When I Was A Child I Had A Fever

Here is the roll of film from the Minolta SRT-101 that I shot on November 30th.  Not going to lie, this might be the most perfect (color-wise, anyway) roll of film I’ve ever run through this thing.

There are some expsoures that were…Unconventionally altered? due to the back unexpectedly not being closed all of the way, and this camera has always had the occasional framing issue.

But seriously though…The exposures are, for the most part, dead on!  Not bad for a camera with no battery and no light meter!

As The Sun Burns The Ground

One of the rolls of fim I sent off to be developed last week ended up being a roll from Yellowwood that I shot on (I’m pretty sure) 10/22/2017.

I’m know it was shot with my black Nikkormat FT, and I’m pretty sure the lens I was using was the Rokkor 58mm that came with my Minolta SRT-101. 

I’m basing this off of those things being in a couple of pictures of me from that day,

Anyway, here is the roll of Kodak 400 that is at least 10 years past it’s use by date in all it’s grim and grimy glory!

That is the entire roll as developed. No processing, no editing, no nothing.

Did My Time

The film that I sent off on the 30th and 1st to be developed came back today!

Hooray!

Been well over a year since I've had any film to scan!

Also, Epson Scan for Mac kind of sucks.

His Mind Is Not For Rent

I am looking to start a photography-centric blog, so I, naturally, went out and bought as much film as Meijer had in stock last night.


Today, I took off work for a bit and went for a walk in Central Park, and along a couple of nice places in Carmel, IN.  I had 3 cameras and 3 36 exposure rolls of Fuji 200 speed film.


I did a roll in my Nikon Nikkormat FS, Minolta SRT-101 and SRT-102.  I DID NOT, however, have my Nikon D40x digital camera with me so that I could set up the lenses correctly to account for the dreary, foggy day so I was literally eyeballing it with 3 cameras operating in completely mechanical mode. The Nikon doesn't have anything electrical in it at all, and the Minoltas use a battery exclusively for the light meter.  But said battery is mercury-based, so no longer available and I don't have anything else in the slot to sort of work with.


So, with that in mind, these pictures may or may not come out super great at all.  I haven't bought film for a very long time, and the last time I sent any off to be developed was August of 2017.  I have maybe 10 rolls of who knows what sitting around the house that I shot mostly in October of 2017. Also, the SRT-101 may have had a light leak...The back was not fully closed.  I'll find out next week, I guess.


Anyway, I realized something about my style today. With the digital camera I'm basically all over the place. Most of what I take comes out looking pretty good, with the occasional bit of junk.  I feel like I experience the adventure almost exclusively through the viewfinder.  Today with the 35mm cameras I was actually more engaged in my adventure even though it was for the sole purpose of using a roll of film in each camera.  Yes, I was taking pictures left, right, up and down (literally!), but I was focusing on my surroundings (pun was unintentional for once) and trying to get a feel for the world that I was trying to take photos of.  Those +/- 108 exposures took me longer to get through than any 108 exposures I have taken in any of the years since I got my D40x.  That is no bad thing!  I've gotten too swept up in the digital photography mindset.


In some ways my skills have improved, in some ways I have gotten lazy.  I've known that for years, but today was the first time I actually took note of it in any sort of meaningful way.


Anyway, I sent off the film today for processing.  I will patiently wait for the day it returns in it's developed form so I can scan it and start my series of "A roll with..." posts on both here and wherever my next blog ends up!

Finally It's Christmas

Several years ago I bought a Minolta SRT-101 35mm camera on craigslist for a very small number of dollars (probably not more than $25, but I cannot find the email to confirm).

It was my first "real" camera.  "Real" translates to SLR camera with interchangeable lenses and etc.  Honestly, I love this camera. It is criminal that I only took a handful of pictures of the actual camera and that I used a terrible cell phone camera to do it!  I will rectify that here though.

The Minolta SR-T 101 is a 35mm manual focus SLR camera with Through-The-Lens exposure metering - TTL for short, that was launched in 1966 by Minolta Camera Co. It stayed in production for ten years with only minor changes.

Based on what I can tell, my camera is a second generation model that came with the awesome MC Rokkor-PF 1:1.4 f=58mm lens.  There is not a whole I can write about it that would make an awful lot of sense to anyone, but I can say that the thing is durable!

I tripped while walking one day and the lens took the brunt of the fall.  The damage was cosmetic, and it will no longer accept any screw on filters (boo!) but it still takes great images!

Anyway, here is the camera now (dented lens and all)...Eight years after I bought it!  I haven't used it very much for the last several years, I'm thinking I'll go get a couple of packs of film and rectify that soon though!

Rollin’ Down The Road Tryin’ To Loosen My Load

So I am mentally composing an entry about my beloved Minolta SRT-101, and there will be talk about the awesome lens that came with it.

Through the magic of a Minolta to Nikon adapter, I was able to take some pictures using the lens on a more modern digital camera, so here is the setup:

The Rokkor lens is attached to my Nikon D40x via a 3rd party adapter from eBay.

The results are, honestly, great in my opinion:

The day was pretty crummy and poorly lit due to it basically being winter, dreary, overcast and snowing.  The lens is still pretty clear and works nice and smoothly.  Disregard the dings on the edge of the lens. I tripped over someone and myself and the SRT went down onto some concrete.  The lens got a little dinged up, but it still works great!  Biggest downside is that it no longer accepts any filters or anything.

It's 3am I Must Be Lonely

So this is  a thing now.  Too bad I am sleeping just at the moment, so you get a scheduled post.

Hooray!