I have used this camera a few times recently. It has an f1.4 lens attached and batteries inside, so when I have been in a rush and wanted a camera that just worked, I grabbed this one.

It was given to me by a friend. I was extremely happy to receive it, especially with the f1.4 lens attached. I do have the Canon A1 with the same lens so I don’t really need it…but how many cameras do I actually need??

I noticed it looked very similar to the AE1 I also have and then I read Canon’s Museum entry which states…

the AE-1 had a high price tag. There were also many users who still preferred manual metering. In response to these people, the AT-1 was developed. It had the same body as the AE-1. 

https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/film96.html

Well, that answers that then. The same body but with a needle-matching metering system. It first came out around 1976 and was for export only. It has an on/off switch, a battery check, self-timer (though my light indicator doesn’t work), a stop-down lever, and a flash terminal. That’s it, that’s all it needs.

Apart from the self-timer indicator, my example seemed to work perfectly. My first outing with it was to Liverpool for the ILFORD x LVP Photowalk. I loaded the camera with HP5 and enjoyed the day, developing the film in 510-pyro later. On the walk, I made a note that I thought the exposures were off, a little high. I compared the camera settings to the times given by my phone app. This was the first time I had used this camera and wasn’t sure if it worked at that point, so I switched between using the AT-1’s meter and manually setting the camera based on the phone app.

Here are most of the results.

As you can see, it worked well whether I used the internal metering system or not.

I finished the film off on a trip to Middleton Woods while I was playing with the pinhole camera I made.

What a super set-up and the f1.4 lens was perfect for the dull light in the woods. I love the results.

The next outing with the camera was to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition in Manchester. I loaded a roll of Cinestill, the f1.4 coming in handy again. I shot away, but when I got to the 24th exposure the camera would not wind on anymore. It felt like I had come to the end of the film, but I was sure it was a 36 exposure. I rewound the film and loaded it into an OM10 to see if it was a camera issue. It definitely was a 36 exposure so I fired it to 24 on f22 at 1/1000th with the lens cap on. The OM10 struggled to wind on the film at 22 exposures, but it did. It made me think it was a film issue. To be sure, I loaded another 36 exposure film into the AT-1. It stopped again at 24???? What was wrong with the camera??

I decided to sacrifice a 36-exposure film to see what was going on inside. Bye-bye 1994 Svema.

There was nothing wrong with it. So I surmise from my detective work:

1. There was an issue with the Cinestill roll
2. I had mislabeled the 36 roll I tried and it was actually a 24, hand-rolled so more than likely
3. There was nothing wrong with the AT-1 and I had wasted the Svema 🙁

I haven’t had the Cinestill developed yet, but given the issues I decided not to wait. If that film does come out I will make a photo post from the results.

As for this camera, I love it! Here is another review from someone else who loves it.