A bit of an unusual post. To cut a short story shorter I picked up a 42 year old Minolta Hi-Matic E rangefinder in Washington DC about 3 weeks ago, and managed to get it working. I have, quite frankly, never used such an item before in my life, but I boldly went forth, confirmed that it was working and brought it it Eirtakon this last weekend to see what'd happen.
The results, as promised are Here on imgur. With the Doctor below as a sample.
![[Image: Hq4NvzG.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/Hq4NvzG.jpg)
They are - to be polite - not perfect. I'm not so much a photographer, as a fan of technology. There was no flash with the camera, so it was auto-adjusting its own exposure out a bit and some of them got a bit shaken. I also goofed on the focus from time to time. In my defense, it's my first time with anything like it - even film is a first-time for me.
Still, there is something of an eternal charm there that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's just because I did it, or because 'analogue' or I don't know. Even when scanned off the prints at 300dpi because my scanner software breaks above that. They'll be around and viewable - if properly stored - long after any harddisk has corroded or mini-SD card has been eaten by the dog. And they look a lot better in person.
The real fun for me however was using a 42 year old piece of technology and having it work like a charm all day. I just went out there with the aim to use it as anyone would, ambling around taking a few shots and putting it to work for the first time in maybe a decade or more. There may be a dozen things wrong with these, but none of them can be blamed on the camera. It did exactly what it was supposed to do.
Getting some interesting pictures out of it was a bonus.
I'm glad I did it.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
The results, as promised are Here on imgur. With the Doctor below as a sample.
They are - to be polite - not perfect. I'm not so much a photographer, as a fan of technology. There was no flash with the camera, so it was auto-adjusting its own exposure out a bit and some of them got a bit shaken. I also goofed on the focus from time to time. In my defense, it's my first time with anything like it - even film is a first-time for me.
Still, there is something of an eternal charm there that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's just because I did it, or because 'analogue' or I don't know. Even when scanned off the prints at 300dpi because my scanner software breaks above that. They'll be around and viewable - if properly stored - long after any harddisk has corroded or mini-SD card has been eaten by the dog. And they look a lot better in person.
The real fun for me however was using a 42 year old piece of technology and having it work like a charm all day. I just went out there with the aim to use it as anyone would, ambling around taking a few shots and putting it to work for the first time in maybe a decade or more. There may be a dozen things wrong with these, but none of them can be blamed on the camera. It did exactly what it was supposed to do.
Getting some interesting pictures out of it was a bonus.
I'm glad I did it.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
