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Around the Neighbourd in Early June

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 I haven't shot with my Minolta XE-7 since my move to Toronto two years ago. It was between the SRT series of cameras Minolta had in their line up, fully mechanical with CLC metering which was quite advanced for the day and above it, the far ahead of its time pro body XK/M while a brilliant pro body, was a sales failure. The XE-7 however had a market with advanced amateurs and professional photographers who needed an SLR for quiet environments like courtrooms.  My XE-7 has been with me for 20 years, and yes,  Rokkor glass is the reason why I have this system, Minolta had their own glass factory for lens blanks, hence the strategic partnership with Leica during the 1970s and '80s. I personally love shooting colour film through the XE-7. The camera in the end was on the market for five years between 1973 and 1977 when it got replaced by the XD system.  Camera: Minolta XE-7, MC Rokkor 50 F1.4 Lens mostly.  Film: Kodak Gold 200.  ...

Olympus OM-1n and Riverdale.

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 I didn't intend to add another OM-1 to my Olympus collection, sometimes I wonder if I'm running a camera rescue with this particular camera. Dave Smith, the former Darkroom Chair at the Toronto Club runs the Used Camera Donations and Sales committee emailed me. Ariel the current darkroom chair had an emergancy and couldn't volunteer during the club open house with used camera sales. I volunteered Sunday and joined the Used Camera Committee by accident, a happy one.  Scanning the spreadsheets I noticed an Olympus OM-1n kit, of course, I had to look. I found a pristine black OM-1n bundled with a Zuiko 75-150 F4 Zoom Lens. I was torn, the price was too good to say no. A few days later I loaded up with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400, and considering how the morning turned out, should have gone with Ilford FP4 or Fomapan 100. Hindsight is 20/20. That said, the camera sang no mechanical issues and the meter was sort of accurate, I had an MR9 adapter and the meter dialled in.  A ple...