First Pass on the X-700

 
Minolta X-700, MD 45/2, HP5+


I've now got 5 rolls through the X-700 (out of 9 rolls of film shot so far this year) and have enough time on it to have a decent first impression.

Overall, that impression is very good. I thoroughly understand why the X-700 is beloved by so many Minolta shooters. Simply put, it's the best mid-range consumer manual focus SLR I've shot. It's not perfect, but for an AE manual focus 35mm SLR it's a very good experience.

For starters the handling is excellent. Good finder, good metering readout in P & A modes (it needs selected shutter speed indication in M mode to be ideal there, but if you need that the X-500/X-570 has it). Solid tattletales for Exposure Comp & Manual modes and it's match-LED metering which I greatly prefer to the more common match-needle. The AE-Lock is very well located, falls right under the forefinger on a control shared with the self-timer (pull up for self-timer, press down for AE Lock). Shutter dial locks for P & A modes, and has the on/off switch under it. Exposure compensation is the usual dial under the rewind knob, but one of the better implementations (press button & turn). The finder is bright and easy to focus. Not the largest, but more than acceptable size. Build quality is rather good for a plastic-shell camera. Feels very solid aside from a flexible back (pretty common issue with any plastic-shell camera I've owned)

The downsides come down to the shutter, it's 1/1000 max and 1/60 sync were on the low side even when the X-700 came out, the lack of selected shutter speed readout in the viewfinder and the slightly wonky on/off selection (centre is off, one way is on, the other on with warning beeps. Makes turning the camera on easy, but off fiddly).

Overall I'm very much enjoying the X-700 and it's slipped into the primary film body role for now.

A Break and a Return

Mamiya 645 Super, 150/3.5 C, Portra 160VC,

That's the second last colour image in my 645 processing queue (not counting unprocessed E-6 that I still need to find a processor for). Yes, over 3 years after selling my 645 Super, I still have some new work from it to post. Really need to sort that out. I will say that selling my 645 Super kit was one of the most foolish decisions I ever made. I ended up with a Nikon setup that I disliked and quickly dumped (the D600 debacle) at the cost of two of my favourite film setups (the 645 Super and my Minolta Maxxum 7's) It made sense at the time, but in hindsight selling both kits was a terrible idea. I hadn't shot much with either kit in a while, but that was more an issue with my ongoing motivation struggles than the kit itself. I shot more with the 645 Super than anything else I've ever owned (and the Maxxum 7's were #2 for 35mm kit for me) and quite frankly my best work was produced with the 645 Super.

As to actually shooting, the challenges did not work out so far. I just barely made the March Challenge, but then didn't touch a camera until late June. I've been shooting a bit lately, mostly film though (I've shot 4 rolls in the last week and a half) after spending a rather small sum on a couple film bodies (Minolta X-700, Nikon N6000) and a couple lenses (Minolta 28/2.8, 45/2, Nikon 50/1.8 E). I'm enjoying film again, although I still haven't sorted the whole scanning issue.

On the gear side, aside from the film kit I dumped my E-M1 and the 17/1.8 for a GX7 and the Oly 25/1.8. The E-M1 remains a great camera, but it really was a little too much for my actual needs right now and it kept getting in my way (too many buttons), the GX7 has all the features I actually used on the E-M1 and all I give up is the viewfinder (and the GX7's finder is entirely acceptable). The 17 never quite impressed, while the 25 certainly does impress. I like it rather a lot. Still could see dumping the high-end body and just keeping the G3 though, but I'd keep the lenses. I'm thinking for medium term I'll just find a 14/2.5 and shoot with the resulting 3-lens kit (14, 25, 60). I don't really need anything more, although an ultra-wide would be nice. Plan is for a similar kit in film, I'm on the lookout for a Minolta 105 or 135 for the X-700, and will be rebuilding my old Nikkor kit (much slower since it will require actual investment). The X-700 will be my beater camera for now, while the Nikon kit is tentatively my long-term standard. I like the X-700, but am unsure about it as a long-term system while the Nikon stuff always satisfies.

In the meantime, the real challenge is to get out and shoot. Gear is nice, but the image is what photography is about.

Oh, and I'm seriously thinking about dabbling in wet printing again. May take a course on it.

Challenges - update

E-M1, Sigma DN 60mm f2.8

So my February challenge, which was to get comfortable enough with CaptureOne to use it as my primary image-processing application, was successful. I've been processing all my recent work in C1 (including the above image) and am at the point now where I'm comfortable enough to skip Lightroom for the forseeable future.

For March, I decided to go easy on myself again. The March challenge is to do one photowalk a week minimum, taking at least 75 images over at least 2 hours. It's been successful so far, but I've got 3 walks to go.

One thing that continues to be a challenge is the fact I still really do want to shoot film. There's a draw to manual, mechanical cameras I just can't get rid of. I just like shooting them. I don't have much interest in AF stuff though.

Frankly I'm sometimes really tempted to sell off my higher-end m43 kit and just go back to basics. I could put together a fairly nice setup for what I've got in my E-M1, 17 and 60. Keep the G3 for futzing about (or just use the fairly nice camera in my Lumia 830, yes, horror of horrors, I actually started using my phone camera a fair bit, it's convenient and surprisingly non-horrible). The flip side is I still don't have a good solution to the scanner question. Without that solved, film is just off the table for now.

