I paid just twenty dollars at a yard sale for my Minolta X-700 three years ago. Since then it has made a lot of pictures I like. The camera is light weight and compact and the Minolta lenses I have tried have all produced excellent results. I took along the X-700 a couple days ago when I visited the Albuquerque Botanical Garden. I mounted the MD 1.7/50 lens and loaded a roll of Kentmere 400.
A couple days later I decided to find out if my MC Tele Rokkor 3.5/135 could be trusted. I had disassembled the lens several times because of the sluggish action of the aperture stop-down mechanism. I finished off the roll of Kentmere with some pictures of the informal Friday car show in Old Town. The lens sounded like it was doing ok, but only half the frames were properly exposed. That was disappointing as the Tele Rokkor had made some very nice images for me in the past. I'll probably look for another one as I don't feel a kit is complete without a 135mm.
5 comments:
For a mostly plastic SLR, the X-700 really feels good in the hand. Its exposure system is very accurate. I enjoy shooting mine.
Mine has made a lot of pictures for me. I'm getting a little mistrustful of cameras with electronic shutters however. I am tempted to send the X-700 for a tune-up. An alternative is to take the nice lenses back a generation to the SRT.
If you decide to send your X-700 in for a check-up, John Titterington of JT Camera repair does excellent and affordable work on this model Minolta.
I love the chairs and the shadows on the deck. Very interesting. I need to look at shadows more carefully. Of course, you live in the land of strong sun and clear skies, so that may be a productive theme for you.
JR Smith:
I knew you would have a good repair resource to suggest. I mostly try to figure out and sometimes fix mechanical shutters, but anything electronic is beyond me.
kodachromeguy:
I am always on the lookout for interesting shadows. Not all lead to interesting images, but they often seem to help bring some order to a chaotic world for me.
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