5 Frames With a Minolta Dynax 800Si with a Minolta AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro & 500mm f/8 AF Reflex

June 9, 2018

I’m predominantly a digital shooter with adapted older manual focus lenses, but as I grew up with film, I’ve never quite let it go. Whilst I’ve used a large number of old lenses and own more than I wish to count, I do not own a single Minolta lens, Rokkor or otherwise. I’ve not avoided Minolta lenses, and I’ve owned and enjoyed many of them, but I’ve never been a fan of their (earlier) "glowiness".

Skipping forwards, I generally view autofocus lenses as the work of the devil, I can appreciate the situations where they can make the difference in making or breaking a shot, but for slow and static shots, AF just gets in the way of fast composition and shooting.

So what’s happened here, 5 Frames with two Minolta AF lenses, a plastic AF Minolta camera and photographs that cost actual money?

I buy and sell used camera equipment, and keep the Dynax purely for lens function testing, but when the opportunity arose to use an AF mirror lens and a nifty 1:1 macro, what else could I do, but load a roll of expired Fuji 400 X-Tra colour negative film I had lying around…

Stinging Nettle, two stops over exposed with the 50mm f/2.8 Macro

Wild Cotton, again overexposed for the back lighting with the 50

A gull in flight, I was more than a little surprised that I got this one, I struggled with exposure when shooting digitally with the 500mm Mirror, but the Minolta and Fuji combo just went about it’s business without fuss