Smile!

Posted by
Ian Bramham (Manchester, United Kingdom) on 11 June 2010 in Art & Design and Portfolio.

This is the smiling 'face' of a Minolta Autocord LMX. It's a medium format 6cm x 6cm film camera made sometime between 1958 and 1961 and I've borrowed it from a friend who has kindly agreed to loan it to me so that I could put a few rolls of film through it.

I've been wanting to try MF film for a while now after seeing the results on the web of photographers like Michael Kenna.

Well, I got the prints back tonight from my first two rolls of film and I was delighted to see that, despite my inexperience and the great age of the camera, they've turned out really nicely.

I'll show you some of them over the next couple of days and you can tell me how you think the photos compare to the results we get from our modern digital cameras.

FUJIFILM FinePix F31fd 1/10 second F/5.0 ISO 200 8 mm

Like what you see here and are interested in photographic composition?.....the blog section of my website now has a complete set of 5 articles covering my personal approach to the subject: Ian Bramham Photography - Blog

For purchasing high quality archival prints of any of these photos you can send me an email by clicking here or by going to my website Ian Bramham - Fine Art Photography where prices are listed in the gallery sections under each individual photo.

Comments (10)

Hoshisato from Ealing, United Kingdom

Looking forward to seeing the results!

11 Jun 2010 5:21am

@Hoshisato: Thanks....the first photo from it will be posted tomorrow (Saturday)

Anna.C from LA ROCHELLE, France

oh ! I'm very interested to see the results !

11 Jun 2010 7:17am

@Anna.C: Thanks Anna....I'll put the first photo from this camera up tomorrow!

Albert Manso from barcelona, Spain

Nice shot! :)

11 Jun 2010 7:27am

@Albert Manso: Thanks Albert!

MadScientist from Düsseldorf, Germany

Looking forward to this (will try the same with my Mamiya; even ordered the right chemicals for developing the pictures :-). Very nice portrait of this smiling camera!

11 Jun 2010 9:20am

Marie LC from Dauphiné, France

These devices became collectors. They are beautiful and witness of a time when the photography began to take a big place in the world. To preserve with big care !

11 Jun 2010 9:59am

Scene by Sharon Photography from Kingston, Ontario, Canada

I too am looking very forward to seeing the results - this is a lovely shot

11 Jun 2010 10:17am

Ian Smith from London, United Kingdom

Wow this bring back memories ^_^ - Looking forward to your results!
I have a Kodak Duaflex II in by 'box of film cameras' - and I found it quite enjoyable to use - looking down through the viewing glass (like the infamous pro's) - but I wasn't very good with it.it.
I've also come across people who have 'hooked up' thier digital compacts to these type of cameras, and producing amazing results also...

11 Jun 2010 11:53am

@Ian Smith: I enjoyed the experience of looking down into the viewfinder but the mirror image on the glass screen made composition extremely difficult as i continually kept moving the camera the wrong way :-)

Curly from South Shields, United Kingdom

I used a Yashicamat 124g TLR some years ago, a whole new discipline was required for composition!

11 Jun 2010 6:29pm

@Curly: Yes, certainly the most difficult camera I've used by a long way!!....the view through the viewfinder is a mirror image which makes compositional corrections completely counter intuitive. Not just the left to right movement but also corrections for verticality are reversed.

Chris from United Kingdom

I used one of these in the seventies I preferred the quadrant focusing under the objective to the Rollei type. Is the knob at right some sort of meter ?

Cheers

14 Jun 2010 9:17am

@Chris: Hi Chris!....yes, that's the control for the primitive (non electric) light meter but I couldn't find any instructions on the web on how to operate it. I used my digital camera to get the light readings setting the Minolta to the same aperture and shutter speed.