Canon A-1 mirror stuck, viewfinder black, and film won't advance

[ikenteven]

Hola,

I'm fairly new to photography, so I bought a Canon A-1 second hand, and have used it for roughly 6 or 7 rolls of film. Up to this point, it's been working fabulously, until this weekend when I tried loading the camera with film and then shooting to advance it, and the film lever now won't pull, the shutter won't click, and the film won't advance.

Upon taking off the lens, the camera's mirror isn't down, but rather up. However, it isn't stuck, as the mirror comes down quite easily (and the metal lever just below the mirror allows me to move the mirror up and down). The mirror seems to spring back up whenever I try to pull it down, and I can't quite figure it out.

(As well as this, the viewfinder is black, but that's clearly because the mirror is up.)

A solution would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Battery...
And look up an instruction manual.

 

[wiltw]

Battery...
And look up an instruction manual.

^^^

The A-1 does not function without a working battery installed. You can use a lithium or alkaline or silver oxide 6V battery (PX28 or 544)

 

[E. von Hoegh]

And keep your fingers out of it, you may already have damaged it.

 

[shutterfinger]

http://www.cameramanuals.org/canon_pdf/canon_a1.pdf

And keep your fingers out of it

Does that include loading/removing film?

 

[E. von Hoegh]

http://www.cameramanuals.org/canon_pdf/canon_a1.pdf

Does that include loading/removing film?

Here's a thought - stop following me around and picking apart/contradicting my posts on technical questions.

 

[shutterfinger]

Here's a thought - stop following me around

I DON'T.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Upon taking off the lens, the camera's mirror isn't down, but rather up. However, it isn't stuck, as the mirror comes down quite easily (and the metal lever just below the mirror allows

It may allow you to finger the mirror, but you should not be doing anything at all of the sort in there.

The camera still has a small cult following. For me, it followed a poor-man's start in photography with the Olympus OM10. The A-1 came three years later (by which time the price had gone up and almost put it out of my reach!!).

The camera is 40 years old, and very different to many other cameras of that era because of its electronics.
If, after replacing the battery, the hanging situation repeats (hopefully it won't), have the camera professionally serviced.
As the years went buy, many heavy-use professionals users reported the A-1 as unreliable because, despite it's visionary design of electronics and automation (for some, a level of automation that detracted from the creative flux of photography), it was not built with high-intensity use in mind; the lens mount, shutter release button and winding mechanism and exposure count all came in for criticism of reliability at one time or another.

 

[ikenteven]

Battery...
And look up an instruction manual.

Thanks. I'd assumed it was wasn't the battery due to the fact that the LED display still works and functions perfectly, but I'll replace the battery regardless andy see what happens.

 

[choiliefan]

Here's a thought - stop following me around and picking apart/contradicting my posts on technical questions.

I follow you around as well but am usually too dumbfounded to comment...