My Minolta XD5, about a half-year in

Puzzled person. Cathedral Park, 4 May 2022. Minolta XD5/Minolta MD 50mm f/1.7/Kodak Ultramax 400 Back at the end of April I decided to get my second single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. I loved (and still love) my Minolta SR-T 101, but I wanted something different: something smaller, something that had some automatic exposure settings. Since I...

Minolta XD5: My second film SLR

It's been almost two and a half years since I got back into film photography. I've tried a bunch of different 35mm cameras during that time, including rangefinders, zone-focus viewfinders, superzooms, and half-frame. But I've only used one SLR (single-lens reflex), the Minolta SR-T 101 I got in October of 2020. I really like this...

The Return of the Minolta SRT-101

It took nearly two months, but I finally got my Minolta SRT-101 out of the camera shop. I had purchased my first SLR camera in October, shot some rolls with it, fell in love with it, but the mirror was not returning correctly. The culprit was a broken gear. Advance Camera replaced the gear and...

The ends of eras

My Surly Long Haul Trucker in 2013, the last year I had it. The past week I got word that two different things were being discontinued by their respective companies. While these items are from different worlds: one a camera, one a bike, they were ironically both introduced in the same year. And the cessation...

Minolta SRT-101: My first SLR film camera

It was inevitable. I knew that my whole journey into film photography was working towards the eventuality of acquiring a Single-Lens Reflex (SLR) Camera. Why is that? I've got good results from my other cameras, and have had copious amounts of fun to boot. But I guess I want to become a "real" photographer, for...