How do I get the aperture on my canon ae-1 camera to close?

Question

How do I get the aperture on my canon ae-1 camera to close?

Answer 1

Remove the lens and close the aperture to f 22. You will see a leaver just beyond the rear glass element. As you move the leaver look through the rear lens element and watch the aperture blades. If they are slow to open or close or stick, you need to get it serviced.

Answer 2

did you check the battery?

Answer 3

I'm not totally sure what you're asking, but I'll give it a shot.

As you probably know, the aperture is either set automatically (if you turn the aperture ring on the lens to the "A" setting) or manually (if you turn the aperture ring on the lens to one of the numbered settings). You probably also know that - as on all similar cameras - the aperture ordinarily stays fully open while you're composing your shot, and just closes down rapidly when you push the shutter release (at about the same time that the mirror flips up).

There's a little switch on the front of the camera body, on the left side (from behind, as you're holding the camera: i.e. on the right as you're facing the camera from the front), near the lens. If you manually set the aperture (by turning the aperture ring to something other than "A"), and push this switch all the way over, the aperture will close down to whatever you've set it to.

This will, of course, dim the viewfinder (a lot, if you set the aperture to f/22). It also allows you to see, through the viewfinder, what depth of field you'll get in the actual photograph: you should get a deeper depth of field than what you see when the aperture is wide open.

Answer 4

You can check the depth of field by doing this ... http://www.cameramanuals.org/canon_pdf/c... and look on page 18.

The aperture automatically stops down when you take the shot.