It Followed Me Home!

self | July 29, 2010 | swampsniper

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I was in my favorite thrift store last week, found this sitting in a plastic bin with a 5 dollar sticker. It had a 28mm lens on it, I found a 35-70 f2.8-4 Sigma for another 18 bucks.

I've been cleaning and testing, got it ready to roll again.

The Minolta XG-M came out in the early 80s, it has auto exposure and manual focus. It all cleaned up to about 99%. I'll shoot it some and the rest of the time it will look great on my shelf.

I can get negatives digitized to discs, it isn't very expensive.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

There aren’t many bad cameras!

[Grammy]

((snicker))

riiiight. You sound like my husband.

8-)

Good find.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Camera porn !

[dixiechick2000]

What a beauty!

I hope you know how to feed and care for it properly. ;o)

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Cameras thrive on exercise.

[Bellflower]

I find that film retains mystery, mood and romance that I like to capture whereas digital just doesn’t cut it. It is good for clear pictures but more often than not leaves out the intangible.

[raybbr]

I still have my Nikon FM that I bought in '79. Still takes great pics but I can't afford the film let alone developing and printing.

Now I have two Kodak super zooms. They really are good cameras and a Nikon D40 and a D5000. Both of the take good pictures too.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I can't afford to take near as many shots with film as I do digital but it might be good to slow down every so often. You have to be more deliberate with film, it should be good for technique.

I'm not about to give up digital though.

[Tainan]

You got a good, almost new camera. Look at the body where the strap hooks on...no wear. That was barely used. Good deal. In my office I have some old good 35mm from days gone by:
All Canon:
F-1
Ftb
A1
All black body - all fully functional. Quite a few Canon lenses also.
Sold my Hassy and large formats about 15 yrs ago. Nothing like a 'big neg' for reproduction and tonal range.

Now..its a Canon PwerShot S50 that works for me. Digital is fun and easy for my needs now.
I like your bird shots and commentary.

[Sarajevo]

I learned the hard way that the X-370 is no good for astrophotography.

I still have my X370 I bought back in '85. I never had a problem getting shots of a full moon. I never tried to photograph anything else in the night sky though.

[Condor51]

Dang did you ever get lucky. It reminds me of a guy I once worked with.

Back in the late 70's early 80's he picked up from an older neighbor lady a Nikon F and about 5 Nikkor Lens (fisheye to tele) for $25.00. I was green with envy.₍₁₎

But I'm afraid my wife will do that with my Nikon FE and my Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic (still clicking away), and my bag of lens & 'stuff' when I 'go'. To her it's all 'clutter'.

(1) He was pretty nice though. He let me use his lens for my Nikon. I had one of his, a 24mm(?) wide angle for over a month.

Ps: Thanks to yopur wonderful photos you got me seriously looking at Digitals now. In a couple months I will have a Nikon DSLR (two more checks paychecks). I'm finding good sales prices (B&H Photo for one) and I am now determined :-)

I was going to buy a gun first, but Mossbergs & .45 ACPs will always be there

[Condor51]

*** Canon stuff is for people with inferiority complexes! ***

You're bad.

[Yardstick]

Very nice — were those taken with an SRT200?

[rightly_dividing]

I'm not about to give up digital though.

I always wanted to take more pictures in my youth, but film and developing was too much money for me to take many pictures. Film may still be the media of choice for serious camera buffs, but digital has enabled me to take all that I want. My work is not nearly as beautiful as yours, but I have lots of fun and take a lot of pictures. One two day period last fall on a vacation, I took 780 shots. That would not have happened with a film camera.

I love your nature shots and always show them to my wife, and she enjoys them also.

[raygun]

The problem with the X-370 is the electronic light metering system. With long time exposures at night - can get nippy - the batteries get sapped; juice is necessary to hold the shutter open.

[raygun]

I took those shots with a X-370. I thought the SRT-200 was an improved version of the -102 but its apparently its a later improved budget version.

