Taking a step back in time

[RustyMX5]

After years of enjoying the ability to take thousands of photos, deleting the ones I don't like and just occasionally, printing them, I decided to resurrect a couple of old cameras that I had knocking around in a drawer.



For those who don't know, those are Minox cameras.

After getting hold of some film my journey began. For starters, there seems to be only one place in Europe which still supports old Minox cameras and although they process film I'll have to deal with printing them out.

So far it's been an object lesson in patience. With only 36 exposures, I have to think about what I'm taking a photo of, frame it and attempt to get the lighting at vaguely the right sort of level. The first cassette of film is going away to be processed in the next few days and I'm eager to see what comes back.

Is anyone else here using Minox cameras or still using film?

[simon_harris]

I recall having a debate with someone a few years ago over the merits of digital vs film and used a similar argument with him. Having to actually stop and think about what to use your limited film for rather than just clicking a thousand times was more likely to lead to better picture taking and a more immersive experience.

He was having none of it.

[Derek Smith]

RustyMX5 said:

After years of enjoying the ability to take thousands of photos, deleting the ones I don't like and just occasionally, printing them, I decided to resurrect a couple of old cameras that I had knocking around in a drawer.



For those who don't know, those are Minox cameras.

After getting hold of some film my journey began. For starters, there seems to be only one place in Europe which still supports old Minox cameras and although they process film I'll have to deal with printing them out.

So far it's been an object lesson in patience. With only 36 exposures, I have to think about what I'm taking a photo of, frame it and attempt to get the lighting at vaguely the right sort of level. The first cassette of film is going away to be processed in the next few days and I'm eager to see what comes back.

Is anyone else here using Minox cameras or still using film?

I had a Yashica TLR, bought when my first was born. I would take ages with every shot; there were only 12 to a roll of 120, and 20 to 220, when I could get it. I have a remarkable number of photos of my kids given the restriction, and it's enjoyable going back through them, now digitised professionally. My eldest is into old cameras and film, repairing and building his own cameras, but not lenses, which he cannabilises from lenses others throw away. He has made a couple of pinhole cameras in wood - cool. But he has been collecting old 35mm but he came to us once with a Yashicamat 24G, the model I had.

I became all nostalgic; memories of 50 years ago. But at no time was there an urge to return to those days. It was heavy.

I accept that I've probably become a big slovenly. I still take a lot of time setting up a shot, the old lessons and skills being useful, but now I take a dozen shots of each, sometimes even bracketing at a third or half apertures if the lighting is a bit iffy or I'm trying something, so coming back with 30-odd images of one shot isn't unusual. I wouldn't go back to the days of the one. I used to be over the moon if I got three shots worth enlarging off a roll. Nowadays, I hardly ever have a failure (touch wood).

However, the familiar feel of mechanical 35mm bodies is great. I like the idea of using a Voightlander Vito again. Maybe if they put a sensor in the body I'd be interested. I don't often use auto anything much, apart from focus, certainly not over 50% of the time.

The remarkable quality of image I get now with a 25mp sensor so far outstrips film that I don't want to go back. Even if I did want the appearance of film, I've got a filter for that on my software.

The Minox I understand. It was much sought after when I was younger, but it feels like a different hobby than the one I've got now.

Best of luck with it. Could you post some images for us, please.

[craig1912]

I had a Minolta 16mm in the70’s and sold it a few years ago. With a negative so small it’s difficult to get decent photographs and it didn’t get used much compared to my Canon AE1

[bcr5784]

Derek Smith said:

I accept that I've probably become a big slovenly. I still take a lot of time setting up a shot, the old lessons and skills being useful, but now I take a dozen shots of each, sometimes even bracketing at a third or half apertures if the lighting is a bit iffy or I'm trying something, so coming back with 30-odd images of one shot isn't unusual. I wouldn't go back to the days of the one. I used to be over the moon if I got three shots worth enlarging off a roll. Nowadays, I hardly ever have a failure (touch wood).


The remarkable quality of image I get now with a 25mp sensor so far outstrips film that I don't want to go back. Even if I did want the appearance of film, I've got a filter for that on my software.

.

Feel much the same. That said, there is so much you can now do in post processing, particularly if you shoot in raw, that it doesn't make much sense to get too fixated on getting the last half stop of exposure correct. You almost invariably can make benefiicial local adjustments unless you are in a controlled environment where, such as in a photo studio, you have complete control of the lighting,

There's no doubt that the resolution of todays' cameras is in a different league to film cameras of the past - but I derive a lot of pleasure ( and spend a lot of time) in upscaling my old photos and adjusting exposure and much else. I'm am often delighted what AI assisted tinkering can achieve - often making an image kept in a dusty drawer worthy of seeing in the light of day.

[tog]

RustyMX5 said:

Is anyone else here using Minox cameras or still using film?

I have my mother's Minox 35, but it seems to not work any more. I always wanted one of the 8x11 cameras. How is the quality? I'd assume anything over 10x8 is a bit grainy?

[M4cruiser]

This thread reminds me of how we used to get our photos.
Take roll of film out of camera, get on bus into town, hand over the film in "Boots".
Lady gives you a ticket and says "That will be about three weeks."
Three weeks later: get on bus into town, go to "Boots", hand over the ticket.
Lady rummages through a drawer, and eventually pulls out our packet of 20 or 36 photos and negatives.
Look at them on the bus home. Two or three of the 36 were really good....

Now the three weeks have become three seconds, and that's still too long for some!

