Yep, exactly what this one was (mostly) used for. Pola 665 pos/neg film was sooooo cool- it made for a great traveling portrait camera. The novelty of it could start the conversation, then offer the positive to a prospective subject, keep the neg to scan/print later!

The talk about Polaroids reminded me that I have my Grandfather's old M-80. Family sent it to me years ago. Went and found it and then checked to see if there's been any revival to the problem of finding film for one of these. Nope, the only Fuji choice is still out there but is around $250 a pack and was last manufactured in 2016. So back into storage this goes. No way I'm paying 25 bucks a shot to try a film that may no even work.

Today's addition to the C&V Camera Thread:

Minolta PG Rokkor 135 mm / 2.8 fixed telephoto lens:

I like the aluminumness (aluminosity? yeah, that's the word,) the aluminosity of this thing. Not much plastic to be found here:


The delightfully-overbuilt leather-n-velvet lens case:


Good stuff here, I think. Going to take it and the 50/1.4 out for some shooting tomorrow, schedule and weather permitting. (We've had 15-20 mph winds here in the East Bay for the last couple of days. Demoralizing, is what it is. Having no experience with fixed telephoto lenses, I'm going to shoot the same scene at 50 and 135 a few times, just to start getting a feel around the differences.

For 50 bucks, I ain't gonna complain much.

--Shannon

Here's all the manual focus lenses I routinely still carry and use with my photography. I have adapters for all of these and now use them on EOS DSLR's. Still working an old Canon 5D along with a 7D, a 7D MK II, and a 5DS R.



Mamiya A 200/2.8 APO - A super lens for sure and since I'm using it on a 35mm body I get the sweet spot of this lens edge to edge for the image.
Vivitar Series 1 70-210/3.5 Macro -Just found this one in an antique shop about a month ago for $9 and had to grab it.
Vivitar Series 1 80/2.5 Macro
Olympus Auto W 24/2.4 - Good edge to edge sharpness for a 24mm.
Olympus Zuiko Shift 35/2.8
SMC Takumar 50/1.4 screwmount. - Amazing 3D rendering with this beauty.
SMC Takumar 135/3.5
Leica APO Telyt-R 180/3.4 - Crazy good resolving power at infinity. You should see the detail that shows up with this one
Leica Elmarit-R 90/2.8 - This is a main headshot lens, not that I do a lot of that type shooting.
Leica Elmarit-R 60/2.8 Macro - Most of my bike photoshoots on here are taken with this one on my Canon 5D
Leica Summicron-R 50/2.0
Leica Sonnar 85/2.8
Carl Zeiss Planer 100/2.0 - Just a super amazing piece of glass.
Carl Zeiss Planer 50/1.4
Carl Zeiss Distagon 28/2.8
Carl Zeiss Distagon 35/2.8

I have a full suite of AF Canon lenses also that sees use when shooting faster stuff like sports and action. But for my slower, more deliberate work I still prefer the results from these old manual focus beauties. I am starting to have some issues though focusing with the diopter of the camera's at the strongest setting. I don't know how much longer my eyes are going to allow me to work these.

Jamesdek , that's a very nice collection of glass that you have adapted to your EOS bodies, Am I to assume the "bird" shots were shot on digital?

A few more more......

2 of 2000-3000 Canon F-1 Military Bodies with 7.5 FD Fisheye and 58mm 1.2 Aspherical lens
I was lucky enough to get 2 of these before they got very expensive, the one with the 1.2 has a bit of wear and a ding on the wind side, the other has tape on the edges to help protect the finish.
Best, Ben

For sure. I haven't used the slide/film scanner in a very long time. In fact I'd like to find a modern good slide scanner to start digitizing all my old slides. Heck, I even have some Velvia in the freezer I'd shoot if I could practically do anything with them.

It's just too simple and efficient of a process now with digital to really go back.

Thank you for this thread - I checked out my camera archive and discovered it needed a bit of de-moulding.
They're entirely family inheritance - my camera gear is now all Canon film or digital.

I don't use film any more but it's still interesting.

Kodak Folding (No 1 Pocket Kodak Junior)


Kodak Retina 118


Ihagee Exakta Model B


Beaumat Beauty rangefinder


Others:

There actually is a market for old, expired pack film for these cameras. I had a stash of 665 in my basement I decided a few months ago I was never going to actually use. Most of if nearly two decades out of date. Put a couple up on eBay for what seemed like crazy money (based on recent auctions) with the usual disclaimer that it was expired and not guaranteed, and it got snapped up immediately, and the buyer contacted me directly to buy any more that I had. Expired film obviously carries a risk, but I always found it was extremely rare to get nothingwhen I used to use it, and often got something pretty cool.

