i think that Canon AE-1 has a light meter?
my first ever camera was smena 8 when i was maybe 10-12 years old. remember once i took it to an excursion and got maybe 6 usable shots, because smena 8 can take double exposures and triple exposures if you don't rewind the film :D then i had an "idiot" with no settings. it had decent photos for what it actually was.
Now i have zenit 12xp and zorki 4k, and i am embarrassed to say i have a film in zorki for more than a year :)
they don't have light meters so i used an app on a phone, and it is ok.
Never developed film myself.
Yes it does have a light meter, which is pretty fun compared to the modern one. I don’t think I can take a double exposure on the AE-1, but that would be kind of fun. I’m interested to see the first roll because I really have no idea how it will turn out. I have anxiety about handing over the control of my images to a studio that will just use an automated process for the development.
feel that film is a bit more forgivefull (feel that is not a word in english :D ) with exposure.
i do understand that but i don't have the time and space (and probably will power) to do it myself. it is for sure an exciting part of the process and would be fun to develop yourself.