SRT-102 to SRT-200 comparison (both being fully mechanical body):

SRT-102
Single lens reflex camera with through-the-lens CLC (Contrast Light Compensator) meter coupled to shutter and film speed.
Meter sensitivity EV 3 to EV 17 at ASA 100.
Film speeds supported ASA 6-6400
Fully mechanical cloth focal plane shutter with speeds from 1-1/1000 sec plus B
Shutter speeds 1-1/60 sec with electronic flash
Oversized quick return mirror for no image cut-off even with supertelephoto lenses
Mirror lock-up (on most examples)
Exposure control needle, selected shutter speed and aperture visible in viewfinder
Flash synchronisation (X and FP)
Mat-Fresnel-field focusing screen with split-image spot surrounded by microprism band
Automatic reset film counter
Accessory hotshoe
Self timer
Depth of field preview button

SRT-200
Single lens reflex camera with through-the-lens CLC (Contrast Light Compensator) meter coupled to shutter and film speed.
Meter sensitivity EV 3 to EV 17 at ASA 100.
Film speeds supported ASA 6-6400
Fully mechanical cloth focal plane shutter with speeds from 1-1/1000 sec plus B
Shutter speeds 1-1/60 sec with electronic flash
Oversized quick return mirror for no image cut-off even with supertelephoto lenses
Exposure control needle visible in viewfinder
Flash synchronisation (X and FP)
Automatic reset film counter
Accessory shoe

Looks like the only thing missing with the SRT-200 is selected shutter speed and aperture visible in viewfinder. While that is nice, its not absolutely necessary. As far as the X-370 goes:

Quartz-controlled circuitry provides the consistent and dependable precision needed for outstanding results. Automatic exposure control with automatic exposure lock assures proper exposure under normal and complex lighting conditions. Viewfinder displays confirm operating status and exposure information. And, metered manual exposure control provides unlimited creativity in aperture/shutter speed combinations.

The X-370s' aperture-priority automatic exposure control provides accurate exposures under a wide range of lighting conditions. Simply set a desired lens aperture, and the camera selects the appropriate shutter speed steplessly from 4 sec. to 1/1000 sec. A shutter speed scale is displayed in the viewfinder. As the user rotates the lens' aperture selector ring, viewfinder LEDs light up next to the corresponding shutter speeds, so the user can also use this method to set exposure based on a desired shutter speed.

The X-370s' through-the-lens exposure metering system reads the entire image frame, with the greatest emphasis on objects in the center. Center-weighted metering is a familiar and reliable, time-tested system used by a broad range of photographers from beginner to professional. With the various types of metering patterns available in today's electronically sophisticated SLR cameras, center-weighted metering still remains in great demand.

That being said, I NEVER use automatic anything to shoot any picture ever. AFIAC there's no difference between the SRT-102 and the X-370 except the electronic metering system of the latter. You should get nice pictures with the SRT-200. Frankly, I'm not all that impressed with the Rokkor-X 50mm lens focused at infinity; also focus can be somewhat finicky at intermediate distances if depth of field is too shallow.

Those shots were taken with some special film from about 13 years ago; scrap motion-picture film from Seattle Film works. Its a shame they began running the scam where they passed off C-41 process film as special purpose.

[Kimmers]

You always manage to bring a smile to face and happy to my life.......excellent find....I trust you have a source for film and its development......

I hope you are feeling well

[raygun]

OBTW: you see that white speck above the snow fence in the first picture?

That’s a frisbee. I was watching ‘em play for awhile. On the other side of that snow fence is a 1000’ cliff. Everybody on both sides knew how to throw a frisbee, that’s all I have got to say about that. And that they played for quite a while in their ski-boots.

[stylecouncilor]

Wow! Those are really cool, Salamander!

Can't wait to see what you shoot with your new equipment, Swamps!

[Sarajevo]

????

My batteries seemed to last forever. They only time I can recall them losing power was in sub-zero conditions.