Minolta Dynax 500si Super - A fully featured 35mm auto focus SLR for peanuts.

 I recently wrote an article for an American website called Casual Photophile giving a few suggestions for which camera a newcomer to photography should consider buying that cost no more than $100. For us Brits that's £75 at the time I wrote this blog. You can read the article by visiting Casual Photophile.com The gist of it is I chose three brands of 35mm compact point and shoot cameras and three brands of cheap 35mm auto focus SLR's you can buy for less than $100, fit a battery and load a roll of film into and go and shoot some film.

The reaction I got from the readers of the article was generally positive, but some do have their own ideas about what cameras a newcomer should buy, a few of which are stupidly expensive. The folk I was aiming the article at are people born this century who maybe never even saw a roll of film never mind shoot one. We are talking school kids, college students and folks in low paid, minimum wage jobs who want to give film a try, but haven't much disposable income. The kind of folk who are unable to fork out $200-300 on a camera.

To be honest this also includes me as I'm always strapped for cash, so I decided to take my own advice and see what camera I could find for less than $100/£75 that I have never used before. After having a think I decided to hunt down a Minolta 35mm auto focus SLR. I have never used a Minolta camera before, so this would be an excellent learning exercise for me. With a flurry of moths flying out of my wallet I headed to ebay.

I have a list of vendors on ebay that I have bought and had great service from over the last few years and it was at one of those vendors that I found what I was looking for, A Minolta Dynax 500si Super for less than $50. It looked to be in great condition on the photo's and came with a 35-70mm auto focus zoom lens and hood, a manual and a remote shutter release. I trust the guy who was selling it as I have bought a few items from him that were, and still are in great condition. I hit the buy it now and a few days later the postman to delivered it to my door.

On first inspection the camera was in better condition than the photos had me believe and I took the time to R.T.F.M. for a change. Anyone who has shot a modern DSLR will be able to pick up the Minolta Dynax 500si Super and be comfortable with it in a few short minutes. The manual is concise and clear and I was soon able to set the camera to manual to give me control over shutter speed and aperture. I loaded a roll of Kentmere 100 and set off for a wander around the neighbourhood.

It was sunny when I set off, but soon became overcast and a 100 speed film was the wrong choice, but it didn't matter. I wanted to see how the camera performed in the hands of a novice and picking the wrong film is a rookie mistake we all make. I needn't have worried as the Minolta handled my hamfistedness flawlessly. From the main road to the local woodland and down past the local farms, my new Minolta handled the overcast conditions with ease.

I was soon back home and developed my roll of Kentmere 100 in Kodak HC-110 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and hung it to dry in my bathroom. The negs looked decent and when I scanned them with my Ion Slides2PC scanner later that evening I was pleasantly surprised by what I managed to achieve with a camera I had never used before. I tidied the photos up with Affinity Photo to remove dust spots and scratches.

I revisited a lot of the shots a few days later when a beautiful sunny spring afternoon was just too good to ignore, again shooting a roll of Kentmere 100 at box speed. This time I began using the auto features, the camera chooses the best shutter and aperture based on what mode is chosen. I used the landscape and close up program modes and the camera nailed the exposure every time. Again I developed the roll in Kodak HC-110 dilution b, scanned it with my Ion Slides2PC scanner and tidied the photos up with Affinity Photo.

Here's a few shots from my Minolta Dynax 500si Super, I am quite pleased with how easy the camera is to get along with and this is the start of a long and hopefully happy relationship with it. As always I have placed the photo's in albums on my Flickr account you can visit using the links below. I hope you enjoy them.

I have opened a Ko-Fi account, I wont lie, the rising cost of living is affecting everyone, including me. If you enjoy my blog and my photos, please consider donating £3 to help me buy film using the Ko-Fi link below. Your support is very much appreciated.

