Bill Smith's Photography

 Color Plus is impossible to find these days which is a pain in the ass because I love this film!  Camera: Minolta SRT-102, MC Rokkor lenses.  Film: Kodak Color Plus 200. 

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.

The Don Valley is one part of Toronto I really haven't explored all that much. I've been to the Brickworks a few times before the big renovation and to a few events afterward, I have also explored a few ravines to lead into Rosedale and Moore Park over the years. This is the dividing line of the city in some regards, a large channel of green space and a transportation corridor. The fun part was exploring some abandoned bits of infrastructure, a mothballed spur line now owned by Metrolinx that connects Union Station with the Canadian Pacific main line through Toronto. Yes I got my "Stand by Me" moment on the rails. The other urban artifact is the abandoned Eastern Avenue Bridge, you've seen if it you were travelling on the Don Valley Parkway. The highway when it opened in the early 1960s re-directed Eastern Avenue. I have always wanted to check this bridge out ever since I first saw it from my parents' car driving down the DVP in the early 1980s. You can get...