Around the Neighbourhood with One of My Minolta XD-11's
I haven't shot with one of my Minolta XD-11's in ages. It's a platform some shooters looking for a feature rich manual focus camera that's intuitive to use. In the late 1970s the Canon A1 was the all singing all dancing manual focus camera for those who weren't interested in getting an F-1. Sadly the A-1 had ergonomics that were, really Canon. The Nikon FE, Pentax K2 and Olympus OM-2n were only apterture priority. Minolta had the great leap forward with the XD-11 which had both aperture and shutter priority with the MD Rokkor lens range in a package that was intuitive to use. Leica used the XD platform for their post Leicaflex R series of cameras. Sadly you can't mount MD Rokkor lenses on the R4,5,6 and 7 models.
If there's one camera system I would recommend if you are on a bit of a bit of a budget is the Minolta XD-7/11, granted the electronics could get flaky but we're talking cameras 40 years and older. That said if you find an fully operational camera and everything works, you have a really cool camera system. The big draw is the Rokkor lenses, Minolta unlike a lot of camera companies owned their own glass making capablity so the lens blanks were not only used in house but also sold to companies like, wait for it, Leica with their R mount lens system.
I also wanted to try out ORWO UN54 in Ilfotec DDX 1+4. I still have a bulk roll of it in the freezer. I love shooting with this film but, not sure if I will buy more or not. The owners of ORWO have a less than steller reputation for ethical business practices.
Camera: Minolta XD-11, MD Rokkor Lenses.
Film: ORWO UN 54, Ilfotec DDX 1+4.
Comments