Kentmere 100 - Minolta Dynax 500si album 1

Kentmere 100 - Minolta Dynax 500si album 2

Ko-Fi.com / Jim Graves

 

The Tools

My Old Friend Ilford XP2 and a Challenge

 There's a chap on Twitter whom I follow named Jason Avery. Jason hosts regular challenges for anyone who wants to have a little fun with their camera. From the 7th - 13th of March he challenged us to shoot Ilford XP2 and find symmetry whilst out and about. The following week, 14th - 20th of March is for developing your film and week three, 21st - 27th of March is for show and tell. I enjoy a good photo challenge and long time readers will know I began my B&W film odyssey with XP2. It's a great film for anyone to start shooting B&W with. It has a lot of exposure latitude to forgive our mistakes and can be developed at your high street Photo Store in their colour developing machines.

This time was to be different as I had never developed XP2 at home until now. That wasn't the only change from my previous experience of XP2. I bought a few rolls of it in 120 medium format, which I had not used before now from my favourtie film retailer, Analogue Wonderland. I loaded a roll into my Agfa Isolette 1 and headed into Wigan to hunt down some symmetry around the Market and Galleries.

I enjoy using my Agfa Isolette 1, it's a basic camera that gets me thinking about the shutter triangle. The film gave me the iso, my light meter app on my phone gave me a shutter speed of around 1/200th at f/11 so I set my camera to 1/250th at f/8 and basically left it as a point and shoot. For long shots I set the lens to be focused at 30 feet and closer compositions were shot with the lens set at 10 feet. I'm getting used to this zone focus malarkey.

I have mentioned several times on my blog that The Galleries and Wigan Market are living on borrowed time and lately it has began to really sink in that it's going to be demolished. Shops that were once busy are dark and empty. It's sad to see the decline that has happened to a shopping area that our council said would last a century.

I chose my shots around the Galleries to pick out details or elements of the design of the buildings that show symmetry and also to document the things I like about The Galleries before it only exists in my photos. I also shot a couple of frames in Makinson Arcade, which thankfully is staying put, and the Market Gate entrance which is also staying and re-opening as the new location for Wigan Market in the not too distant future.

I developed the film later that evening with my Cinestill CS41 kit, I have developed colour film at home, but never XP2 until that day. I was quite pleased with how it turned out as it hung to dry in my bathroom. Sadly I have discovered my Agfa Isolette 1 needs some work doing to it, either the bellows maybe a replacement set fitted or the shutter needs a service. Probably both, it is a seventy year old camera so it doesn't really surprise me.

I scanned my film the next day using a quick method with my phone camera and the film held flat with my Pixl-Later. Never underestimate the power of the humble smart phone camera. I have a Nokia 5.3 and the camera is a decent one. The images were processed with Affinity Photo. Here's a few of my images from a pretty successful afternoon in Wigan. I have also placed them and the remaining photos in an album on Flickr you can access using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Ilford XP2 - Agfa Isolette 1

Documenting History - The Galleries and Wigan Outdoor Market Closing Down

 This has been a busy week for me. The last few shops in The Galleries and around Wigan Outdoor Market have all been closing down to make way for the demolition and redevelopment of the Market Quarter of Wigan town centre. I have written about the pending redevelopment a few times over the last few months, but this week has seen it all start happening for real. It doesn't make me feel good at all, but I knew I had to go and get some photo's of the place before access gets blocked and the demolition crew goes in. I loaded a roll of Kentmere 100 into my Olympus 35RC and headed into town.

I have seen The Galleries and Wigan Outdoor Market change from a bustling, thriving shopping destination to a ghost town over the last 15 years. Before the Financial Crisis in 2008 the place was packed, all the shops were occupied and there was plenty of footfall as folk travelled to Wigan to do their shopping.

A succession of changes of ownership began the slow decline of The Galleries which had won an award for best shopping mall in Britain in the 1990's. Rising rents and business rates ensured the shops slowly started to close and it wasn't long before Market Gate became empty and was boarded up. Ironically this is the only area of The Galleries that will survive demolition as it is where the Market Hall will relocate to before that too is demolished.

"Managed Decline" is the best explanation for what has happened to this once thriving hub of commerce. A new owner would put forth plans to redevelop the area and promise to rejuvenate it only for those plans to fall by the wayside and more new owners came along doing exactly the same thing.

Now it's finally being rejuvenated, it is not as a shopping mall. Apartments and housing are being built on the site along with a Bowling Alley and Cinema. This wouldn't be so bad but we already have a bowling alley and cinema on a retail park just outside the town centre. This is not making me feel confident the full plans will come to fruition.

