...been given a Canon AL-1, an interesting piece of camera history it seems, with an odd quick-focus system.

Fitted with a Rokinon 28-80mm Macro lens - good job no others came with it as I cannot see the lens release button either on camera or lens, so have no idea how to shift it.

 

You need a bigger hammer...

S

 

Got a 14lb sledge - will that do, do you think?

 

I found an online manual that suggests it is at about half-past 5 on the mount looking at the camera from the lens side.

 

I was thinking more one of these:

https://www.vectorpostdriver.co.uk/

S

 

I say, Steve, you could get a proper banging from that!

I've found a manual too, just no sign of a button on either lens or camera. How odd!

 

It looked to end up flush with the mount, not proud of the mount, at the bottom edge, rhs with lens toward. The manual started with taking the lens and body caps off and attaching the lens, said rotate until the pin locked. Picture on page 9.

 

I'll have another look this evening and try to post a photo - if I don't end up guddling under the sink again, like last night...

 

This was from the manual that I found (second hit on search)

 

As others have said, on the lens - a pretty small, square, silver button on Canon lenses, don't actually have any third-party FD lenses.(Got rather a lot of Canon ones, they were insanely cheap a few years back when there weren't any current uses for them.)

I really like the AL-1. You might easily describe construction as cheap and nasty, but for me, it's lightweight - the controls and shutter on mine are silky smooth, which always makes me think better of a camera. The one thing that really is cheap and nasty is the battery compartment door - these are VERY prone to failure, and you'll see loads - including mine, sadly - with them taped shut. Aside from that, I think it's a great little camera, my second-favourite of the A series Canons after the magnificent A-1. (I'm really not fond at all of the AE-1 or AT--1, and the AE-1 Program is only slightly better. Quite like the AV-1, which rather surprised me, as I was very dismissive of it at the time.) The Canon A series certainly has more models of historical interest than most camera series, but it never ceases to amaze me how different they are in use and character, especially given how similar they look, and how few spec differences there are by modern standards.
Enjoy it!

 

That's the same manual I found, but nothing to match that button - very odd! Well, I don't have any Canon lenses, and I don't have anything in that range, so it looks as though the Rokinon will stay on.

I like the way it feels too, but then my first serious camera was an OM10, so lightness probably helps - especially as most of my other SLRs that I've used are Nikons (the Edixa doesn't really count, and the Zenit and the Praktica don't get enough use). Thanks, Nick - I'm hoping I get to use this one a bit as it's a family piece, so recommendations are good.

 

Yer 'tis, as they say in southron parts. No sign of a release button, just two screw heads! There is a button on the next ring out, but I can't fathom any connection.

 

Is it the older Canon breach lock lens design where you rotate the back ring not the entire lens, to lock and unlock the lens.
As far as I know the older and newer designs were usable together, perhaps with limitations on aperture control so no Program or Shutter priority mode.
The above was from memory of selling those cameras / lenses second hand almost thirty years ago so may not be 100% accurate.

 

Hope it isn't a case of someone twisting/wedging in a lens which don't actually fit...?

 

It's not moving whatever I do (within what seems sensible limits and without using BFI) so I really can't say. I hope it's not as Zou suggests - the chap who gave it to me is a trained engineer!

ETA - someone's selling an AE-1 on Etsy with the identical lens, so I am thinking it's me missing something here. Apparently the FD mount is breech-lock rather than bayonet, but that hasn't helped. Dunno why I'm so keen to find out, I've no other Canon lenses!

 

The earlier FD lenses are breech lock, the later ones bayonet. The lens mount on the camera is the same for both, but Canon saved money on the lenses. The FD lenses have a connection to the aperture simulator in the camera, and allow full open metering.

 

Have you tried just rotating the back ring? Could be a breechlock without a lock/unlock button.

 

Canon breech lock lenses don't have an unlock button. Looking from the camera front, they unlock anticlockwise.

 

I'd kind of guessed that from where the red dots are, it just isn't moving, that back ring won't move a mite, - I might give it one more go, then stop worrying - it's not as though I've anything else to mount on it and, as far as I can tell without running a film through, it's working as it should.

 

Ha! That one last go worked - there seems to be a sweet spot in which to grip the ring without gripping the next one, and off it comes! I feel strangely better for knowing that, despite it being of no use to me whatsoever.