The Big Commercial Success

The AE-1 camera was launched in 1976 by Canon Co., Ltd. and employed electronically controlled shutter with cloth curtain and shutter-speed-priority AE system. Since the camera was equipped with automatic winding mechanism and continuous shooting mode with the Winder-A (which was an option), it was a big hit, and it is said that it was sold more than four million five hundred thousand worldwide.

HISTORY of the LARGEST SELLING SLR of the time...
The Canon AE-1 was the first 35mm SLR camera to be controlled solely via a built-in Central Processing Unit (CPU) and made SLR photography available to beginners and amateurs at a reasonable prices - with a record of over 5 million units been sold worldwide, the success of which firmly established Canon as the leader in camera innovations.

The original AE-1 was lacking a programmed AE mode, while the fabulous spec Canon A-1 has six exposure control modes in all - of which the Programmed AE was one of them. Users generally realized the convenience of the Program AUTO. In fact, the early eighties was the era where full automation in camera design really took off. Competition such as Olympus OM-4, the Nikon FG and Pentax's Program A have added more flavor into such a competitive market place. But the real killer was the Minolta's X-700, with the MPS (Minolta Program System) and TTL flash exposure metering, and even though Minolta's optic are fully capable of providing shutter priority AE, the X-700 has mysteriously turned to aperture priority AE instead and omitted shutter priority AE from its feature list.

It revolutionized many of the concepts for future camera designs especially in the field of electronic applications and mass produced technique with a lower cost of production with the use of plastic injection molding, resulting in simpler assembly of parts. It also popularized and made devices like Power Winder and electronic Speedlites a household name in the consumer market. The camera was controlled entirely by electronics precision rather than by mechanical functions - and depends solely on battery power for all of its functions. Despite defying the mainstream camera design concept in the '70s, the AE-1 came through well and attained a huge during its availability years. This was very much due to Canon's efforts in promoting the camera - it offers very precise and stable timing of shutter speeds, which was also extended to other areas like auto flash-synchronization speed when any dedicated Canon electronic Speedlite is used. Although the technologies employed within the AE-1 looked very simple when compared with today's modern SLR cameras, it has to be remembered that during its era, the market was still dominated largely by those heavy, mechanically-controlled type of cameras. Canon used these points to enhance the advantages of electronic applications in camera designs - where in many areas, electronic cameras do offer much more precise timings and other features that can never be matched by mechanical technologies.

However, the AE-1 was not in anyway a professional-grade SLR as compared to the Canon F-1. It was generally regarded as a classic and top amateur SLR model due to the impact it has created with its then innovative concept that went on to influence other future camera designs, both Canon and other makes, of the industry as a whole. The camera was eventually replaced by a newer model with added features, the AE-1 Program in 1981, following on the success of Canon's semi-pro and top-of-the-line A-series camera, the multi-mode Canon A-1, which made its debut in 1978.