It didn't take me long to shoot a roll of Kentmere 100 in my Olympus 35RC. I felt I had to work quickly in case someone shouted "everyone out!" and locked the gates without so much as a "by your leave..." I was also using my 35RC in full manual mode and not bothering with the automatic aperture priority that has served me so well in the past. The Olympus 35RC uses a battery to run the auto feature and light meter, but can be used manually should the battery die. It's a very handy thing to know with this little pocket powerhouse should you need it.

Kentmere 100 is the "Film of the Month" for March chosen by the good folks at the Embrace The Grain Podcast, check it out using the link below. It's a great choice too as Spring has been making its presence felt here in Wigan with a few sunny days appearing and providing great conditions for me to start to use my stash of Kentmere 100 and Ilford FP4 I bought from Analogue Wonderland. There's a link for this fine retailer of all things Film related below.

Kentmere 100 is a great medium speed B&W film aimed at those of us who aren't blessed with a lot of disposable income. Whilst it isn't as high a quality as FP4, it gets the job done and has enough exposure latitude to forgive the odd stop or two over or under exposed. I develped my roll in Kodak HC-110 dilution B for 6 minutes, dunked it in Ilfostop for one minute, Ilford Rapid Fixer for 5 minutes and let it sit in photoflo whilst I tidied up before I hung it to dry. Seeing freshly developed film never gets old.

Here's a few of my photo's of The Galleries and Outdoor Market. It has endured a slow and agonising death over the years and I hope my photo's have given you a glimpse of the life of this part of Wigan. I have put them and more in an album on my Flickr account you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Embrace The Grain
Kentmere 100 - Olympus 35RC
Analogue Wonderland

Cinestill 800T

 I was given a few rolls of film for Christmas by my most excellent friend Keith Sharples and amongst them was a roll of Cinestill 800T, a film I have not used before. This film has long been the favourite of Gas Station and Neon Sign photographers the world over and was designed to survive the harsh environment of Cine Cameras. I'm told this film is derived from Kodak Vision 3 500T and has the remjet layer removed.

Vision 3 is a great range of cinema film used, for example, by Disney to film the Star Wars franchise. Quentin Tarrantino is a big fan of it and was a proponent of the deal for Kodak to supply all the major film studios with film for the foreseeable future that arguably saved Kodak.

My camera of choice for this film was my Nikon F801s, a vertiable brick outhouse in terms of it's construction and very reliable. I also used my favourite walk about lens, AF Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 D. I was tempted to do night time photography, but I wanted to do something different than gas stations and neons. All I needed was a bright day....

Ye gods it was ages before I got my bright day which happened the day I was returning home from a visit to my daughter in that yorkshire. The short walk from her home to the train station passes through the local cemetery where there is a rather magnificent War Memorial for all the men from the town who went to war and never returned home. There's also a few War Graves there for men who managed to make it back but died of their injuries. I concentrated on the memorial as it has a bust on the top of a Soldier, it is a fitting display of respect and remembrance.

Once I caught my train home I didn't get to take any more photos for another three weeks because of the storms that swept the UK. February seemed to be one long shower of rain that is hard to describe without swearing. It persisted down! It wasn't until the final weekend that I was able to get out and I finished my roll of Cinestill at Wigan Pier whilst also shooting my HP5 for the Frugal Film Project. Apologies for any duplicates that may appear, but I did have a good afternoon.

As I mentioned last week, the Pier Quarter has undergone a refurbishment and it's looking very clean with the new paint and the repairs that desperately needed doing. For a century or more Wigan Pier was a thriving hub of local commerce with raw materials coming by barge from Liverpool and returning to Liverpool with all manner of finished cotton goods for export around the world.

To see it being neglected when it was in decline gave the impetus for the first refurbishment in the early 1980's when "The Way We Were - Museum of Wigan Life" and The Orwell pub was opened to much fanfare. Declining numbers in the early 2000's saw both closed and the future looked bleak until local Arts hub The Old Courts brought a consortium of financiers and developers together to give Wigan Pier another refurbishment.

