Found a pristine Canon AE-1 at a garage sale for $5 and it still works like a dream

Scored a Canon AE-1 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens at a garage sale in Des Moines last Saturday for just $5. The seller thought it was broken because the battery was dead, but I popped in a fresh LR44 and the meter came right to life. Shutter speeds are all accurate across the board, and the lens has zero fungus or haze. Has anyone else found amazing analog gear at garage sales or thrift stores lately?

2 comments

2 Comments

nelson.cameron29d ago

Gotta be honest, that's an amazing deal on paper but I'd check that lens really carefully in bright light. Garage sale finds are great but people leave gear in attics and basements for decades, and the moisture can wreck the internal elements even if the glass looks clean. I've seen plenty of "pristine" cameras that had slow shutter speeds or sticky aperture blades show up after a few rolls. Your mileage may vary but I always run a test roll through anything cheap before I get too excited.

bettywilson29d ago

Wait, you run a test roll through EVERY cheap find? Like even the ones that look totally fine? That's some serious dedication. I gotta say I'm impressed anybody has that kind of patience and film budget. I usually just blow through a whole roll of some cheap expired stuff in about 10 minutes and hope for the best. Last time I did that with a thrift store SLR I got back photos that looked like somebody smeared vaseline on the lens. Turns out the mirror was just dusty and the shutter was hanging wide open for like half a second. You're definitely smarter than me.