The Film Retriever

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...

The indomitable SRT-303  This is a review of the Minolta SR-T 303 (and it's sibling, the SRT100). I base my review on having spent half a year together and shot quite a bit of film with it. And I thought I was not going back to Minolta ever again. I sold my X-700, my 9xi, my 7xi and my XD11 and I said "enough, no more Minoltas" - how deluted I was. A lovely 700si found its way back to my collection (review here) and at Christmas, I came across an online listing saying: "old film camera - not working". It was for peanuts, so I said why not. The lens (a Makinon 28 f/2.8) was full of fungus so I threw it away, the camera - a beautiful SRT303 was working just fine and looked like new. A few weeks later, a SRT100 with an unusual Rokkor 50 f/3.5 macro was up for sale - price looked low and I got it. That's how this equipment came to my hands. I will not go into the historical details of these cameras, there are other sites that explain it so nicely. A...

The Brilliant 700si  I didn't need a Minolta 700si. I always wanted one but I didn't need it. I have a nice collection of user cameras and I prefer to spend the £50 (average 700si value) on buying films. But I got a notification of a new listing with a 700si for £5, so I didn't give it any second thought. Minolta got in a bit of a muddle in the early 90s. The xi series was loaded with unnecessary features that gave very little to no control to the photographer. Despite the initial raving reviews of the 7xi, very few photographers managed to bond with it (me being one of them). The only cameras that kept Minolta alive where the 2xi, 3xi and Spxi - entry level models that sold well with amateurs. With the 700si, Minolta planted themselves back into the competitive arena of the advanced amateur cameras. The Minolta 700si was the camera that the 7xi should have been from the start. There are some minor updates regarding the AF module and light metering department a...