The Film Retriever

The Spotmatic F  It's been some time since I made a review post about the Spotmatic line of cameras. If you haven't read it, have a look first on my old post about them ( link here ). This is more like a long winded lasting impressions post. I sold the first spotmatic soon after I made the original post in 2015. I didn't think it was for me, at that point I was after a good AF SLR camera that would get the job done with minimum fuss. A couple of years later, another Spotmatic came my way, this time together with two Takumar lenses (28f/3.5 and 55f/1.8). Over a period of few months (and without putting any particular effort) I gathered a few more M42 lenses. So overall I ended up with: * The Takumars: both very good lenses. Performed like modern lenses, I couldn't fault them. * The Helios 58f/2: A good lens to own and shoot but recently I feel that they receive an internet hype that do not necessary deserve. * A Pentacon 50f/1.8: not bad - not great, these len...

The Beautiful Minolta SR-1  I am going through my familiar cycle of gathering Minoltas again - it has happened twice before and twice I sold off everything to buy Nikon and Olympus. But Minoltas are so good and cheap that they always creep back in again - started with a 7xi, then it was a 700si and then two SR-T (303 and 100). I felt pretty covered by these until a nice, rare, black SR-1 showed up. In a pretty sad state but cheap - and I got it. The public liked the SR-1 in the early 60s and Minolta kept upgrading it throughout its production - depending on which resource you read, there are six to eight different versions (I too believe there are 8 versions rather than 6 but the differences in some models are very small to be considered a different model). Stephen at Cameraquest has a nice summary there and so does "The Rokkor Files". Following the description on the rokkor files mine is "Model-B" from 1960. It is worth noting that my camera has the de...

How do they compare to each other? Over the last couple of months, my zuiko family has grown. Got a cheap 28f2.8 for Christmas and within a few weeks I found a "Made in Japan" 50f/1.8 for £1.99 and a MC 50f/1.4 for £49.99 in different charity shops. The MIJ 50f/1.8 was sold as spares as it was full of fungus - to my surprise when I took it apart the fungus was limited on the outer part of the inner side of the group (the side facing the aperture blades) and cleaned very nicely using white vinegar and then a bit of window cleaner.  There is a tiny spot that is inside the cemented group - I assume it is fungus, but it is very small and faint, limited at the edge of the cemented group - too small to have an impact. The lens spent a couple of days under the UV lamp to kill any remaining fungus spores. The Multicoated 50f/1.4 was another repair story. No trace of fungus when I got it, everything looked clean and bright, but when I shone some light I noticed this foggin...

I need to dust more often   This is something that I kept thinking I should do for some time now. Compare the two Zuikos, the 28f/2.8 and the 28f/3.5. This is the second sample of the 28f/2.8 - I sold the first one as I did like the f3.5 more but recently i came across a nice f/2.8 which was cheap and in good condition so I thought I should have it. I put the two lenses on my digital canon eos with an adaptor and went for a walk around the area I live, in taking pictures with both of them. Here are my overall impressions. - Both lenses perform remarkably similar. If there are any differences, they are too small to be important. In the following picture, I shot both of them wide open and checked the centre sharpness - overall they both perform similarly Click for bigger  - Another picture taken wide open but looking now at the edge of the frame. Sharpness is quite good actually but you do see a lot of purple fridging. I think the older f/3.5 is doing worse here. Des...