Canon A1 LED display trouble

Woutervg97 · Thursday at 12:36 PM

Hello!

In an old safe of the school I work it, they found a Canon A1 and gave it to me. Awesome! All I really had to do was oil the thing to get the squeek out. But.... the lightmeter display seems dead.
I´ve checked the following
- In auto mode, you can clearly see it changes settings depending on the light
- The battery check shows quite clearly that the battery is good
- I've checked with another battery just in case.

Now there is absolutely zero lights going on in the lightmeter. Anyone know what to do?
I do have an old Canon AE1 sitting in the attic, which had a broken shutter. Could I reuse parts?

Chan Tran · Thursday at 1:04 PM

I do not understand what you said. If you say the camera changes settings depending on light then how do you say the meter is dead?

Woutervg97 · Thursday at 1:09 PM

Sorry, I meant to say the lightmeter display in the viewfinder!

Woutervg97 · Thursday at 1:47 PM

Been messing with it for three days. It just turned on for some reason

Nitroplait · Thursday at 2:21 PM

Would you give some examples of what you have been “messing with”? I have an A-1 that seemingly works- except for the display.

Woutervg97 · Thursday at 2:41 PM

I saw somewhere that flipping the lightmeter on and off continuesly might force it to work somehow. Maybe that is what eventually got me lucky

Nitroplait · Thursday at 2:47 PM

Thanks. I’ll play around with it for some hours while watching Netflix and see what happens.

Woutervg97 · Thursday at 2:49 PM

Honestly. This repair has made me both love and hate this hobby.

Chan Tran · Thursday at 4:25 PM

Woutervg97 said:
Sorry, I meant to say the lightmeter display in the viewfinder!

If there is no display in the viewfinder how do you know the camera is changing settings?

gbroadbridge · Thursday at 5:25 PM

You've turned the viewfinder display lever on, yes?

The one to the right of the Film speed dial...

marhalloweenvt · Thursday at 11:26 PM

Woutervg97 said:
Now there is absolutely zero lights going on in the lightmeter. Anyone know what to do?

Do you mean that the led (red) is not lighting up in viewfinder or they light up but too dim too look at? Have you check the display lever like @gbroadbridge mention?

F4U · 2025-09-19T00:43:02-0400

Typically capacitors go electrically leaky. This can wreak havoc. I'm not familiar with the A1, or when capacitors in general went to surface mount. But it sounds like I may be on the right track, so far as an off-the-cuff preliminary thought can take me, not having seen the unit.

Woutervg97 · 2025-09-19T01:06:26-0400

Chan Tran said:
If there is no display in the viewfinder how do you know the camera is changing settings?

With the back open I can see the shutter speeds and aperture changing when firing

mshchem · 2025-09-19T01:06:51-0400

gbroadbridge said:
You've turned the viewfinder display lever on, yes?

The one to the right of the Film speed dial...

Yep, this is what I was thinking

F4U · 2025-09-19T01:26:13-0400

OK, after14 posts in this thread, it's time for getting down to cases. Clean all battery contacts. Clean all switches. and no I don't mean aerosol spray can remedies. Examine battery wiring from the battery to the circuit board for wicking of battery corrosion. Don't tell me the battery compartment is clean. The copper stranded wire hides corrosion under the insulation while everything else looks clean as a whistle. Next, replace all discrete capacitors. This may be tedious surface mount work. I only know electronics, not Canon A1 cameras, so I can't know about the circuit board. but one circuit board is the same as another. If the camera is not an LCD display camera and you have followed these steps, the camera should have been working properly somewhere along the way. Remenber, Japan means JIS. Don't tear it up with generic screwdrivers. Report back.

gbroadbridge · 2025-09-19T01:42:19-0400

I’d suggest first of all, as I suggested above, check that the display switch is actually turned on…

mshchem · 2025-09-19T01:45:36-0400

Before getting to carried away I would load test the battery. Find a decent camera store with a tester. Voltage test isn't enough. The price of a roll of Ektar and proper development and printing should also be considered. Maybe just put the camera in a drawer

Chan Tran · 2025-09-19T06:19:38-0400

gbroadbridge said:
I’d suggest first of all, as I suggested above, check that the display switch is actually turned on…

Yes! I am quite sure the battery is OK.

benjiboy · 2025-09-19T06:27:00-0400

I can't help thinking that the Canon A series cameras like all consumer products are designed with planned obsolescence in mind, and we're never intended to last more than thirty years , and I'm amazed so many have survived, and still work.

loccdor · 2025-09-19T06:36:19-0400

Woutervg97 said:
I saw somewhere that flipping the lightmeter on and off continuesly might force it to work somehow. Maybe that is what eventually got me lucky

This made me think of when I bought a 35 year old cassette tape deck. The only thing I needed to do to get it to work was move the volume slider from 0% to 100% over and over.

Chan Tran · 2025-09-19T06:45:31-0400

loccdor said:
This made me think of when I bought a 35 year old cassette tape deck. The only thing I needed to do to get it to work was move the volume slider from 0% to 100% over and over.

I bought my cassette tape deck 36 years ago and it works like new today but it's obsolete because you can't buy tape any more.

loccdor · 2025-09-19T06:51:30-0400

@Chan Tran I drive a 1999 vehicle with a cassette player and I make mixtapes for it by plugging the tape deck into the line out of my computer There's also a big bag of cassettes my dad recorded from the radio in the 80s that keep me entertained. There are a few artists releasing cassettes as well, I just bought one from Jim E. Brown last week.

Chan Tran · 2025-09-19T06:58:55-0400

loccdor said:
@Chan Tran I drive a 1999 vehicle with a cassette player and I make mixtapes for it by plugging the tape deck into the line out of my computer There's also a big bag of cassettes my dad recorded from the radio in the 80s that keep me entertained. There are a few artists releasing cassettes as well, I just bought one from Jim E. Brown last week.

Well you can still buy blank tapes of type I and II although expensive but not type IV. I never buy pre-recorded cassette. I normally make recording using type IV tape.

gbroadbridge · 2025-09-19T07:16:24-0400

Chan Tran said:
Yes! I am quite sure the battery is OK.

I'm not talking about the battery.

There is a switch that turns the viewfinder display on and off.
Are you sure the switch is turned on?

The battery check button is also a switch that you can rotate to turn the display off

Chan Tran · 2025-09-19T07:28:57-0400

gbroadbridge said:
I'm not talking about the battery.

There is a switch that turns the viewfinder display on and off.
Are you sure the switch is turned on?

The battery check button is also a switch that you can rotate to turn the display off

I know what you talked about and I said Yes the switch may be the reason but the battery is not.

Canon A1 LED display trouble

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