Bill Smith's Photography

It has been a rather cool month but you can find colour if you know where to look. Camera: Canon Populaire (P), Canon 50 f1.8 LTM lens. Film: Kodak Max 400

It has been a cool and damp month so far. I was in Toronto for a Saturday lunch date midtown with a woman I met on Ok Cupid, she was smart, nice but not a match, a story for another time. I made a day of it and did some photography both downtown and up in Rosedale. The camera of choice was my Canon Populaire, the P, a 35mm Leica Screw Mount rangefinder from the late 1950s. I bought it off fellow Classic Camera Revival host John Meadows. I sold the Canon Serenar lens back to him and then went on the hunt for a younger mid to late 1960s Canon 50 f1.8 lens. This was my first time shooting this piece of glass and I shot colour film, in this case from my stash of expired Kodak Max 400. The Canon 50 f1.8 LTM lens loves colour film. The skies were a mix of sun and cloud, very changable. This is a killer combination of lens, camera and film, if anoyone is in the market for a budget 35mm rangefinder and don't want to go with a former Soviet camera, give the Canon P a look. Ok, I know

I need to shoot medium format more often. It hasn't been much of a spring here in Toronto so far, I ran with Kodak Tri-X pushed to 1600 to deal with the gloomy lighting. That said, sometimes shooting in the rain is great for the photos you do get. Now I love shooting inside Brookfield Place and the walkway between Saks Fifth Avenue and The Eaton Centre. I shot it last fall on pushed Tri-x in 35mm, of course I had to re-shoot in 120 and it sings. Camera: Rolleicord Vb, 75 f3.5 Schneider Xenar Lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600, processed in Xtol stock.

I love my new to me Minolta XD-11, that is all. Camera: Minolta XD-11, MC Rokkor lenses. Film: Rollei RPX 400, HC110 B.

I got a chance to walk around in the Beaches a few weeks ago mid week, and a chance to test drive my new to me Minolta XD-11 (fabulous camera). Winter hasn't been kind to the neighbourhood. I noticed the neighbourhood stalwart Whitlocks closed, story goes it changed hands two years ago but the new owners didn't have a collective head for the restaraunt business. There are lots of empty storefronts courtesy some greedy local landlords and high municipal taxes, and in this part of the world, that's not going to change in the near future. Camera: Minolta XD-11, MC Rokkor lenses. Film: Rollei RPX 400, HC110 B.

I always wanted a Minolta XD-11, this camera was part of the great engineering partnership between Minolta and Leica. If you look carefully, you can see the basic layout for the Leica R4, R5, R6 and R7. For longtime readers you know I borrowed my brother's Leica R4 and lenses, the XD-11 feels the exact same way in your hands. In fact some Minolta lenses were also used as Leica R lenses. The mount is different. What's sad is Leica R bodies are going for a song these days because everyone wants the R lenses on their full frame cameras. Getting back to the XD-11, it is a very intuitive camera to use if you know your way around Minolta. My lens kit is mostly MC Rokkor, and since I'm not a shutter priority kind of guy, no big deal. Size wise, this camera is around the same size and weight of Nikon FM/FE having a just right feeling in our hands. As you can see, I got the black one courtesy Burlington Camera, now I hope a chrome one crosses their path at some point. I usual

I was gifted a MD Rokkor 28-85 3.5-4.5 zoom lens courtesy fellow Classic Camera Revival host Mike Bitaxi last year, and it's a really nice piece of glass. In terms of general purpose zoom, it dusts, Nikon and Canon's offerings in similar focal lengths. Now I exposed a variety of focal lengths. I found I got some vignetting at 28mm which can be cropped out when framed loosely, other than that all the negative scans look fabulous. The Rokkor Files did an extensive write up on the MD Rokkor 28-85 3.5-4.5 zoom lens and were very impressed with the performance. If you're looking for a nice walk around lens and you shoot Minolta manual focus, MD Rokkor 28-85 3.5-4.5 zoom lens is a great solution, especially for travel. Camera: Minolta X-570, MD Rokkor 28-85 3.5-4.5 zoom lens, Film: Fomapan 400, HC110 B.