My First Rolls of Film

Exploring 35mm Film for the First Time – Canon AE-1 Program & Yashica Electro 35GX

I recently received my parents Canon AE-1 Program with a 28mm (as well as a 50mm) as a gift, and after wanting to try shooting film for a while, this was a perfect opportunity. The Camera was purchased brand new at the time and was still in near mint condition, aside from some spots on the viewfinder and having to replace the battery. Yet I still wasn’t sure whether the camera “actually worked” so I bought a single roll of Fuji 200 from Amazon and loaded it up! I was surprised how easy the camera was to operate, although to be fair I'm not new to photography. I decided to shoot in Shutter Priority, manually selecting my shutter speed, and letting the camera decide the Aperture (utilizing the built-in light meter) based on the shutter speed and ISO/ASA.

With this first roll I mainly took personal photos of my family (and cat of course) so I don’t have much to share here, although after having it developed I was able to confirm that the camera did work! Naturally, I purchased some Kodak Ultramax 400 and shot another roll, this time actually trying to get some decent photos as I knew for sure that the camera was operational.

I always enjoyed looking at street photography that was shot on film, so I thought I would try it myself. I got some shots that I was happy with, although I did learn that it’s better to slightly overexpose my images for the future. As you can see in these photos everything looks underexposed which still looks good in my opinion, but next time If I’m shooting 400 ISO Film, I’ll likely have my camera set to 250 or 200 (or if I’m shooting 200 ISO film, I may shoot at 125 or 100).

I was debating whether to include the photo below, but there’s something about the sign and only being able to see half of the Husky that intrigues me. It looks like he’s waiting in line for pastries.

After that day I could confidently say that I was certainly going to shoot more. There’s such a satisfying feeling when advancing the lever, taking your time to (or rushing to) manually focus, and not having the ability to instantly check your photos. In fact I liked it so much, I decided to purchase a Yashica Electro 35 GX on Ebay.

I always wanted a rangefinder, and with this newly found enjoyment of shooting I decided it was a good excuse. They’re also relatively cheap around $150-$250 CAD for a mint / near-mint condition. The only issue I faced with this camera straight away was finding the correct batteries. It’s originally designed to take Mercuric Oxide MR52 (or PX640), although Mercury cells are now banned because of toxicity and environmental fears. Fortunately I was able to purchase PX640A batteries online which are a mercury-free equivalent (except for the 0.2v increase when utilizing two batteries). I also replaced the light seals as the original ones completely deteriorated.

Comparitively, the Yashica Electro 35 GX shoots in Aperture Priority mode only. I won’t get into all the details about the camera (I’ll likely make a detailed long-term review in the future), but essentially you select the aperture, the light meter will tell you if you need to increase/decrease the aperture, and the camera will chose a shutter speed for you.

Comparing it to the Canon AE-1 Program, I enjoy this one significantly more for street and travel photography because of it’s form factor. I will admit that focusing is significantly harder on the Yashica for certain subjects because you can only tell what’s in focus in the middle of the optical viewfinder. This made it hard when I wanted to focus on something that was close to me, but I didn’t want to have it centered (as I would now have to focus on that subject, then frame accordingly). Because of this I would definitely consider using the Canon AE-1 Program for more “professional” shoots, although both are highly enjoyable and easy to use.