Vintage camera reviews, repairs and photography blog
The Minolta Dynax 7xi is a high grade, 35mm autofocus camera made by Minolta in the early 1990s. At the time it was the model below the top camera that Minolta made – only the 9xi was above it in the line up. Minolta Dynax 7xi Images My Minolta Dynax 7xi Camera I bought this camera as part of a job lot of 7 Minolta Dynax film cameras for a total of £25 including postage. For that price I consider the […]
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This is a short review of the Pentax Program A 35mm camera which mainly covers the differences between this camera and the Pentax Super Program which I reviewed a few weeks ago. Pentax Program A Images My Pentax Program A Camera I bought this camera mostly for the lens which came with it which is an SMC Pentax-M 28mm f/2.8. This is like a faster version of Takumar 28mm f/3.5 which I have, but with a Pentax K mount rather […]
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This is a review of one of the best specified models in the Pentax Z series of auto-focus 35mm film cameras – the Pentax Z-20. This is one of the not so well know models in the Pentax range, but one that I think is a bit of a star once you get to know it. Pentax Z-20 Images My Pentax Z-20 Camera This Pentax Z-20 was bought to compliment my other Pentax Z series cameras, a Z-1 and Z-1p […]
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This is a look at a popular camera from the 1980s, the Ricoh KR-10 35mm slr which, although it carries the Ricoh name, was actually made by Cosina. Ricoh KR-10 Images My Ricoh KR-10 Camera I bought this camera a couple of years ago and basically put it in a box in the garage just after I received it because I believed it to be broken. I’d tried the shutter a couple of times and found it didn’t work and […]
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A few weeks ago I wrote a post about which medium format camera to buy myself for a Christmas present. At the time I had narrowed my choice down to a few models and was deciding which I should settle on. Well, after a lot of deliberation, internet research, pouring over specs and countless online searches for second-hand cameras, I finally made a decision and a couple of days ago I bought a Bronica ETRsi 645 format camera. Bronica ETRsi Images […]
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I read an article a few days ago about setting up the Ricoh GXR A12 50mm as a Leica M Monochrom camera replacement and, because it was a dull, gloomy day today when I went for a walk I decided to try out the settings and shoot in black & white. In reality, setting the camera up to act like a Leica Monochrom was as simple as selecting high contrast black & white jpeg and switching to manual exposure mode but […]
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This Pentax SLR comes from the SF range of cameras which Pentax introduced before the Z and MZ range, and were the first set of autofocus SLR cameras the company made. This model, the Pentax SF10 was also known as the SF7 and is similar in styling to the SFXn camera which I own, but is a rather simpler and more basic model than that. It was manufactured in about 1988. Pentax SF10 Images My Pentax SF10 Camera I purchased […]
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The Pentax MZ-60 was the last 35mm camera Pentax produced in the MZ series, and in fact the penultimate 35mm film camera they ever produced – only the *ist followed it. It is similar to other cameras in the series, being light weight plastic construction and quite small and follows the route started with the MZ-50, 30 & 7 models by having several picture modes along with standard Aperture, Shutter, Program mode and manual operation. Pentax MZ-60 Images I bought […]
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I’m having a bit of a run on the Pentax MZ series at the moment and my recent purchase of the Pentax MZ-M helps in my aim to own every model produced. As is stands I have nearly all the entry/mid level examples except the MZ-10 but I still need to get some of the top end models, MZ-6, MZ-3 and MZ-S. I will probably be able to get the MZ-6 and the MZ-3 but the MZ-S is still selling […]
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The MZ series of autofocus SLR were the last series of 35mm film cameras which Pentax produced and the Pentax MZ-30 was one of the last cameras in that series with manufacturing starting in about 2000. It’s a quite basic but still well featured camera, which has many of the attributes of that line – light weight, small, easy to use and with great metering and autofocus performance for the day. Pentax MZ-30 Images I have several of this series […]
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This Chinon CE-4 camera is one I found in a charity shop on a recent trip to visit family in Loughborough. It was in a large box of other photographic paraphernalia and was priced at £7 so, although the shutter was locked, I bought it because of two reasons. First the lens is probably worth £7 and secondly when I turned the rewind knob I could feel tension so there was obviously still a film in it! I have had […]
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This post describes another Pentax addition to my Vintage Camera Collection – the Pentax MG. Pentax MG Images The MG was an entry level 35mm slr introduced in 1981 and available to purchase until about 1984. It was made in the time period after the introduction of the Olympus OM series and was part of the line up which Pentax introduced in answer to that series of Olympus cameras which made the trend in small slr’s so popular. I also […]
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It’s a bit odd thinking of this camera as an addition to my Vintage Camera Collection, because in many ways this feels like writing a post about a modern DSLR. The Pentax MZ-50 has all the features of a modern slr – auto focus, multiple exposure modes, scene modes, camera body control for aperture and shutter speed etc but instead of recording to a digital sensor it records to film. The subject of this post is the Pentax MZ-50 – […]
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I picked up this Pentax ME Super for a very reasonable £15 from ebay uk because the seller thought it may be broken. He sold it as ‘spares or repair’ because the ‘plate behind the film has lines on’. I took this to mean the shutter and I took a gamble that it was probably ok because I know my Pentax P30 has similar ‘lines’ on – the shutter is not a cloth which rolls up, but a metal shutter […]
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This is a review of the Minolta Dynax 5, one of the last 35mm film, autofocus single lens reflex cameras made by Minolta before they moved to digital cameras. Minolta Dynax 5 Images As I implied above, it doesn’t seem correct to call the Dynax 5 a vintage camera because it is in the ‘last film camera’ class before Minolta moved to digital camera production. Of course Minolta, as a camera manufacturer has gone now, having been sold to Konica […]
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