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.

Snapshots

 I decided to shoot the last roll of expired Kodak Gold 200 in my Minolta X-700.  The first frames of the roll were exposed on a walk in the Sandia foothills to see the peak blooming of local wildflowers.  We found a lot of Apache Plume, some red and purple cactus blossoms, thistles, and several stands of Indian Paintbrush, along with a lot of little yellow flowers whose names always escape me.

The best wildflower show, though, was right beside the sidewalk on the south side of our house where I planted some Desert Four O'Clock a couple years ago.  The plant produces a big mound of greenery and purple flowers which bloom each afternoon all summer.  I have not found the Four O'Clock in the wild near Albuquerque, but it is common in desert arroyos in southern New Mexico.

The Spring sun has also produced a spectacular crop of artichokes for Margaret; the two big plants look like they will give us about a dozen artichokes each.

Most of our walks in the neighborhood and beyond include the dog, Roxie.  She talks us into trips to the river a couple times a week where she likes to splash in the shallows.

The box the film came in says "Bright Sun & Flash" and "Made in China for Eastman Kodak Company", along with the admonition to "Develop Before 05/2006".  Not being able to meet that requirement, I shot the roll at one stop slower than the 200 ISO rating.  I developed normally in Cinestill C-41 and scanned with my Epson flatbed using a  Silverfast Portra setting to compensate for a bit of color shifting.

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.