This is now almost complete and it wont be long before the pub opens again with facilities for conferences, weddings and concerts. I really want to see how the inside looks and will report back here when I get that opportunity. The Museum is being transformed into a hub for local Artisans and Small Businesses to sell their goods from premises with affordable rent and where folks can go and browse and shop. There's also plans for a Gin Distillery too.

It's an exciting time down at Wigan Pier as the refurbishment nears completion. It would have been completed a year or more ago but our microscopic nemesis had other ideas. Wiganers are patient folk. We know it's going to be good and a nice pub lunch whilst watching the narrowboats go by on a sunny afternoon is well worth waiting for. 

On my way back home I popped into Wigan North Western Railway Station as there are some wonderful murals painted in the underpass depicting words and phrases in the local language, Wiganese. They give visitors to the town a helping hand when they strike up a conversation with Wigan folk. It's very welcoming too and much better than the plain walls we have been used to for the last few decades.

I developed my roll of Cinestill 800T in a Cinestill CS41 home developing kit. It would look it's best developed using ECN-2 chemistry, but as the remjet layer has been removed by Cinestill cross processing is easy and encouraged. I digitised it using my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and I think it looks rather nice. Here's a few from my afternoon at Wigan Pier, the murals in the train station and a couple of the War Memorial in Bolton Upon Dearne. I have also put them and a few more in an album on Flickr that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them

Cinestill 800T Nikon F801s 

Frugal Film Project 2022 - February

 February has been awful here in darkest Wigan. Three major storms in the space of three weeks with more wind and rain in between kept me indoors for just about all of the month. I was beginning to worry if I would get the chance to shoot my February roll of Ilford HP5 for the project. Thankfully the Photography Gods smiled upon me and gave me some nice weather on the last weekend of February. I loaded my Pentax SP500 with a roll of HP5 and headed down the road to Wigan Pier.

My aim this year is to get to know HP5 better as I have spent the last few years shooting it at box speed. There's nothing wrong with that of course, HP5 is a great film that gives me decent images at box speed and it responds well to filters. This month I decided to push it one stop to 800 iso and leave the fillters alone.

The day was bright with lots of clouds dotted about so I had to wait for the right moments to shoot my compositions around the Pier Quarter. I didn't always do this as I am an impatient so and so sometimes and took a few when the sun was happily hiding behind a cloud. However, as I had decided to shoot my film at 800 iso I got some decent shots despite the light being very changeable.

Shooting a stop over also gave me lots of contrast that took little processing with Affinity Photo to get the balance right. The blacks are deep and I reckon a few of these photos would look decent printed either on my home printer or a wet print in a darkroom. That's a whole new rabbit hole to go down and it wont be cheap....

There was a Narrowboat moored at the Pier and of course I included it in some of my compositions. The Leeds Liverpool Canal hasn't been a "working" canal since the coal barge Ambush delivered the last load of coal to the local power station in 1972. Since then the canal has been exclusively used for leisure and narrowboats like the one at the Pier on this day are either someone's home or used as holiday boats.

With the end of the restrictions imposed courtesy of our microscopic nemesis, I hope to see more narrowboats on the canal as life gets back to some semblance of normality. I also hope to see the refurbishment work completed at Wigan Pier with the pub opening again to serve walkers and boaters on sunny afternoons through the summer months. The Pier Quarter is looking good and the exterior work is just about done.

I had a really enjoyable afternoon taking photos at the Pier and had a nice chat with another photographer who was also taking some photos of the Pier Quarter. He went all in on digital as he is a professional press photographer and he was happy to see someone still shooting film with an old Pentax. It reminded him of his early days covering sports for the local paper and the importance of choosing your shots to tell the story of the football match. He gave me one or two more handy tips too. 

With time getting on I headed across the road to Trencherfield Mill to grab a couple of shots of the three heads on the exterior wall of the Mill and some of the machinery that is dotted about to remind folk of Wigan's industrial heritage. I also finished a roll of Cinestill 800 I had in my Nikon F801 whilst I was out and will hopefully feature that in a future blog once I have developed it. All I need to do now is decide where to shoot my next roll for the Frugal Film Project. I think a walk around Haigh Hall may be in order as I haven't been there for a long time.

Here's a few photos I took of the Pier Quarter and I have put them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2022 album on Flickr, you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2022