Joining the analog trend

May. 17, 2014 280 words 2 min

Since my wife wanted to know more about analog photography, we spend a weekend in Berlin for an absolutanalog workshop. I didn’t have an analog camera, so I was given an old Minolta X-700 with a 35 or 50mm prime lens and told to go shoot some film that we would develop later on. Something funny happened within the next hour.

I never had this camera in my hands before, I took my first picture, looked at the display to check… wait, no display. Took the next picture, didn’t even think about checking the non existing display. I stumbled once more when I forgot to advance the film before pressing the shutter button again. After that the X-700 felt so natural like I had been using it for ages. How come my Canon DSLR does not feel that way? The Minolta has every button in the right place, split prism focusing aid, aperture dial right at the lens and the list goes on. This camera had made its way into my muscle memory faster than I could have anticipated. When shooting with my Canon later on, I even unconsciously tried to advance the film.

To cut a long story short, I’m now a proud and happy owner of a Minolta X-700 with a 50/f1.4 and look forward to develop my first b/w film at home.

Last weekend, I went to Berlin, visited the Fotoimpex shop and bought their basic development starter kit.

Update After much sweating while getting the film off the roll onto the spiral in the dark, the first film has been developed.

And some natural color key with a color film that I did not develop myself.