Do I enjoy my current digital kit? Sure. In fact it does handle all my actual needs and aside from the usual 'I really dig Fuji lenses' temptation from the Fuji side (a switch I know would result in an 'I really dig m43 kit' temptation). The reality is I still prefer film for B&W, and could live with shooting Ektar for my colour work. And I could put together a really nice setup for not all that much money in a couple of different mounts. Gah, I wanted to stick with a system for a while. I know that the moment I switch back to film, I'll start jonesing for a FF solution to match the film kit.

A Challenge, or More

Olympus E-M1, Sigma DN 60mm f2.8

Having pondered things a bit more, what I need more than anything else is a challenge. Or more than one.

So I'm going to challenge myself. Monthly I think, a challenge every month for the month, with the best of the month posted at the end. Some sort of theme or restriction (one lens, one aperture, one genre, manual focus only, zone focus only, no metering, etc)

For the rest of February, the challenge will be getting to know CaptureOne Pro. I've long preferred the output of CaptureOne to Lightroom, my long-time choice for processing. But I've never been comfortable with the interface, especially the organizational tools. Now that CaptureOne has solved my biggest issue with the sorting tools (the brain-dead filtering in earlier versions) I think I can move over to it full-time. I just need to dive in and figure it out.

I'll start a new challenge on March 1st, I'm thinking a 1-lens challenge, probably the Oly 17/1.8.

I've Lost My Mojo

 Olympus E-M1, m.Zuiko 17/1.8

As the anyone who has been reading is aware, I've been fighting a reduction in my will to get out and shoot for a few years. What was once a near-daily activity now sees entire months where I don't pick up a camera. The last few months in particular have been terrible, I don't think I took a single shot in January, and November was in the single-digits. The terrible winter (no snow, grey and mucky) has definitely been a contributing factor.

I'm not going to quit shooting, although I have been tempted. I've managed to pair down my kit to just the E-M1, G3 and 3 lenses (14-42, 17, 60) with a 40-150 on loan. I'm simply going to keep the kit as it is for now and see if my shooting mojo improves in the coming year.

Green Bee/Yellow Flower

E-M1, Nikkor 50mm f2 K non-AI

Sunflowers and Bees are neverending fun to shoot. But they need a solid close focusing lens to do so. For now I've been using an old Nikkor 50/2 from the mid-70's as one of my close-up options and the G3's kit 14-42 OIS as my other one. The 50's a nice little lens and I do enjoy shooting with it, while the 14-42 is boringly competent. Neither come close to ideal for this sort of work for me.

So I've gone and picked up one of the minor gems of the m43 system, Sigma's cheap and cheerful 60mm f2.8. This is a small lens, smaller than the 50/2 even before the adapter's mounted, dirt cheap and stunningly sharp. If you can live with its limitations, primarily limited close focus (0.5m, 1:7 magnification) and f2.8 max aperture, it's a real gem. This also gives me a rather competent 2 lens kit, with the 17/1.8 and this 60. All I really need would be a 10-12mm at the wide end. If only Sigma or Samyang made a compact 10/2.8 for mirrorless. Sadly Sigma doesn't make anything along those lines and Samyang's 10/2.8 is an SLR lens and rather huge. The best answer right now seems to be the Oly 9-18 zoom. Only time will tell if anything interesting will come along in this space, and if nothing does I can always get one of the two 12/2's available.

And What About Film?

Nikon FM, 50mm f2 K, Ilford HP5+

Now that I've hopefully settled on a Digital system it's time to consider what I'm going to do about my film shooting. Which brings the following resolutions & considerations.

1. I'm not giving up film. I enjoy shooting it too much
2. I'm sticking with 35mm for now. As much as I enjoy Medium Format, I'm not willing to haul the gear right now.
3. I'm not going to flail around systems. I'll stick to my comfortable choices, IE Contax and/or Nikon
4. I really do need a solid scanning solution.

The first is a simple acceptance of my choices, I've always ended up grabbing a cheap film camera and enjoying it. Not going to give that up anytime soon. Frankly I still prefer shooting with a 35mm manual, mechanical camera over everything else.

The second is simple reality. I like MF. Actually I love MF. But I'm not willing to invest in it today. Maybe if I ever get back to shooting 100+ rolls a year I'll take another look, but not for now.

The third is more of a hope. I've owned pretty much every common system except Leica R, Minolta SR and Canon FD. I keep coming back to Contax and Nikon. Frankly I've got a mild preference for Contax, but have found Nikon more reliable and economic. I'm shooting Nikon now, but if I'm only going to have a handful of film kit I will probably switch to Contax at some point.

The fourth is the real holdup to shooting more film. Flatbeds don't deliver enough quality and simply replacing my Minolta SDIV will just result in more issues. I'll either need to buy a new scanner or save up and acquire a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED, the latter being the dream. But I'm not looking at either option until I break 52 rolls in a year. No point in spending money for something I'm not committed to.