Vintage camera reviews, repairs and photography blog
This post is about the Minolta Dynax 60 autofocus 35mm SLR which was the last 35mm film camera which Minolta produced, and a pretty capable performer is was too. Minolta Dynax 60 Images My Minolta Dynax 60 I paid a total of £2.99 for this camera, which was sold on ebay as faulty. The fault described was, ‘Camera faulty – back door stuck and won’t open’. I could see from the pictures the seller had posted that there was still […]
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Today, my son James took our 10 month old puppy Freddy for a walk over the fields and took a picture of him on his phone which he showed my when he returned. I was so impressed that I though I would post it on this site. Every time I try to take a picture of Freddy, I can never get him to sit still, so I think James did remarkably well here.
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The Waltax Junior is a 120 format, folding camera which was produced by Waltax in the early 1950s. It is a simple, cheap camera which was sold mostly as an entry level, holiday snap shot camera and that is reflected in the construction which is somewhat flimsy. Waltax Junior Images My Waltax Junior Camera I bought my copy of the Waltax Junior on eBay for a few pounds in an unknown condition. It’s certainly true to say that my camera […]
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The Ricoh Singlex II manual focus SLR camera was introduced by Ricoh in the mid 1970s as an improved version of their original Singlex TLS camera. Many of the changes introduced are cosmetic rather than revolutionary, but the Singlex II retains the solid, dependable attributes of the original camera. Ricoh Singlex II Images My Ricoh Singlex II camera This camera cost me £12 from ebay as a Buy it now, postage included sale. It was supplied as only a body, […]
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This is a look at the Braun Paxette interchangeable lens, viewfinder camera which was made by Braun of Nuremberg in the early 1950s. Braun Paxette Viewfinder camera images My Braun Paxette camera I found this camera as an untested auction sale on eBay with a starting price of £0.99 and eventually bought it for about £12 including the postage. When it arrived a few days after the sale ended, I discovered a clean unit in pretty good condition cosmetically, with […]
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The Pentax Spotmatic SP-500 is one of the cut-down versions of the Spotmatic series which Pentax launched after the original Spotmatic. The SP-500 lost the self timer from the spotmatic and also the top 1/1000 shutter speed (although it actually only lost the dial setting – the shutter still works at 1/1000). Pentax Spotmatic SP-500 Images My Pentax Spotmatic SP-500 I picked this camera up as part of a bundle of ‘untested’ cameras I bought from eBay. It was actually […]
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The Yashica J-3 is a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera which was made in the early 1960s and features a useful range of shutter speeds, a built in light meter, a self timer and a universal M42 lens mount. Yashica J-3 Images My Yashica J-3 camera I bought my copy of the Yashica J-3 for £10 from ebay. It came with a Soligor 180mm telephoto lens and a 2X converter fitted, but for the purposes of the pictures above, I’ve […]
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This is a picture of the River Avon in the town of Stratford-on-Avon, which I took quite a while ago when we were on holiday in Warwickshire. It is one of the pictures which I’ve not published before as an individual picture, but when I looked at it again today I decided I liked it enough to give it it’s own post. I remember I took it with a Minolta 505 Si Super 35mm autofocus camera and I think the […]
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In this post I’m going to show some pictures I took on my Fuji X-T1 mirrorless camera using a vintage Kodak Retina Ysarex f/2.8 50mm lens, made by Rodenstock, which was supplied as a standard lens on the Retina Reflex series of cameras. Of course, the Kodak Retina Ysarex won’t fit onto a Fuji X-T1 without an adapter, so to shoot these pictures I bought a cheap adapter from eBay to fit the lens on the camera. In fact, the […]
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Last week I picked up an Argus A2F viewfinder camera which I did a short review of here. I mentioned in that review that the shutter needed a clean and service, and this post covers the process I carried out whilst servicing the Argus A2F. Servicing the Argus A2F Images Servicing the Argus A2F Notes The actual procedure I used while servicing the Argus A2F is shown in the picture sequence above, but I’ll note down here anything which I […]
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The Argus A2F camera was one of the last of a series of viewfinder cameras made in the USA in the years just before and just after the second world war. At the time the series was made, they were a quite sophisticated camera for an American designed and made unit, although not in the same class as some of the German 35mm cameras of the time. My Argus A2F camera I found my Argus A2F camera on eBay in […]
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The Minolta Dynax 5000i SLR camera was produced by Minolta in Japan in the late 1980s as part of their second generation of auto focus, 35mm cameras. It was a mid range model in terms of feature set, although it was the entry level offering in their own camera range, sitting below the 7000i model. My Minolta Dynax 5000i Camera I actually bought my copy of the Minolta Dynax 5000i quite a while ago as part of a collection of […]
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The picture below is another of my favourite pictures which I’ve not published on this site before. It’s a picture of my daughter which I took several years ago when she was only a little girl. I think the think which most strikes me about the picture, and which marks it out as one of my favourites, is the light in the picture. It was a very bright day, which led to a very high contrast picture and it particularly […]
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The Nikon Coolpix SQ was one of the last in the Coolpix series of cameras to feature the split body design where the lens unit can be rotated about an axis with the display unit. My copy was purchased as a rather battered, but still functional camera, and in this post I discuss it’s design and the main feature set. Nikon Coolpix SQ images My Nikon Coolpix SQ camera My Nikon Coolpix SQ was purchased from eBay for the sum […]
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I’m continuing my archiving of photos to recover disk space, and I came upon this picture of a lemonade bottle sitting on a table which had been caught in a shower. It was taken on Fuji Superia 400 film (which I believe is being discontinued this year) using a Minolta 505 Super si camera. This is actually another picture from the ones I took on a visit to Snowshill manor but although it was included in those pictures, it hasn’t […]
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