The Film Retriever

A 8000i lurking in the shadows... This is a quick review of the Minolta Maxxum 8000i. I was not sure whether it would be better to add it as a footnote on my previous post about the 7000i or not but I am convinced that the 8000i needs a separate post of it's own as in many ways it is a different camera than the 7000i.   In terms of looks and user interface the two cameras look identical. I like the way they look, low profile with a chubby handgrip and a tilted LCD Panel. In terms of features, the 8000i offers a bit more: multiple exposures and a high eyepoint viewfinder that makes it easier for people with eye glasses to look through. Expansion Card compartment The biggest difference thought is the shutter, Minolta had to keep up with both Nikon and Canon who introduced cameras with 1/8000 sec shutter speed. So, new shutter and mirror box was developed for the 8000i. Also flash synchronisation went to a very decent 1/200. The AF feels slightly faster ...

Cute little thing! This is a review of the Rollei XF 35, a camera that i bought in a carboot sale and stayed with me for a few weeks before deciding to pass it on. The Rollei XF35 came out in the now distant 1974. It followed an increasing trend of fully automated cameras like the Olympus 35DC (reviewed in my blog), the Minolta H-matic or the Petri Computor II just to name a few with fast lenses and compact dimensions. The  Rollei XF 35 was an affordable camera made to supplement the already very popular 35-series. In the early 1980's it cost around $60 almost half the price of the more prestigious siblings. One thing that you notice when you pick up this camera is its light weight and small dimensions. It is smaller than the Olympus 35 DC and lighter. Main selling point for this camera is the lens, it is a Sonnar design, 5 elements in 4 groups and multicoated, a lens of honorable background and well regarded in the photographic industry. I shot half a roll of film fo...

Roger Moore on bottom, Tony Curtis on top. Coffee right This is a review of the Pentax Espio Mini - a camera i had for a couple of months and shot half a film with it (the other half was shot with my OM-2n). This is a compact point and shoot camera from the mid-90's, a camera that did not receive a lot of attention when new (there are not many coming up for sale in the second hand market) and it took people a bit of time to re-discover and elevate it to an almost cult camera that fetches around £120 to £200 on the Internet (that is more that my Nikon F5). The Espio Mini is Pentax's take on how the Mju -2 should look like. They are about the same size and weight although the little Pentax is more square and more easy to hold. The battery compartment cap is small and easy to break. Beware  Where the Espio Mini really shines, it is in the viewfinder department. The camera projects frame lines and shades part of the viewfinder in order to compensate for par...

Pretty little thing This is a review of the Olympus 35 DC rangefinder. After i shot a film with it, i realized that it needed a CLA, so i will come back to it in the future and add a long lasting impressions section to this post. You know when you are going to have a good day - you walk down the street to go to your local car boot sale and you find a one pound coin and then you go to the sale and you find a nice Olympus 35 DC for £2. The previous owner stated that the camera belonged to his father, used it a few years ago before switching to digital and all pictures came out fine. So i thought.... yea why not, lets not haggle on this one. There were plenty of 35mm fixed lens rangefinder from Olympus during the 60's - too many to remember - all sold with beautiful Zuiko lenses. The Olympus 35xx series peaked with the 35SP during the late 60's. The 35SP was succeeded by the 35RD - Olympus dropped the spot metering and the 7 elements lens was scaled down to...

This is a quick review of the Konica Autoreflex T (my variant is the T2). This is a thrift shop find - i paid a bit more than i usually am willing to pay but it looked in so good condition so i ended up buying it. There are four variations of this camera, all of them look pretty much the same but they are updates of the original T which went out in 1967, one offering hot shoe, the other multiple exposures, the last one having a split microprism etc. The T2 reviewed here is virtually an T with a shutter lock and a redesigned shutter button. Now, don't confuse the T-line with the A-line which is the more economical line with certain features being removed. There is also the original Auto Reflex (two words) which is the firs AE SLR camera and a very different beast altogether - offers also half frame. After the final incarnation, the T3N came the TC-line and others that are very different cameras. First impressions are mighty good - this is a very heavy camera, ve...

The Zuiko 35 f/2 This is a small review of the Zuiko 35 f/2, the black sheep of the Zuiko family. I got this lens relatively cheap as it is in a beaten up cosmetic condition but the glass is in excellent shape and clean so I decided to hand in my hard earned cash and bring it back home with me. There are a couple more posts I have made about the Zuiko lenses, one can be found here (The Zuiko lenses) and one here (Zuiko Silvernose 50 f/1.4 Vs Zuiko "Made in Japan") - have a look there to see if you find anything interesting regarding this line of lenses. The Zuiko 35 f/2 has a relatively bad reputation on the internet. It is not that it is a bad lens, it is more the fact that it suffers (according to the reviewers) from artifacts - mostly chromatic aberrations- that are very prominent when you use digital cameras. The thing with this lens is that it was produced as a lens to use in low light situations. Remember, OM cameras had shutter speeds up to 1/1000 s...

So, i got a Nikkor 28 f/2.8 AIS for £5. What a deal! Well not really - the lens is full of scratches and internal dust. But I imagine, getting a lens for £5 is a good deal anyway. But how does it perform with all these scratches? Is it up to any good? There is one way to find out. My very unscientific test is thought out like this: I will shoot some pictures with the scratched and destroyed 28 f/2.8 AIS and i will shoot the same ones with the immaculate Nikkor 28-70 and compare the pictures. I developed the film - a FOMA 200 - in Rodinal 1:50 and scan the negatives with an old Canoscan 8600F at 4.800 dpi and see which lens performs better. Of course, a 28 AIS performs much better than the Nikkor Zoom, although the 28-70 is a very well respected zoom lens. I shot four sets of pictures at apertures f/4, /5.6 and f/8. No unsharp mask or any adjustment done, all settings on the scanner have been set to default. These are the scans straight out of the scanner. Here are...