Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Canon AT-1

Canon · Canon FD mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film · 1976

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Canon AT-1 · Canon AT1 · AT-1 · AT1 · Canon AT-1 black · キヤノンAT-1 · キャノンAT-1

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
AT-1 Canon FD 1976 — No figure published; camera-wiki says it never sold in the numbers of the AE-1 or AE-1 Program
  1. No production figure and no end date have been published. camera-wiki says only that it never sold in the numbers of the AE-1 or AE-1 Program; the Canon museum gives no discontinuation.
  2. The black finish rests on one source, a 35mmc reviewer's remark that his is the silver one and not the black; that is the reason for the single-source flag on this page.
  3. mir.com.my's line that the camera was for markets "outside Japan and US" does not square with camera-wiki's December 1977 Popular Photography advertisements pricing it in America. Canon itself says only "for export only (no Japanese price)". The American sales are taken as real.
  4. Canon's own museum gives the finder as 0.82× on the AT-1 and 0.86× on the AE-1, the same body. Whether that is a real difference in the eyepiece or a slip on one page is not known; both are recorded as printed.
  5. The meter cell is CdS where the AE-1's is silicon, and mir.com.my calls it a less sensitive cell than comparable bodies; Canon's EV 3 lower limit against the AE-1's EV 1 is consistent with that.
  6. mir.com.my and Camera Legend both date the camera 1977, which is when it reached most shops; Canon's December 1976 marketing date is used here.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Match-needle manual only: no shutter-priority automation, no LEDs
  • A CdS cell rather than the AE-1's silicon one, reading EV 3 to 17 at ISO 100
  • Electronically timed at every speed; nothing works without the 6 V cell, exactly as on the AE-1
  • An on/off switch and a shutter-release lock, and a self-timer with an LED

AT-1:

  • AT-1 on the front of the prism housing
  • No A position on the aperture ring is needed: the finder shows two needles, a meter needle and a lollipop follow needle, and nothing else
  • No aperture scale or shutter speed in the finder
  • Otherwise the AE-1 body: dial around the wind-lever hub, 6 V cell in the front grip, Power Winder A coupling on the base

Serial-range notes

no separate range
A black AT-1 exists: 35mmc's reviewer regrets owning "the silver variant and not the black one". One source; no proportion or serial block has been found.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film
Finder
Fixed eye-level pentaprism, split-image rangefinder; meter needle and follow needle only · 0.82× magnification · no rangefinder image
Shutter
four-axis horizontal-travel cloth focal plane, electronically timed at every speed · 2s – 1/1000 and B · flash sync X at 1/60; automatic-switching sync contacts, hot shoe and PC socket · self-timer
Film advance
single-stroke lever; Power Winder A on the baseplate
Back
hinged
Meter
TTL full-aperture centre-weighted averaging on a CdS cell, match-needle, EV 3 to 17 at ISO 100 with an f/1.8 lens (Canon; mir.com.my says EV 3 to 18). Film speeds ASA 25 to 3200. One 6 V 4G-13 mercury cell or a 4LR44 alkaline.
Motor drive
Power Winder A — Every AE-1 accessory fits, winder included: Canon, Wikipedia and mir.com.my all say so.
Weight
590 g
Dimensions
141 × 87 × 48 (W × H × D), Canon's specification mm
Country
Japan
Original price
Export only, no Japanese list price (Canon Camera Museum). December 1977 Popular Photography advertisements put the street price $40 to $50 under an AE-1 (camera-wiki).
Accessories
Power Winder A · Data Back A

Where sources disagree

Meter (upper limit)
  • EV 3 to 17 at ISO 100 with an f/1.8 lens (Canon Camera Museum)
  • EV 3 to 18 at ISO 100 (mir.com.my)

Better supported: EV 3 to 17

The maker's figure, stated with the lens it was measured with.

First
  • December 1976 (Canon Camera Museum; English Wikipedia)
  • 1977 (mir.com.my; Camera Legend)

Better supported: December 1976

A marketing date against the year the camera was generally on sale; not a real conflict.

What reviewers say

History

The AT-1 is the AE-1 with the automation taken out. Canon’s museum dates it December 1976, eight months after the AE-1, and says why it exists: in some overseas markets the AE-1 was too expensive, and some buyers still wanted to meter by hand. So the same body, the same electronically timed cloth shutter from 2 seconds to 1/1000, the same 6 V cell in the front grip and the same Power Winder A coupling on the base, but a match-needle meter in place of the shutter-priority circuit. It was never sold in Japan. The museum lists no Japanese price at all, and camera-wiki finds it in December 1977 Popular Photography advertisements at $40 to $50 under an AE-1.

The meter is the real difference and it is a step down as well as sideways. The AE-1 reads a silicon cell from EV 1; the AT-1 reads a CdS cell from EV 3, to 17 on Canon’s figure and 18 on mir.com.my’s, which calls it a less sensitive cell than comparable bodies. The finder shows two needles, the meter’s and a lollipop that follows the aperture ring, and nothing else: no aperture scale, no shutter speed. Canon prints the finder magnification as 0.82× against the AE-1’s 0.86×, on what it says is an identical body, and nobody has explained the difference. Being manual does not make it mechanical. Every speed is electronic, as on the AE-1, and without its cell the camera will not fire; Camera Legend’s reviewer counts that against it.

What it gained is small and real. There is an on/off switch and a lock on the release, which 35mmc’s reviewer notes its siblings lack, and a self-timer with an LED. Everything made for the AE-1 fits, winder included. The weight is 590 g and the dimensions 141 × 87 × 48 mm, the AE-1’s exactly.

No production figure exists and no end date; camera-wiki says only that it never sold in the numbers of the AE-1 or the AE-1 Program. Most are chrome. A black one exists on the word of one reviewer who wishes he had it, and that single source is why this page carries the flag. Identification is the name on the prism, the two-needle finder, and the absence of an A on the shutter dial.

Buying one is buying an AE-1 body without the AE-1’s price, so ask the AE-1 questions: whether the shutter squeaks, whether the plastic battery door is whole, and whether it fires on a fresh 4LR44. The CdS cell will be slower to settle in low light than a silicon one. Against that, Kosmo Foto’s advice to beginners is to buy this rather than the AE-1, because manual control is what most photography wants and the AT-1 costs less to get it.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Canon AT-1
Canon AT-1 — jennilee (Flickr), uploaded by Morven, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Canon AT-1
Canon AT-1 with the FD 50mm f/1.8 — Nismo834, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain (released by the copyright holder))

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $99 across 35 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $63–$140). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 63 more listings

Listings updated 2026-09-18. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Canon A-1 · Canon AE-1 · Canon AE-1 Program · Canon AL-1 · Canon EF · Canon FTb

Sources (7)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.