Bill Smith's Photography

March started off like a lamb to borrow the old cliche, and things took a stranger turn, more on that later. I had one beautiful weekend of skiing which you will see in the next post, I want to separate the content. What amazed me was how fast winter packed it in, more ways than one, what you see was shot three weeks ago. The snow now is pretty much gone on the fields and front yards. We might get the annual Easter snow storm, or not, tha'ts living in Southern Ontario for you. Now, Minolta X-700, I have growing respect for this camera, and it dusts the Canon AE-1P by virtue of using S76 batteries as opposed to the 4SR44 battery. The other thing, the X-700 doesn't disguise the fact it's a plastic shell camera, and that's ok, just don't drop it. From where I'm sitting this might be the ultimate travel SLR kit, because these cameras are cheap, in fact the two I own were gifted to me. The Minolta MD 28-85 zoom lens, is pretty much the ultimate travel glass, while...

I'm usually a prime lens guy, but over the past few years, I've learned to embrace zoom lenses for certain tasks and situations. In my last blog post I talked a bit about my third Minolta XD body in my fleet, a chrome XD-11. Now here's the lens I popped on for the test drive, the Minolta MD 28-85 F3.5-4.5 Macro zoom. These lenses were gaining in popularity into the 1980s as a growing number of customers wanted "one lens that can do almost anything." Well, such a lens would invite engineering compromises but Minolta proved really good at their zoom lenses, the 28-85 along with the MD 75-150 F4 and the MD  70-210 F4 was sharp glass. My experience with the 28-85 delivered almost perfect results save for tiny bit of vignetting at the 28mm position. That back be solved with some careful cropping. From what I read on the Rokkor Files and elsewhere, this lens has a steller reputation as a strong performer. Ok, the lens ain't all that fast but as a vacation lens...

I love how this film renders blue skies, pity it's a dead film stock. Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ai 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Agfa Vista 200, expired in 2004 and freezer stored.

One of my favourite cheap black and white films is Fomapan 400, if you shop smart you can find it around $7 CAD online. The film sometimes gets a bad rap, I don't know why, I get great results, you just have to figure out what the true film speed is with different developers. With HC110, D76 or Ilford's clone ID-11, the film clocks in at 200-250 ISO. In Tmax developer which is a compensating developer, Fomapan 400 becomes a 400 ISO film. Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ai and Ais lenses. Film: Fomapan 400, ID-11 1+1.

A timeless combination with camera and lens. Rollei RPX 400 as a black and white film sings on sunny winter days. Camera: Nikkormat FTn, Nikkor S 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Rollei RPX 400, RPX D 1+11.

Driving up to the Caledon Ski Club is pretty photogenic, sadly though the skies gave me never-ending pale anthracite (grey). For kicks and giggles, I packed my Nikkor N 24 f2.8 lens, instead one of my 28mm lenses. I have to shoot with this focal length more often. Nikon F2 Photomic, Nikkor H.C 50 f2 lens, Nikkor N 24 f2.8 lens. Film: Fomapan 400, Tmax 1+4.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe happy 2019! Camera: Nikon F2A, Nikkor Ai 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Kodak Max 400