Minox 35: A Double Reunion (TIMESTAMPS)
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- Time stamps:
0:00 Intro. My history with the Minox and my issues with my digital practice.
4:00 NERDSPECS. About the Minox. It’s history and how it works. More in depth than I expected!
11:30 CAMERA IN USE. A day trip. Testing the Minox at one of my favourite haunts. The Marina at the Forth Road Bridge.
19:25 WOT I LEARNED. Do I really still love that camera, and indeed, analogue photography? Also, some potential issues with rose tinted glasses.
21:50 Considerations for photographers with chronic illness like CFS/ME, Fibro, and other neuromuscular issues. Bear with me here, I get to the point.
26:40 Final Slide show
Back when digital wasn’t a thing, before I stupidly sold my medium format gear and went all in on digital photography (far too early by the way), there was one camera that I revered above all else. The miraculous miniature marvel that is the Minox 35 GT. I have spent two decades looking for a digital equivalent to no avail.
After nearly 20 years in the digital wilderness I’ve returned to analog with another copy of the Minox. The 35 ML. Let’s see how it went.
Minox Subminiature image credit:
Joe Haupt
commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/...
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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’.👍
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.
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
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!
I have a few Konica C35's, and they also have an exposure lock, which is such a great feature.
I've spent silly ££'s on Leica's that don't even have that feature (hence, I'm no longer a Leica fan-boy!)
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.
Haha! I love this! I hope you got some great results from it. I got some wonderful documentary shots back in the day with mine. It's a surprisingly capable little gizmo, and nobody gives it a second thought when they see you bring it out of your pocket. For that alone, it's invaluable.
Thanks for lovely words!
my 35GT was a good companion
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.
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 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.
Aw thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate it.
I've been really busy with a new MA in Contemporary Art and Archaeology ( amazing mix!) so I haven't been able to do much in the way of video recently, but I'm hoping that I can get on top of the work load this term and do more of this kind of video and hopefully keep improving. :)
I'm actually tempted by the XA. My best mate on my degree (who is still an old and great friend) had one and loved it, and I always fancied it. We used to head out occasionally to do some street work, him with the XA and me with the Minox 35. The images we came back with were as good as the ones we produced with our larger cameras (my main camera was a Nikon FM).
I'll see how things go. I might grab an XA later this year and have a play. I'd like to collect all the cameras I either used to have or used to covet from my friends ;)
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!
I’m so glad to see another Minox journey begin!
That’s actually a good idea. I’ll have a think about the best way to go about that and see what I can do :)
@@ChristiMacPherson you could mainly rely on verbally describing what you're doing in real time, for ex describing what the dials are doing in thr view finder and then what you adjust depending on your subject. 👍
One quick question, is the main idea to try and get the shutter speed dial (inside the view finder) to match the speed film you are using? So, if the film is 400 speed, I should try and get the needle to be around 400?
Apologies. The RUclips studio app is often terrible at notifying me of messages. So I’ve only just seen this and only because I noticed the message number in this conversation has changed. It simply didn’t notify me.
Anyway. No the 400 speed you talk of is the film speed. Which likely be marked as iso 400 on the box. This is an indicator of how sensitive the film is to light and can affect what kind of shutter speed and aperture you use. Feel free to ignore the rest of this if it’s a little confusing right now, but it’s probably worth finding some basic info on something called the exposure triangle.
The numbers in the viewfinder are the shutter speed which is read as 1/the number in the viewfinder. In my model I’ve got the numbers 30, 60, 125, 250 and 500. So these are 1/30th of a second and so on up to 1/500th of a second.
You use the aperture dial on the lens to change the size of the hole in it which basically changes the amount of light hitting the film when you click the shutter button. The minox 35 calculates the shutter speed based on that to give you a well exposed negative.
As long as the needle isn’t indicating a very slow shutter speed you’ll be ok. Eg. You’ll be on the verge of having camera shake if you go slower than 1/60th of a second. That is anything to the left of the 60 mark (it might be 50 or 40 on your 35GT, I can’t remember ) in the viewfinder. If you have very steady hands you might be able to keep it sharp slower than that but in general that’s a rule of thumb to go by.
I’m thinking of doing some explainers for this kind of thing but in all honesty that’s probably months away. In the meantime if you Google the exposure triangle for beginners you should find some great info on how shutter speed works and how it interacts with aperture and film speed.
FStoppers website might be a good resource.
@@ChristiMacPherson perfect thanks for this! Will look this up. Just got my first roll developed and quite a few shots came out quite nice, even though it was indoors and low light at a party, pleasantly surprised w the results.
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..................................
rollei 35 s
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...