[Wacky Racer]

M4cruiser said:

This thread reminds me of how we used to get our photos.
Take roll of film out of camera, get on bus into town, hand over the film in "Boots".
Lady gives you a ticket and says "That will be about three weeks."
Three weeks later: get on bus into town, go to "Boots", hand over the ticket.
Lady rummages through a drawer, and eventually pulls out our packet of 20 or 36 photos and negatives.
Look at them on the bus home. Two or three of the 36 were really good....

Now the three weeks have become three seconds, and that's still too long for some!

Or post them to Fotopost Express and get them back in three/four days, rapid service. (Around 1978)

[Simpo Two]

M4cruiser said:

This thread reminds me of how we used to get our photos.
Take roll of film out of camera, get on bus into town, hand over the film in "Boots".

Mail order for me - Bonusprint, Truprint, Tripleprint... but my favourite was Starfoto.

I still have my Olympus XA2 from 1984, but it's been in retirement since I tried its digital descendant a Mju300 in 2003.

[Groomio]

A friend of mine lent me one 40 odd years ago, the prints aren't too bad, taking a photo of a photo doesn't really do them justice.

[RustyMX5]

And here we go......






Those were the best ones I managed to get. To be honest, I'm slightly disappointed that I wasn't able to get better photos but I will have a few more goes after I RTFM a couple more times.

This is definitely a case where I'm going to have to re-learn a lot of things I now take for granted.

[Derek Smith]

Thanks for posting those. I'm disappointed in the quality as well. Sorry!

I've been clearing out some old negatives. I had then scanned back in the day, so keeping the originals is pointless. It was rather pleasant going back to the 70s. I had to look at the scanned images again, and the quality was significantly poorer than I remembered. Ten minutes in Affinity and they looked much better. I can't go back.

Made me wonder what photographers of today will think of their best shots in 50 years. I can take 100mp images, although I choose not to most of the time. How far will we go? I've wondered if some sort of vectored images might appear. Just carry on enlarging.

[RustyMX5]

Derek Smith said:

Thanks for posting those. I'm disappointed in the quality as well. Sorry!

No need to apologise; they are a bit crap

I haven't used a film camera since about 1998 and have never used a Minox before so I wasn't expecting amazing results. I'm certainly going to continue using the cameras though and hopefully my snaps will improve with time.

There's a chap who seems to use his collection of Minoxs fairly frequently and some of the photos he sticks up on his website are pretty decent.

[Simpo Two]

Remember the negative is only 11 x 8mm so don't expect miracles. What ASA/ISO did you get?

[RustyMX5]

Simpo Two said:

Remember the negative is only 11 x 8mm so don't expect miracles. What ASA/ISO did you get?

Oh I'm not expecting miracles as I found a load of the pictures my father took with his C.

Three things are obvious from the scans I've had back. I'm not getting my light settings, distance settings or framing quite right.

That roll was 100 ASA

[NDA]

Aren't they for people called Bond and only used for taking pictures of Russian documents?

I've always fancied a vintage Nagra, which is in a similar vein.

[RustyMX5]

NDA said:

Aren't they for people called Bond and only used for taking pictures of Russian documents?

I've always fancied a vintage Nagra, which is in a similar vein.

Ironically the missus is an ex-commie from a Warsaw Pact country

[wildoliver]

I've recently gone back to film too. I'm tired of the disposability of photos, I know some on here will have a professional storage set up, but most people take a load of pictures on their phone or camera, cloud some or all of it and it mostly never gets looked at again waiting for the cloud/media to die/deleted to make space.

So I've been using the 35mm again and love it. The photos will do what they always did, sit in wallets for years, but then at some point I'll pull them out and be reminded of things long forgotten.

It's expensive and harder work. Masochism I suppose, but using the minox is on a whole different level! Hat off to you!

[Simpo Two]

RustyMX5 said:

Three things are obvious from the scans I've had back. I'm not getting my light settings, distance settings or framing quite right.

That roll was 100 ASA

The obvious issue IMHO is the grain, hence the ASA question. But 100 should be fine. So the next thing is to wonder who did the processing - whilst I'm not an expert at b/w processing I know that wrongly exposed photos can be 'pushed' and maybe that caused the issue. Could your exposures have been a few stops out?

[RustyMX5]

Simpo Two said:

The obvious issue IMHO is the grain, hence the ASA question. But 100 should be fine. So the next thing is to wonder who did the processing - whilst I'm not an expert at b/w processing I know that wrongly exposed photos can be 'pushed' and maybe that caused the issue. Could your exposures have been a few stops out?

When I look at the B&W photos dad took on his Minox 40 or so years ago, they all have a slight graininess to them so I don't think it was the processing.

IMHO, and I'll be brutally honest here, I don't think I set things up properly when I put in the film or had the exposure set quite correctly when I was taking photos. I've subsequently found that I wasn't setting the depth of field/distance to subject setting set up properly either. I'd set the distance to subject as infinity for a lot of the photos when I really should have set it to 12ft / 3m. I also didn't do a particularly good job of storing the film and I wouldn't be surprised if they might have got a little warm.

With regards to processing, there's only one place in Europe (in Wales actually) who still does processing of 8x11 film. From what I can gather there are two companies in the US and one in Australia who process film. Apart from that, users typically process their own film and spool their own cartridges. For now at least, that's far too advanced for me.

Yes..... I've clearly got a lot to learn or relearn.

And I'm happy to take advice because I would like to end up with some good photos.