I think of the AE-1 like the 80's Toyota Camry of the camera world--a good and reliable camera that got a lot of folks into good and reliable cameras, but not something one really wants for the track or for hauling all of one's possessions from coast to coast.Mine would be the two Nikon F2s I was occasionally able to borrow from a pro photographer friend during the couple of years that I was a photojournalism major. Weighed a ton built like a tank, and they were far better cameras than the AE-1 I owned. Especially when I also had the motor drives and the 200mm f2.8 with a monopod.
As for me, I skipped the AE-1 entirely. My first Canon SLR was an F-1, and to that I added a TX (cheapie pure manual camera), and, much later, a T90. The T90 was my first automatic-exposure SLR, and the key forerunner to the EOS cameras that switched to the EF mount (the T90 used the FD mount).
The F-1 was similarly featured to the F2 Photomic, but it was cheaper. I never had the real motordrive for my F-1, but did eventually get the Power Winder A for it. I wasn't into journalism, however, except for a few gigs shooting bicycle races for the long-gone Midwest Bicycle Review. My main gig camera in those days was a Mamiya C-3, and though I made a lot of money with it, it's not anything like my most memorable camera.
Rick "cheaper than Nikon" Denney