Death Has Its Day

 

A Backup Camera

  I saw a posting on ebay for a Minolta 135mm lens at a good price and the seller was in Albuquerque.  I messaged him that it would be nice to pick it up locally and avoid the shipping cost.  The seller agreed and even offered to bring the lens to my place.  He also brought along a couple Minolta SRT cameras, so I acquired the 201 along with the lens.

My justification for acquiring yet another camera was the fact that I see a small problem with the shutter on my Minolta X-700.  At 1/30 second the shutter stays open for about five seconds.  I haven't seen a problem yet at any other speed, but it seems probable that further malfunction is on the way.  The 201 has a mechanical shutter, along with manual aperture and shutter operation.

The Tele Rokkor 135 had a sticky aperture, but it did not take long to disassemble the lens and get it working properly.  An earlier example of this lens made some very nice images for me, but it has required multiple efforts to keep it going.  This new one has had a lot less use.

The picture of the flamingoes was made with the Tele Rokkor.

I stand developed the Kentmere 400 and was not happy with the results, so will go back to HC110-b or PMK Pyro the next time around with this film.

Exercising the X-700

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.

Cesar Chavez Day

I rode my bike over to the Hispanic Cultural Center on Saturday.  Albuquerque has been celebrating Cesar Chavez Day for about twenty-six years.  This year's event was well attended, honoring the farm worker organizer and also the rise of many women to positions of leadership at all levels of government.

I tried shots of the Chavez poster from several angles, deciding finally on this image reflected in the windows of the Cultural Center.  The day's speeches were interspersed with dancers and singers.

No event in Old Town or Barelas is complete without this fellow officiating en dos idiomas.

Of course, at least one mariachi group is also mandatory.

The star performer was this little girl who danced for her mother and Cesar Chavez.

Our new mayor, Tim Keller, made a brief appearance at the beginning of the celebration, but the ladies owned the stage.  Michelle Lujan Grisham, the newly elected Governor of New Mexico, is always the shortest person in any assembly of politicians, but she has a personality at least seven feet tall.  The woman under the fedora to the right is Dolores Huerta, native New Mexican, co-founder of the United Farm Workers and keynote speaker for the Cesar Chavez Day celebration.

Next to the Governor in this shot is Deb Haaland, one of two Native American women who made it into the U.S. House of Representatives this year.

Quite a day for New Mexico.

I shot two rolls of Tri-X at the celebration, but brought home fewer pictures than I had hoped for due to some apparent malfunction of the Minolta X-700.  Most of the photos were under-exposed and some in full sun were grossly so.  Not sure if the problem is electrical, mechanical or the the result of creeping senility -- possibly a combination of all three.  The manual says that in aperture-priority mode the camera should work properly with about any Minolta lens, but I'm wondering if using the old MC 135 lens may be a source of problems.  I'll work with the issues as I really like the camera and the set of lenses I have for it.
    My plan was to develop one roll in the usual HC110b and the other using semi-stand development.  When I saw the results of the first roll, however, I decided to forego the stand dev as the complications left no room for meaningful comparison.  I still feel I'm making some progress at sorting out variables in the results of my photo efforts, but it is slow going.
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Update:
I shot a test roll with the camera to systematically compare results from the three lenses I have for the Minolta X-700.  The camera works fine in all three shooting modes with the normal and wide-angle lenses.  The shots from the 135mm lens degraded in quality as I moved through the roll.  On closer examination I see that the aperture stop-down mechanism is sluggish, probably due to dirt on the aperture blades and other moving parts.  I'm not sure I have the energy available to tackle the dismantling of the lens a second time.  I have gotten some satisfaction from figuring out the problem and verifying that the camera and two of the lenses are working properly.

X-700

I took the Minolta X-700 and two lenses to the Biopark to shoot the African Forest Lily which blooms in the conservatory in January and February.

The first shot is with the 135mm and a +2 closeup accessory lens.  Shooting slow film in 35mm is something of a challenge in a greenhouse.  I would likely have had better results either with a tripod or using medium format with 400-speed film.

Outdoors, the use of the normal and telephoto lenses presented no problems.  However, my negatives were a bit thin, so I'll try the next roll with a +1 exposure setting which worked well for me with the XG-1.

The Minolta Celtic 2.8/28mm lens I ordered on ebay showed up the next day on my porch.  It was gray, cold day, but I wanted to see what the lens would do. so I finished off the roll of TMAX with Roxie at the dog park.  Poor light, but the lens looks like it will be a sharp shooter.

I'm enjoying learning to use the Minolta X-700.  I borrowed one from a neighbor six or eight years ago, shot just one roll and decided I didn't like the camera.  Having shot a Spotmatic for forty years, I felt that the X-700 had too many buttons to deal with, and I was a little unhappy at the time with the plastic components.  Now, having spent some time with the manual and experiencing the excellence of the Minolta lenses I am pleased to have the opportunity to work with a full kit.