Beginning Photography

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 19:17:42 -0500

Recently, I’ve been a bit obsessed with photography. Specifically 35mm film photography, but as a result I’m learning digital as well. Shortly after moving to Chicago, I brought a couple of my dad’s old film cameras with me: a Pentax Spotmatic F and Minolta Hi-Matic 7sii. The Pentax is a pretty standard, fully manual, single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, with a 55mm f/1.8 SMC Takumar lens which is very similar to the ever-popular K1000, albeit with an M42 screw lens instead of the newer bayonet mount. My dad had that camera when he was in college, so it seemed fitting to do the same when I was attending university as well. The Minolta is a nifty little rangefinder with a fixed 40mm f/1.7 lens, which I appreciate for its fast Copal leaf shutter and compact size. I believe it was originally my grandfather’s, as the camera bag I found it in had some of his business cards in them, which on its own was a neat little find. My initial pictures with those two cameras were pretty abysmal, as I had no real idea about how they operated, and any pictures that actually turned out were purely by luck.

Film on www.josephwegner.com

Beginning Photography