Spent 3 hours trying to fix a shutter issue until I checked the obvious

I was working on a Canon AE-1 Program that kept giving underexposed shots. Checked the aperture blades, the light seals, even swapped the battery, and nothing worked. Turns out the little magnet that controls the shutter timing had a tiny speck of corrosion on it, which took me like 3 days to finally notice with a loupe. Has anyone else spent way too long chasing a simple fix on these old Canon bodies?

2 comments

2 Comments

gonzalez.vera1mo agoTop Commenter

That little magnet is actually a common failure point on AE-1s, not usually first thing people check.

elizabetha921mo ago

Stop blaming the camera for user error and learn to properly diagnose a shutter problem before touching anything else.