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Thank you for your video, I also have a Minox 35 ML that was the family "memory recording device" during my childhood. The poor camera has not seen much film or light since quite some time now. I just ordered some 35mm film and a new set of batteries while watching your video. Thanks again for sharing your passion Have a great day

my 35GT was a good companion

This is a truly spectacular video. I love the review, purely just the talk about your experience with this device, but really the discussion about how film and the onslaught of digital in the 2000s. Your experiences in this are mirrored among many. Striking video indeed, keep on shooting!

Great review. I think that the soft issue is a combination of shake and under exposure with backlit shots. Also back light is a challenge to the “double V” diaphragm. I can sympathise with the shakes issue and I use a grip / tabletop tripod to improve my chances. (It’s a Sony accessory for my RX100). Yes it does devalue the ethos of the Minox but life’s full of sh….. compromises. Keep on click in’.👍

I've always found HP5 to be way too contrasty.I'm currently doing what you did at 400 iso,I just have to wait and see.I've had a brain implant for my shakes (essential tremor),not a total improvement but way better than it was..................................

Great video

Good shots. Love them. Thank you.

Thank you for this! Lovely fella and lovely video! A good friends father gave me a rolliecord v as a gift ❤️ (. I felt like crying) I needed a light meter so I ordered a Minolta ||| from eBay. When my package arrived and I opened it I was disgusted to find that I was sent a crappie little plastic camera, the minox GT. I was so f###### angry. I live in Sweden and the seller wanted me to send the plastic camera back and when they received the crappie plastic camera they would then send the light meter with no discount and were not nice at all about their mistake. So I started to do a little research 🧐 And saw that for 60 pounds maybe I got a deal. So I went out and got some batteries. The camera was dead. The apature was also sticky. Cleaned all contacts with alcohol and just kept cocking and firing the shutter and eventually the crappie little plastic camera came to life. There was very little movement it the apature but I sat for hours opening and closing, opening and closing and eventually it started to free up still a little slow but working ❤️ Now after all this work I love this little crappie plastic piece of crap😂 I have just got it working now and I’m going out shooting this weekend with my rolleicord and my minox ( might take my f100 also😂) This camera was a complete mistake but I now feel the love. All the best! Brendan from Donegal, living in Sweden.

I love compact cameras, always have done, back in the mid 70's as a teenager I carried 126 insta-matics everywhere, I own a Rollei 35, Olympus XA and a 35 RC amongst others (compact wise). Despite having an M2 and a 500cm I tend to carry around pocketable cameras, they are there when you need them, less obvious to those around. Have you ever used an XA, its similar in the way it fits a pocket. `incidentally, what a great video and screen presence you have, you speak from experience built up over the years, unlike some channels which are a bit more hollow. Keep up the great work and I hope your channel grows and grows. Incidentally, my father in the late 1950s was based under the Forth bridge while in the Royal Navy. As for the HP5, I think its different to way back in the day, but I like that, the HP5 Plus variant can be a little more grain laden.

Thanks for the videos - I wish you well in both your recovery and the MA. A thought - if it's not too personal, perhaps you could comment about the value of photography in your recovery and path back to wellness. There are many of us who are adapting to major life change and photography for many of us is an enduring hobby we have through our lives. While many day to day images are not remarkable, there is a joy in recognising the day to day. Just a thought...

your light leak was dead center. Cover the red window on the back of the camera when you are not winding, or use ortho.

Nice video! Still waiting for my Perkeo II to arrive. Thanks for the pointers about using glasses, I also got an external rangefinder, but I'll also bring my laser meter to check if it is accurate. I do believe lens flair is an issue from what I have read.

I have one of these. Did you know you can AE-Lock the meter reading by half pushing the shutter allowing you to meter first then lock and recompose. Best thing about the ML in my opinion!

This reminded me of first using a 35GT and not realising just how important the x2 exposure button was whenever there was a backlit element in shot -- for me that was a big 'eureka' moment in obtaining more "correctly exposed" Minox shots. Cool video to watch though, and some nice shots. It makes me want to run a few films through mine again. Another thing you mentioned struck home too - having used digital for so long (limited access to labs or darkrooms), I find myself automatically exposing for highlights out of fear of clipped out whites. I always have to remind myself of the greater lattitude in film (with highlights). So I tend to shoot 400 at 320; and expose for the shadows and then develop it at box speed.

I enjoyed the video. Not so much as it relates to photography, but rather your openness. I sent an email to the address on your website. :)

rollei 35 s

I’d love to know if you ended up replacing the ground glass and focus screen… and how much an improvement there was.

I just bought the same one about 2 weeks ago. Great condition but the shutter speeds might be off a little. I need to do some more testing.