Back when I had a studio I had a small collection of cheap vintage cameras I picked up at flea markets and yard sales. The hope was always to find one that, through its flaws or light leaks, or whatever, might produce some interesting 'mistakes' in use. I don't recall any of them actually succeeding in that way (a Holga or Lomo, etc were easier to coax 'good' mistakes out of), but they were cool to just have displayed on a shelf....

I remember that stuff. Very handy at times.

I had* a Polaroid back for the Hasselblad, primarily for checking lighting/settings in the studio before a shoot but occasionally for creating a quickie negative to print without the hassle of developing a roll. Some trimming required to reduce size to 6x6.

*Still have it and the camera kit, but it's not like they have a mission in 2025.

Yeah, I get that, but I'm not the guy, LOL! If anyone come back with a reasonable film pack for the old Polaroid I'll certainly try it. But I'm not paying $25 per shot just to play with the camera.

And that's what I like about it. The inefficiency of the thing. The sheer manual-ness of it. I think that it's a separate thing now, almost its own sub-form.

It also scratches my "acquire neat things" itch in a way that digital hasn't, so far. (I have my dad's EOS Rebel XT in storage, and I liked using it enough to eventually upgrade the body, but it's very much not the same thing, at least for me.)

--Shannon

For me the camera body has always just been the box. The magic happens with the lens. Going with digital bodies also really freed me up and let me experiment more. I no longer was held back but just the sheer cost of buying and developing film. I was also able to pretty much retire my medium format gear for most work. I started playing with the telephoto lenses on a DSLR and then "chopping" a scene up into individual pieces. Then you merge them in photoshop and get one amazingly detailed huge file. Like one print I have in the house that is 3' x 5' and that's only 1/2 the size of the actual file. I combined 20+ shots using the Mamiya 200/2.8 on the Canon 5D to create the image. The detail and size is amazing. The total file is over 1/2 a GB. At full size you can easily see Elk in a meadow far away that the naked eye could never see. Now this won't work in all conditions but on a calm day with consistent lighting this technique is a blast. Could never get anything like that with film

Took a step to further combat the old eyes when I use the old MF lenses still. Ordered a Fotodiox AF confirmation adapter for my Contax lenses. Had one for years for the Leica R ones. Waiting right now for the evening sun to get a little lower. Then I'm heading out to play with the Contax 100/2.0.

Today's addition to the thread:

Some pictures!

Shot with the Minolta SRT Super, 50 mm / 1.4, Kodak 400TX, exposed per on-camera meter:

(These are pictures of the matte prints, taken with my phone on top of the mini-fridge in my shelter room. The discoloration is an artifact, it's not on the prints.)

I liked this cactus:


This is my favorite shot of the whole roll: (Again with the color artifact.)


There was one other shot that I liked quite a bit. 3-for-36 on the 1st roll of film I've shot in over a decade? Yeah, I'll take that action.

And, bonus, the nice lady at Photolab in Berkeley looked at the prints and negatives for signs of camera problems and found nothing wrong. So that's a relief, especially given that I only spent a hundred bucks on the camera.

Keep 'em comin'!

--Shannon

My first quality camera was a Yashika D TLR. I bought a selenium cell light meter to help with exposure settings. My next camera was a Konica 35mm rangefinder like the one in the showcase. I have had other cameras since, but those two cameras got me started.

Well, I may be about to answer my own question about rangefinders, as I'm trying to buy a Yashica Minister III that I found on The List of the Craigs for 50 bones. Owner claims it works well in the ad. I emailed him some questions, we'll see what happens. The research I've done sez they're really good cameras, with a fixed 45 mm / 2.8 Yashinon lens that seems to garner a fair amount of praise. Selenium meter, so no batteries... if it still works after over six decades. If not, I've got a light meter app on my phone, and I need to learn more about exposure anyway.

If we take the broader definition of "C&V camera," then I'll be adding two more.

1. My mom's Olympus LT-1, a mid-90s point-and-shoot that's a gussied-up version of their Mju/Stylus 1. Same internals, same highly-regarded 35mm / 3.5 lens, just in a smoother, more rounded body, wrapped in leatherette and with a magnetic flap instead of the sliding plastic cover.
2. My stepdad's dad's Minolta Maxxum autofocus SLR. I've never used a Minolta auto before. Sadly, when Minolta brought out the first autofocusing SLR, they had to change their lens mount to get all the parts to fit, so the older lenses ren't cross-compatible. Hopefully Minolta's AF lenses were as good as their MF ones, and as cheap to buy. We'll see.

