Canon New F-1 AE Finder displays wrong shutter speed in viewfinder

[Paul Thomas]

I love my recently acquired Canon New F-1 with AE Finder. I've run through several rolls of film, with excellent results and am feeling confident that I have a good camera. One anomaly: I mostly shoot in manual mode, matching the needle in the viewfinder. The viewfinder display of the shutter speed (lower right corner) is incorrect. Initially it was just one setting off, so setting 1/1000 on the Shutter Speed Dial read 1/500 in the viewfinder (and not quite aligned). Now it's way off: 1/1000 is reading as 1/8! The camera, I'm sure, is doing the right thing: photos from the last few rolls were well exposed, and the sound of the shutter with the current film loaded indicates a correct short exposure time. I assume this is some sort of prism alignment problem in the AE Finder, but can't really see how to adjust it. I have taken the AE Finder off and on a couple of times, but nothing improved. Any suggestions?

 

[flavio81]

I love my recently acquired Canon New F-1 with AE Finder. I've run through several rolls of film, with excellent results and am feeling confident that I have a good camera. One anomaly: I mostly shoot in manual mode, matching the needle in the viewfinder. The viewfinder display of the shutter speed (lower right corner) is incorrect. Initially it was just one setting off, so setting 1/1000 on the Shutter Speed Dial read 1/500 in the viewfinder (and not quite aligned). Now it's way off: 1/1000 is reading as 1/8! The camera, I'm sure, is doing the right thing: photos from the last few rolls were well exposed, and the sound of the shutter with the current film loaded indicates a correct short exposure time. I assume this is some sort of prism alignment problem in the AE Finder, but can't really see how to adjust it. I have taken the AE Finder off and on a couple of times, but nothing improved. Any suggestions?

Hi

The problem is not on the finder. The problem is within the camera.

The display of shutter speed is done through a pulley (cord) and the length of the cord has varied for some reason.

DO NOT attempt to fix it yourself or to open up the New F-1 camera yourself. This is a camera for experienced and very good repair people only. To put it in perspective, i'm a camera tech myself, but I don't feel yet ready for the New F-1.

You can just ignore the problem, which is really minor.

 

[gone]

Your camera has a fascinatingly complicated AE finder/prism setup. I was looking at this diagram, it's certainly different.

Detail Information on the Viewfinder of New Canon F-1

This guy fixed his issue by a repositioning of it's focus screen, apparently.

Canon New F1 Metering Problem

<p>Hello,</p><p>Taking my New F1 out for a spin, I find the meter isn't working properly. </p><p>With a new battery, at ISO 400, using the AE Finder set on A and a 50mm f/1.4 lens set on 2.8, the horizontal needle goes to the right only to the 2 second mark, and the ...

www.photo.net

 

[benjiboy]

The reason all the New F 1 focusing screens are so bright and fine-grained is that the fresnel grooves in them were cut by laser. The screens were always expensive because they contain a beam splitter, I recall even in the times the cameras were produced in the early 1980s in the U.K they cost, £43 ( almost $53 ) which almost 40 years ago was a fortune.