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whew, film ... again

Godfrey

Well-known member
I finished a new roll of film with the Minox C a few days ago and spied my lovely old Rollei 35S on the shelf ... Which I'd loaded with an 11 year old roll of Tri-X 135-36 in June of 2009 and made four exposures with before putting it there. Hmm. Seemed to me I should finish up that roll of film and see what I get with it.

So I did, and then yesterday decided it was time to process and see.

- The APX25 (Minox C) was near perfect. The Minox C always nets me my best Minox negatives. I haven't used the CLX enough to know how well it does, but this C is near magical. I proof-Scanned it with the Epson 2450 same way I did all the others and there are a number of good exposures that I'll work on with a high rez capture some other time.

- The Tri-X was so thin there was hardly anything I could see with the loupe. The almost invisible watermarks and other detritus from my (sloppy) processing are as dense as the negative image and base fog. I made two mistakes: I should have rated it ASA 160 rather than 320, and I should have extended development another 2 minutes.

But I decided to toss it in the Nikon LS-40 and see what I could get out of it. I'm amazed at what the scanner could nab ...


Fun stuff!
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I exported the wrong image file for the post above. This is the one I intended:


The difference is subtle but important to me. ;-)
 

M5-Guy

New member
What kind of stuff do you snap with a Minox these days?
I used to own a Minox C.(I think-- Electronic Shutter with RF and manual Speed dial) It was an interesting camera. But, I got it because it was cool looking, I used it as prop in a large format photography section of a photography class. I still have the 4x5 slide I believe. I never thought such a small negative would enlarge to well over 5x7.
I have a Pentax 110 SLR that just sits... it is a 1/2 frame size negative, but just spooled in a daylight cartridge.
Do you have more images to post?
I Just bought an Olympus XA.... Nice little RF FF 35mm. Can't wait to see my 1st rolls results.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
What kind of stuff do you snap with a Minox these days?
I used to own a Minox C.(I think-- Electronic Shutter with RF and manual Speed dial) It was an interesting camera. But, I got it because it was cool looking, I used it as prop in a large format photography section of a photography class. I still have the 4x5 slide I believe. I never thought such a small negative would enlarge to well over 5x7.
I have a Pentax 110 SLR that just sits... it is a 1/2 frame size negative, but just spooled in a daylight cartridge.
Do you have more images to post?
I Just bought an Olympus XA.... Nice little RF FF 35mm. Can't wait to see my 1st rolls results.
I have many many Minox photographs to work on. Most are at proof quality scans right now ... that's scanned with the Epson 2450 flatbed @ 2400 ppi as a group in their film holder, like this one:


Minox C, APX 25 - XTOL
Epson 2450 proof scan

This is the most recent film, processed on June 20, 2010 and exposed a few days earlier.

The C is one of my best Minox cameras. It doesn't have a rangefinder ... just scale focus ... but has the parallax corrected bright-line finder like all the focusing Minox cameras. The metering system is extremely accurate and it's always produced amongst my best Minox negatives. Mine is an early C with the Complan 15mm f/3.5 lens and curved pressure plate. Later production examples switched to the flat-field optimized Minox 15mm f/3.5 lens with flat pressure plate. It's a toss up as to which is the better lens, all I know is this one is particularly nice. :)

It was always difficult to make high-quality large prints from these negatives in the darkroom. After all, a 6x8 inch print is a 19x enlargement of the original negative. It's only through the advent of electronic capture and digital processing that I feel comfortable making larger sized prints from them. There's a charm and quality to these tiny film images that, when done right, transcends the format's limitations on grain and resolution.

What kind of stuff do you snap with a Minox? The usual: anything you want to. Simple compositions work best due to the format, anything for which you might not have any other, larger camera handy is fair game. People pictures are my general preference with this format, but I've shot landscape and close up subjects too.

I recently judged the second round of the Minox Historical Society 2010 Photo Contest ... I was delighted to see such quality photographs being made with Minox cameras. Round three is currently taking submissions, if anyone is interested. See the link on the MHS page to the contest blog: http://www.minox.org

BTW: 110 film wasn't the same as half-frame 35mm in size. 110 format is a 10x17mm image size on 16mm wide film stock, pre-masked and numbered with a roll film backing in an instant load cartridge. Half-frame 35 is 18x24mm format on dual perforation 35mm film, usually in standard 35mm cartridges.

Once upon an age ago I had several Olympus XAs, one after the other. The film transport tended to fail (and be too expensive to bother repairing) and the lens exhibits a good bit of flare but it remains a very nice camera. I replaced my last one with the Minox 35EL in 1983, which has a better lens, and replaced that with the Rollei 35 (Tessar 40/3.5 lens) a year later, which was even better. That Rollei 35 has been in the hands, and in use, with a friend in South Africa for over a decade now. I still have both a Rollei 35S (Sonnar 40mm f/2.8 lens) and a last-of-the-line Minox 35GT-E but they don't get much exercise any more.
 

M5-Guy

New member
I didn't really use the Minox. Just got it cheap at the time. It is such a well built sub miniature, other than the Tessa
Thanks for correction on 110...
The XA was the #2 on my short list.. The Rollie 35 w/40 f/2.8 is the 1st choice... But I did not have the $225 to $300 to get one right now.
I was surprised of the quality and feel of the XA when I unpacked it. I may get a $80.00 overhaul anyway., I really like it. Mine works great, but after 30+ years, what the hay... I only have $45.00 in it. I think they can grab more though. I did get an A16 flash that works fine as a 'throw-in" by the seller.
 
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