The LT-1 is going to live in my handlebar bag, I think... for the "have a camera" rule, if for no other reason. The Maxxum is more a poops-n-smiles kinda thing, plus it was free. I've ordered the hardware so that I can share the $60 Outer Shell strap between the two Minoltas and the Yashica, if I get it. (The hardware, two clips for the strap lugs and a screw-in adapter for the tripod mount, costs about 10 bucks per camera.)

And I dropped off my 1st roll of HP5+ for developing. (There's FP4+ in the SRT Super now... we'll see if the picture quality is worth the more-difficult exposure. TANSTAAFL.) So there should be more pictures to share, assuming any of them are worth a damn.

--Shannon

It was a sad day for many of us when Minolta left the business. That's when I made the switch to Canon as I just could not do Sony.

Minolta has many, many top notch AF lenses. A huge chunk of my work was done with their glass. I just don't have any idea what kind of value is on it now.


24mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2.0, 50mm f/1.7, 85mm f/1.4, 100mm f/2.8 macro, 300mm f/4.0, 1.4x Teleconvertor II APO, Tokina 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5, Tokina AT-X 80-200mm f/2.8 and Sigma 400mm f/5.6 APO

These taken with the 300/4.0:





My workhorse for many years, 28-85/3.5-4.5:

85/1.4:


Most of my Minolta work was captured on the thousands of Velvia slides I have archived in my basement.

That's good to hear. I was hoping that their lens quality didn't decline after the shift to autofocus. The prices seem reasonable... a quickebay scan shows prices in the 40-70 dollar range for most normal lenses, and even the weirdo ones look like under $300, mostly. That Sony digital bodies use the same mount might be a bonus, although I have my Dad's old Canon when I want to play around with digital. (Old 8.1 MP EOS, I'll probably get a newer body sometime.)

--Shannon

Camera-buying update:

In addition to / instead of the Yashica I mentioned above, and about which I have yet to hear back, I'm also considering picking up a 1961 Petri 7 with a fixed 45 mm / 1.8 lens.


Heck, I may end up grabbing both... it'd still be less than 100 bucks. And the Petri guy will throw in some expired film... why not?

--Shannon

I got a first generation Maxxum autofocus as my 10 year employment reward.
Point it at the kids or wildlife and focus would grind out and in and back and finally click after the subject was long gone!
Got my layoff notice at 12 years, and sold the camera a year or two later.
On the other hand, it almost killed Canon, which had just introduced their new line of T manual focus SLRs

The really vintage stuff got sold or given away a while back. Was recently going through the remains of the history/eras of my (very amateur) camera collection

Pentax K-1000


Yashica T2 - The workhorse - never let me down and almost never produced a bad photo


Canon Rebel G 35mm

Generic wide angle for Canon - bought when the actual photographer on a trip I was on canceled and I had to try and fill in last minute


Nikon D40 digital


Remnants of a Ricoh GR digital pocket camera that got used and abused

OK here's some properly C&V content

I bought a large slide collection from a garage sale. It was from the estate of a couple that ran the Photography club in Pasadena in the 50's. They both participated in photo competitions worldwide. The slides were sent in these custom boxes, designed to hold four glass slides.

They are held closed securely by this ingenious little strip of spring steel, which un-latches with pressure on the top and then pivots to allow the slides to be removed. Small paper holder with foam holds the 4 slides and fits snugly in the box

By evidence of the postal markings these were shipped to and from galleries and would be used multiple times

Patent # led me to the original patent application


https://patents.google.com/patent/US2797015

That's way too cool!

I especially love the postage and customs stamps on the boxes. It's as if you could construct a timeline out of just the boxes and their stamps.

--Shannon

That's odd, I had every 7 series AF camera they made and don't remember it giving me much trouble at all.

Mine saw a ton of use shooting my kids (and the whole teams) sports as well as wildlife.


Minolta Maxxum 7000i ,Minolta 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 AF ,Fujichrome Velvia

Minolta Maxxum 7000i ,Minolta 80-200 zoom,Fujicolor Superia 100

Minolta Maxxum 7xi ,Minolta 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 AF ,Kodak B&W

Wonder if the old Minolta 7000 is still down in storage. Maybe I should play with it to see just how bad it is compared to modern stuff. Memory obviously fades over the years.