Hellllooooo!
I know, I know! It’s been a long time since my last rant. So much has changed! For starters; I finally got off my ass, grabbed my camera and took some photographs (but more on that in the next post, which will be posted soon – hard to believe huh?). This (weirdly enough) isn’t a rant. I finally bought something that I’ve wanted for a very long time.
After craving for a 35mm film rangefinder, I finally got my hands on one today. A Minolta Uniomat for $40 off of eBay!
Mechanically it’s almost perfect and aesthetically it isn’t too bad either. No dents or major scratches. Focus ring’s very stiff at the moment but nothing a basic service (or hair dryer) won’t fix. My main concern was the selenium light meter. Don’t know why but I’m not too confident about the readings it’s giving me but it appears to be working.
I guess the transition from DSLR to complete battery-less analog will require some getting used to in the trust-thy-camera department.
The viewfinder has some dirt in it but the lens is clean as a whistle and the aperture blades are also in good condition. The rangefinder mechanism is working fine as far as I can tell. The images line up perfectly most of the time but I had a bit of a suspicion once or twice (or I should start wearing my glasses more often?).
I got it mainly for my recently developed interest in proper street photography. That, and I love manual focusing on a RF system (it’s just so easy and you feel so connected in the whole photograph-making process rather than hearing the beep and then taking a picture that had absolutely no thought put into it).
My first film camera. Quite a bit of learning and getting used to (addicted) to be done. I don’t think I’m confident enough to do any serious photography with it till the time I get the results of the first processed roll back though.
All in all, not disappointed with my purchase in the slightest bit. I don’t really care about the slight faults as long as they can be fixed. Hopefully it’ll be as good as new with a bit of TLC.
Of course this is just a generic, temporary satisfaction for my craving. The MP (film RF royalty) is the main goal. But this’ll do very well for now.
Can’t wait to hit the streets with my new love! 😀
hasan ibrahim | Photography 