The Minox 35. of which there were many models with slight differences over the years, was inspired by two circumstances: (1) the huge economic success of the Rollei 35, which basically saved the Rollei company, and (2) the need of Minox for the same salvation. Minox was based on the subminiture "spy" camera, which by 1970 was too big, too expensive and no one wanted the tiny film format any more, except maybe the CIA. Minox designed its "35" camera, but lacking the facilities, contracted construction out to Balda in Germany, a maker of historically "average" consumer cameras, The Minox 35 is regularly compared to the prior Rollei 35 and the following Olympus XA. The Rollei has a solid, all metal construction with highly reliable components. The other two are largely plastic for critical parts. The Rollei has all manual exposure. The other two use auto-exposure metering with no user override. Lenses: The Rollei 35 models offered a superb Sonnar, a conventional Tessar, and a workable triplet, price being a selection factor for buyers. Minox offered one lens, a copy of the Tessar. Oly used a unique 6-element lens design to crunch the lens into the body.; It vignettes terribly and is the definition of unsharp - a terrible choice Oly never used again. The Rollei and Minox use zone focusing - user guesses the distance and sets the guess on the lens. The Oly uses a tiny rangefinder which is practically worthless. The Rollei lenses all unit focus, as does the Oly. Minox uses a front element focus system which most other makers abandoned in the late 1950s because of poor close focus performance. The Minox is notorious for failed shutter mechanics, exposure electronics, and light leaks in the body. The Oly less so, but still has electonics problems. So between them, the Rollei 35, and particularly the 35S, is the preferred photo taker. The Minox is the least reliable based on cheap construction, but a much better picture taker than the Oly. The trick is finding one that works. The Oly XA,. contrary to massive YT hype,. really has no reason to be considered as a camera compared to the other two, but it is more hipster desired.

There are a few things to consider here. First of all do not use AI sharpen. It was never designed to work with film, in particular B&W film. I don't know how it works, but since it does a pretty good job on digital files, I could guess that it somehow retrieves the EXIF information from the file and then uses that information to do what it does. It has never worked satisfactorily on my B&W scans, and those were very high quality scans out of Nikon Coolscan ED scanners ( it actually does nothing or very little on 35mm scans from my Coolscan ED scanner but to exaggerate the grain, or in some cases causes havoc with jagged artefacts around high contrast detail ). Second is to make sure you have no light leaks. The lens is another issue. Do not expect these old lenses to perform like the modern ones. They are soft wide open, rather dreamy due to under correction, but do sharpen up three stops down but never in a modern way. The rendering is rather different so your choice of film and developers matters. I prefer slightly higher contrast films with these cameras, or pushing HP5 Plus or TMY-2 to 1600. I once commented on a post of one photographer, for whom I have do respect, that there was no point spending £600.00 on a Bessa II just because it had a Color Heliar lens and a rangefinder, as he was singing the praises of his camera and advising people to go and find one of those. Well he didn't like it,, he is a Yorkshire man and opinionated and I am from Manchester. I stick to my point of view that if you buy one these old folders, then accept them for what they are and use them with their weak points in mind. They will reward you. As for Minox, they are indeed a gem of a camera when they work, sadly they seldom do. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

When I saw the camera bag and tripod for the first time, I thought have taken some bagpipes with you!. Check that your flash sync is set to X mode, in M mode on mine you cannot set the self timer. You should never try to use the self timer in M flash sync mode, always use the self timer in X sync mode. Make sure to use the correct colour mark for 120 film, there are different marks for 120 and 220. Winding is a bit odd that you wind on and then the crank winds back to opposite the storage position and you fold it back. I havn't had the frame spacing problem with the 124G although I have seen it with other TLR's where it tended to be either a fault or iffy winding technique. The Mat 124G is prone to fungus on the taking lens, it might be worth a look through the lens when it is open in B mode with the camera back open. Enjoy the camera, I quite like the MAT 124G.

You can't expect a lab to produce the quality you get at home. Developing black and white takes care and attention with the right chemistry. I highly doubt your lab was using ilfotec DD-X and a proper agitation routine! Also remember this film was made for enlarging in the darkroom not for being electronically scanned. Granted you may have been spoiled but atleast for me, technical image quality is not what this is all about. If you want clean grainless perfection you stick with digital, but then you lose much of the magic of a process...

Its a two way process, as much as the camera and lens is important so is exposure and the film, your quality problem, which it is from what was shown, is IMHO bad developing and scanning, once you give that film away for development and scan you have lost half control of the process, as regards the OOF I am not sure, one way to test take shots on a tripod, if there sharp then it more likely a shutter speed error. (to slow to hand hold), or as you say unsteady hands, take care

I would persevere with the Perkeo. I have a few folding cameras, and the Perkeo is always my go to 6x6. I also have the 35mm Voigtlander Vito B which I think is superb. The f3.5 Color Skopar is the one to go for. They usually sell for £30-£50.

I was just gifted a 35 GT and after tossing some new batteries in it came to life! A video on the lens settings in different scenarios would be much appreciated as I'm still struggling to understand how to set it. For example, showing an uncut POV shot of you seeing a subject and then setting the camera settings would be very useful. Thanks for this!