just as good pics as I could with the T90. The T90's flash system is uber trick and I know for a fact it'll get me shots that wouldn't work on the A-1. But...I don't use flash all that often. The T90's multi-spot metering and auto bracketing let me take as accurate a guess possible at tricky exposures and then automatically take a shot a bit more exposed and a bit less exposed. With the A-1 I'll have a less educated guess at the scene and have to reset the exposure compensation for each shot to bracket, no auto bracketing. In general, not-so-tough shooting, either one is a fine camera. But the T90 does have those oh-so-tricky metering tricks that I can see myself using in plenty of situations.

Hmmmmmm.

Dweezel

Get the T90. I think that it will suit you better. If you decide you don't like it, put it back on ebay

MrFatbooty

Hmm well with a bit more research it turns out the T90 cannot, in fact, do auto exposure bracketing. That's one feature I really do like about my EOS A2 but not a must-have. I can always bracket myself and either the T90 or the A-1 is reasonably easy enough to adjust in that regard.

So to break it down now, the main advantages of the T90 are the ability to get pro-level flash exposures (with the A-1 it'll never be better than hit-or-miss) and the multi-spot metering mode which is kinda cool. Plus the motor drive, the exposure bar graph in the finder, the cool lookin design with big ole hand grip, the higher top shutter speed, and that's bout it.

The biggie is probably the flash metering. With the T90 I know I can get really great flash exposures, with great consistancy. A-1 on the other hand, kinda meh. It's pretty sucky for flash.

Hmmmm indeed.