It really makes you appreciate the old-timers. Back when I started we already had computerized exposure control (my first camera was a Canon AE-1 Program). While it was primitive compared to what we have today, it was light years ahead of the old equipment. But damn! Keeping everything dust-free was a real PITA, especially when every time you loaded a new roll of film, changed a lens, or even took the cap off a lens presented a new opportunity for dust to get somewhere it wasn't wanted! Then after getting all the fates to align to make it that far the film gets dust on it while drying after being processed. Aargh! It seemed to me half of photography was about battling dust.
Wow! I'd never even heard of an AT-1! It seemed like everybody around where I lived at the time was either selling the AE-1, the AE-1 Program, or the A-1. Now I see on Wikipedia there was not only the AT-1 that you had, but also an AV-1 and an AL-1. They all had the same bodies and lens mounts but slightly different features. I never knew!
Yeah, I think the AE-1 was probably more popular in the UK at the time (late 70s), but I liked having all the control (and I couldn't afford an AE-1). But what I really liked about Canons was how chunky they were compared to Olympus and Pentax - it made for stable shooting.
A bit later I got a Nikon F3 for work purposes (paid for by work), with lots of goodies (ring flash, macro lenses, etc.), but never really liked as much as the Canon.
