Sunday in Old Town

Verticals

I took a cool early morning stroll through Albuquerque's Old Town with my restored Rokkor-QD 3.5/135mm lens mounted on a Minolta XG-1.  The perspective provided by the long lens forced most of my compositions into a vertical mode.  I was happy with the performance of the lens; less so with the camera.

I bought two Minolta XG-1 cameras with no intention of using either one.  The first donated its prism to the restoration of my Retina Reflex, and I just hacked the prism out of the camera with no regard for what was left behind.  The second XG-1 came along with the Rokkor-QD telephoto for a total price of twelve bucks.  That one worked ok, but the plastic top deck had a number of cracks.  I replaced the top with the one from the first XG-1 to see how the camera would perform.
    The electronic shutter has some issues.  I like the small size and light weight of the XG-1, but I likely won't devote more time to its restoration as my garage-sale Minolta X-700 seems to be in good working order and it is a fundamentally superior camera to the XG-1.  I have ordered a Celtic 2.8/28mm lens for the X-700 to accompany the normal lens and the telephoto, and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with the kit.

Sorting out cameras and lenses.

I took a walk over to Old Town with the Minolta X-700 loaded with TMAX 100.  I was pleased to see the restored 135mm MC Tele Rokkor-QD lens performing up to my expectations.  The images which did not quite work out as hoped were victims of my own technical deficiencies, as well as a little bit to some peculiarities of my yard sale camera.
    The X-700 underexposes compared to my Spotmatic by about a half stop with a normal lens and up to one-and-one-half stops with the 135mm telephoto.  To further complicate matters, with normal lenses the X-700, the XG1 and the Spotmatic all seem to give the same exposure readings in subdued light. Some of this may be due just to differences in the metering systems, but I think the Minolta's auto-exposure system is a bit off.  There may be some way to adjust the sensitivity of the meter, but I haven't come across any clues on the web about how that might be accomplished.  Since the exposure error is pretty consistent with any given lens, the problem can largely be overcome by just adjusting the camera's ASA setting There is a bit of uncertainty that lingers in my mind, however, so I'm slowed down a little in my responses to photo opportunities.

A bigger issue for me with the combination of the X-700 and the 135 lens is that the aperture-priority auto-exposure system actually reverses my usual routine.  With a telephoto mounted on my Spotmatic I first set the shutter speed to ensure that it will be fast enough to stop any subject or camera movement, and then I set the aperture to obtain the proper exposure using stop-down metering.  With the X-700 I need to take a guess at what aperture is going to match the speed I want from the camera.  What happens, sometimes, is that my guess is a little off and if I have failed to note the camera-selected speed in the viewfinder, my shutter might be a stop slower than is required for best sharpness.  What is really at play is my own habits and routines which need to be adjusted in order to get the optimal performance from the camera system.  It is also possible with the X-700 to set the shutter speed manually, which makes the system behave more like my Pentax Spotmatics.

Using the Minolta system has been a useful way to examine my own part in creating the images I want.  As a photographer I have gotten into habits of manipulating the technology through a nearly unconscious learning process.  It is easy to form preferences for certain gear as a result which have much more to do with my performance than with the capabilities of a particular camera system.  My thought at present is that it will be useful to try a couple other cameras with lenses similar to Rokkor--QD.  My later Pentax cameras, for instance, have aperture-priority metering, and I have a couple telephotos similar in characteristics to the Rokkor-QD.

Moving Along ...

I managed to properly adjust the infinity focus on the 135mm MC Tele Rokkor-QD.  Much to my surprise, I was also able to screw in the front logo ring with no great difficulty.

I attached the lens to my yard sale Minolta X-700 loaded with Tri-X and took it to Cate's chess match.  The dim florescent lighting forced me to shoot wide open at slow speeds, so it was not the best environment to show off the good quality the lens is capable of delivering.  However, I thought the camera and the lens performed pretty well under the circumstances.

I like the 135mm focal length for this type of event.  I am able to shoot with enough distance to avoid interfering with the action, and yet am able to fill the frame with the subject.  I'm looking forward now to trying the lens under more favorable conditions.

It ain't pretty, but it works

I was thinking it would be nice to find a telephoto lens for my yard-sale Minolta X-700 when I came across an about-to-expire listing on eBay for an XG 1 and a 135 Rokkor for $12.  The "as is" labeling did not inspire great confidence as evidenced by the lack of bids, but it seemed worth a gamble at that price.

The camera turned out to be in pretty good shape.  A couple hearing aid batteries and a few drops of Ronsonal in the motor wind port got everything working properly, including the aperture-priority auto-exposure.  The lens is an MC Tele Rokkor-QD f:3.5/135.  Turning the focus or aperture rings produced no adjustment of those functions.

It seemed there was little to lose by opening up the lens to see what might be fixed.  However, I was brought up short when applying my lens spanner to the faceplate ring as the forward tube had a dent in it.  The thing just wouldn't budge.  Given that, I decided to fall back on the Red Green protocol:  Get a Bigger Hammer.  I got out my electric Skil drill and a small bit and bored a couple holes in the stuck ring.  I then applied a heavy steel pair of dividers and a vice-grip plier to the task.  With considerable grunting and straining and not a few scratches to the ring, I finally got it screwed out.

Yes, yes;  I am aware of the grimaces and eye rolling going on there in the back rows.

Any way, there is a pretty good YouTube video on the disassembly of the lens.  It is fast-paced and I needed to replay parts of it several times in the process to get the lens fully disassembled and then put back together.  I did get the focus ring turning, and the aperture settings and dof preview button work as they should.  Unfortunately, the video left out the details of how to properly set infinity focus and I haven't yet figured that out for myself, so the distance and dof scales on the lens do not match up with the actual focus.  On a rangefinder system that would be a fatal flaw, but with an slr you see what is registered at the focal plane regardless of what the focal index indicates.  So, I decided to take the lens and the camera for a test drive, sans faceplate ring.

I'll likely take the lens apart again and see if I can sort out the focus adjustment, in which case I would also jam the filter ring back in place.  Without the ring installed the camera under-exposes a couple stops.  I'm not sure then how much I would use the lens, but I am impressed by its performance so far.  The lens is very compact compared to more modern telephotos and nicely fits the light-weight XG 1 and the X-700 as well.  I'll keep a lookout for one with a slightly bigger aperture which would improve viewfinder visibilty.  Meanwhile, I think I've gotten my twelve bucks worth.