Bill Smith's Photography

This is the one and only post for the New Year's week and we'll back to regulary scheduled programming on the 9th I hope. I was gifted a Minolta MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 by Mike Bitaxi, one of the co-hosts of the Classic Camera Revival podcast. Optically it was in great condition but there were some mechanical issues that needed addressing, and I finally addressed them by having my repair tech do an overhaul. I'm glad I did because this is dreamy glass. The MC Rokkor went through its paces with a test roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600 ISO because it was December and the light was dodgy as we got closer to the Winter Solstice. I love how this lens handles subjects stopped down around F11 and wide open around F2.8 with portraiture, especially wide open at 2.8. If you roll with a manual focus Minolta system, the MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 is a must have, you don't really need shutter priority on your X-700 or XD body anyway. Camera: Minolta SRT 102, MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 lens. Fi...

I was gifted an MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 lens a few months ago by a friend, the optics are crystal clear and everything works as it should. Now I was told it misbehaved, I wanted to see if that was the case, so I popped the lens on my Minolta SRT 102 and took it out for a spin before and after skiing. January has to be the grayest on record and I should have used something like Rollei Retro 400S to build some contrast. The negs looked off but scanned nicely. You decide for yourself. I plan to retest later on when the conditions aren't quite, so, Scottish. Camera: Minolta SRT 102, MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.