I feel like I’ve entered my midlife-crysis… at age 24.
Table of Contents:
How it all started
A few months ago, when my Wife was looking around “Kleinanzeigen” (German Classifieds) for vintage furniture, she somehow came over some Polaroid Cameras. Of course, I already knew what those were, but I didn’t really care.
But for some reason, my brain started thinking about vintage analouge film cameras.
So I started looking around Kleinanzeigen as well and found a multitude of offerings. I wasn’t sure what to look for, what’s important and what to not care about, but I gave my best to find something.
One came to another and I found a 35mm Minolta XD (Japanese Model) listed for 120€.
I messaged the seller and asked a few questions to find out, if the Camera was still working.
Besides the ultra-weird battery it used (which can easily be replaced by stacking two LR44 batteries) everything seemed fine, eventhough the seller couldn’t tell me if it worked or not.
I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to just pull the trigger.
And there I was. On my way to Munich to purchase a camera I didn’t even know if it worked.
After talking to the seller, we agreed on 90€. I bought it from a very friendly italian family. The camera belonged to the sellers Father, who couldn’t stop talking about the great adventures he went on with his Minolta XD.
My Camera
So here it is. My first ever Analouge Film Camera. My Minolta XD.
For 90€ I didn’t only get the Camera with it’s usual Lens, I also got another lens, a flash (I still haven’t tested), an “auto tele converter” and some lens protectors.
The feel of the camera is good, sadly it smells like cigarette smoke (because the previous owner smoked in the house where the camera was stashed) but other then that everything looked great.
The housing is in a really good shape with only some minor nicks and the lens looks good. All the functions seemed to work fine. So all I had to do next is get my first roll of film and see if the images actually turned out as I expect them to.
More about the Camera
- Exposure range of EV 1 to EV 18 (ISO 100 and f1.4).
- Exposure correction from -2 to +2 EV.
- Minolta SR lens mount
- Flash sync at hot shoe or terminal at 1/100s.
- Electronic vertical-travel metal shutter with electromagnetic release.
- Mechanical shutter mode available at 1/100s.
- Shutter speeds of 1s to 1/1000s plus bulb setting.
- Stepless control of shutter speeds in aperture-priority auto-exposure mode.
- TTL center-weighted metering (silicon diode).
- 94% viewfinder coverage.
- Acute Matte focusing screen with split-image bi-prism surrounded by microprisms. Four screens available, replaced by technician.
- 0.87x viewfinder magnification.
- Viewfinder information depends on operating mode:
- In aperture priority, shutter speed is indicated by LEDs.
- In shutter priority, aperture is indicated by LEDs.
- In manual mode, recommended shutter speed is indicated by LEDs. The chosen shutter speed is shown in a separate window.
- With Minolta X-type flashes, flash-ready is signaled by blinking over-range LED.
- Aperture setting is shown in all modes.
- Battery: 2x LR44; 2x SR44 or equivalents; or one CR1/3N.
- Mechanical self-timer.
- Depth of field preview.
- Film memo holder.
- Safe-load signal indicating film present and correctly spooled.
- Film advance release allowing multiple exposures.
- Motorized film advance possible with Minolta Auto Winder D.
Source: Wikipedia
The Film
Since I didn’t know anything about anything and just wanted to try stuff, I needed to check if there is actually even a way to purchase 35mm film.
So I called one of my local print shops and got a great answer. They still sell it.
At that point I didn’t know that 35mm film is widely sold and still being produced.
Since this was just the first roll to see if the camera even worked at all, I bought a roll of ISO 200 Kodak film with 24 exposures.
Since I also didn’t know how to load film, I looked around YouTube for a Video on how to load film in a 35mm Camera, and came over this great video by “Callum Leak“
I loaded my film, and started shooting.
You wan’t to know how the Images turned out?
Well, you’ll have to wait for the second part of this adventure. 😉
