(1976 to 1984) Canon AE-1

The CANON AE-1 is a shutter speed priority, interchangeable lens, single lens reflex, 35 mm film camera. The AE-1 Program model is an update to the AE-1 and offers an attachable palm grip, interchangeable focusing screen, and exposure presets (hence
Program).

The AE-1 has a simple layout.
From left to right as depicted
Battery door
Lens mount
PC Flash cord socket
AE Lock, and depth of field preview/aperture lock

The top of the AE-1 is very straight forward.
From left to right as depicted
Film door release/rewind knob
Battery check button
Flash hot shoe (synced at 1/60th sec)
Shutter release button with Lock and timer switch
Film advance lever on top of shutter speed film speed dial

USEAGE/MILEAGE

Over time, I have collected and used everything from Contax, Fujica, Konica, Mamiya, Minolta, Nikon, Pentax, Yashica, to Voigtlander, and Leica cameras, but I have always found myself gravitate towards the CANON AE-1. Why? With so many different brands of cameras to choose from (in my closet), many, arguably better cameras in every way (and they have to be better to earn their keeps), with less mirror slap, less shutter shake, better ergonomics, and quick auto focus, why do I keep picking the AE-1 over everything else? Simply put, it gets out of the way. If you have time, you can read the list of reasons below, otherwise skip to the Build Quality section.

1. It takes pictures. It is not a high price princes camera like a Leica, or a Voigtlander. It is not something that stays in a box its entire life and only comes out for special occasions. This is a workhorse no matter what the condition may be. This is the camera that gets offended when it's put away. This camera wants to come out and play. All the time. 
2. It doesn't have AF(Auto Focus) hiccups. 
3. It has a very clean and large viewing screen (unlike the ugly black lines on the Nikon F80 or F100) 

   

   AE-1 split range finder micro-prism focusing screen.

4. No beeps (Program version's Battery check beeps) 
5. Smooth and reliable film advance. (My EOS cameras hang/snags once in a while and skips a frame during frame transport.) 
6. Long battery life, it just keeps going and going 
7. Tripod socket is centered 
8. Depth of field preview button locks 
9. Large selection of existing FD Lenses from Canon, Tamron, Focal, Avanar, Toyo, Sigma, Soligor (see my review of the 50mm 1.8 FD Lens here)
10. Shutter lock out comes in very handy 
11. I have yet to see any purple fringing or color shift regardless of which lens I picked 
12. Accurate meter (point it at the shadow areas of your subject) 
13. It is patient when I'm patient, which means I can compose with the optical view finder and wait for my subject to come into the frame. With digital cameras nowadays, the evf or lcd screen or gps would have drained all the power by the time that happens. It doesn't matter that the memory card can store a million billion 24mp pictures when it's out of juice, it's out of juice and you can't go to the store and buy yourself an 80 dollar battery pack to keep you shooting and get the shot you want. What do you do, bring a back up camera body, bulky additional batteries that are also drained and empty? Yeah, I have been there and that's just absurd (drained a whole battery waiting for the squirrel to pop up the other side of the fence). 

BUILD QUALITY
The build quality is superb but not all AE-1 cameras were created equal! Canon openly claimed they used "automated modular construction techniques" to lower production costs. The technique was new in the 70s for the camera industry and they were proud of it.

Over the years, Canon substituted metal parts to plastic to lower costs. Something they didn't advertise. For example, the battery door on the AE-1 with serial numbers below 2 million are made of steel.

Metal battery door

AE-1's manufactured  with serials near 2 million and beyond are made of brittle black plastic. On most surviving AE-1 cameras, the plastic doors are cracked or broken off partially or completely. The plastic attachable palm grip on the AE-1 Program seems to be a literal "cover up" for their cost cutting plastic battery doors.

Broken plastic battery door

Another way they cut cost was making the top cover of the camera out of plastic. It may look like nickel plated brass similar to that of the Canon FT, but I assure you, it's not. The top plate is plastic.

Brown plastic showing through the nickel plating

These aftermarket straps does nothing but destroy AE-1 and other cameras.

On the AE-1 Program, the bottom plate was changed to the same nickel plated plastic (AE-1 bottom plate are all brass). Once the nickel skin wore off, it's all ugly gray/yellow plastic from there on. I don't have any personal misgivings on the use of plastics. It saves weight. It's dent resistant (but it cracks instead). I grew up with everything made out of plastic, but not nickel plated plastic. According to my father, the use of plastics were a high tech concept in the 70s. I believed him when comparing the weight of the AE-1 to the full metal cameras like the Canon FT. I've owned a hand full of AE-1 cameras that suffered from the chronic rub of neck straps with the chrome metal torture hooks. I had many (50+) AE-1 cameras coming through my hands for repairs and maintenance. Battery door aside, and I can assure you that Canon used the best quality plastics available. I had never found any "stress cracks" near the screws on the AE-1, unlike my Mamiya 645e a camera system that was manufactured over 20 years later.

INCONSISTANT INFORMATION

Wikipedia claimed Canon sold over 1 million units. Todd Gustavson's book "500 Cameras" claimed over 5 million units. The serial numbers on the cameras supports Gustavson's claim. Wikipedia isn't wrong in that 5 million units is a number over 1 million, but it's a stretch on accuracy.

This post isn't complete but I thought I'd get it started.