Talk:Canon A-1

Er, what?

We're told:

Thanks to its amazing features, this camera —introduced in 1978— has remained the ultimate reference camera for many for over a quarter of a century.

I understand the prepositional phrase at the end. But exactly what does the rest mean, and is it true? -- Hoarier 08:47, 19 April 2011 (PDT)

What it really means is 'I've got one of these, and it's fab!'. The offending line is in the original version of the article, written in 2007, so I don't think anyone will be offended if you get rid of it (and maybe cut down the number of words like 'original', 'unique' and 'dramatic' throughout.

That said, I'm pretty keen on the A1 too. It marked an important step in the direction that Canon continued to travel, toward impressive features, depending heavily on electronics. Whatever the author of this says, I think being inoperable without a battery was a big price to pay. Also, although I'd always prefer traditional dials to menus on an LCD screen, the A1's controls are a bit cluttered. And that 'Action Grip'; it's the Ultimate Loseable Accessory in my book.--Dustin McAmera 11:46, 19 April 2011 (PDT)

Yes, total dependence on battery power is a huge minus. Arguably it's more than made up for by some huger [?] plus(ses), but to suggest that it's great that a camera is useless without a battery . . . this brings to mind the naming of "Windows Genuine Advantage" [snort, cackle].

Anyway, thanks for the go-ahead. How does this edit strike you? (Feel very free to modify and improve, of course.)

There's a huge amount more of this kind of work to be done here at CW. At first I thought it was limited to articles about such obvious silliness as "Lomography", but I soon realized that I was wrong. -- Hoarier 17:54, 19 April 2011 (PDT)

Removing some text of long standing

I wanted to draw attention to my changes, in case anyone wants to change what I did.

I have removed a statement that 'The shutter is known to stick at times'. I don't like in general 'is known to'; it's like 'It is well-known that... ' (and so I don't need evidence for it). I know about the 'squeal', and that fault is common enough and well-known enough to get away with an 'is known to'; but that isn't the shutter itself sticking. Is there a separate fault of the shutter sticking, more common than in other cameras of the same age?

I also shortened the bit about how much better the A-1 is than the AE-1, and made some of the statements a little less vehement. First, we don't know what Canon's reasons for using plastic components in some of their cameras were. Second, there is no backing for the statements that the AE-1 often costs more second-hand (you go ahead and do that survey if you like!), or that it's because fully-functional A-1s are more common (that one is harder..). You might as well reason that people who bought an AE-1 just never want to sell it. I was tempted to remove the whole paragraph; we're not here to say which camera is best. Anyhow, feel free to re-edit! --Dustin McAmera (talk) 12:52, 21 September 2015 (CDT)