Camera Talk

Many of the early manual SLR cameras were heavy concoctions of glass and metal. Nikons and Canons of that character are still written about with affection online. The Minolta SRT was like its contemporaries and still has its users. Mine, an SRT-SCII (essentially an SRT 201 that was made for chain stores) was my “new” camera that I got when Kodak stopped putting up Ektachrome slide film in the 127 size that my Baby Rollei took. It still looks and works as good as new with only a replacement of the foam, particularly on the mirror apparatus, in the 34 years I’ve used it. Though I take a lot of photos with the X-700, for assured reliability in almost any weather or situation I’m most comfortable with the SRT. Here are some late winter/early spring photos made with the SRT-SCII and 45mm f/2.0 lens on Tri-X (first two photos) and Neopan (last two photos), both developed in D76 1:1. The photo of the bud was made with a Minolta #1 CU lens (optically closer to a +2 than a +1) attached to the 45mm f/2. All the photos were taken along the Minnesota River in the vicinity of Fort Snelling.

Lone Plant in Snow
Fence Post and Rail

Early April Bud
Newly Sawn Stump

Lovely! Other than the cameras not being truly "pro system" gear, the Minolta line is full of great pieces that work very well. I enjoyed my fling with them while it lasted.

PF

The 'Lone Plant' image is Art !
I remember my Minolta XE-5 fondly, but I sold it after about a year because I had 'too many different systems'. I only shot one film with that camera ( ! ) and the Rokkor glass seemed to give a nice warm color to the pictures - or maybe it was the afternoon sunlight doing that?

Wonderfull images!

Very lovely pictures. And especially that Lone Plant.

Those are really nice. Especially the first.

Robert

Great stuff here. I, too, really like the first image.

Great images. It is wonderful to see how these old SLR workhorses keep doing their job.

+1 for that first shot. Looks like something dancing across the snow.

Very nice work. I had two of those SRT-SC cameras over the years.