On the 1st September 1914, a small grey bird fell from its perch at Cincinatti Zoo…… The mid 1970s saw a rash of camera developments. While these produced amazing technological marvels the headlong rush to ever more sophistication while keeping the price down meant compromises. The first casualty of any price war is almost always…
Endings are strange things. It’s often hard to see where the ending of anything is until years after the event. Rome wasn’t built in a day they say but it didn’t fall in a day either. It’s only on reflection, after the passage of time, that you can put a pin in a calendar and…
Before we discuss the Minolta X Series (X-700, X-500 and X-300 etc), let’s step back in time. Back in the mid 1970s and early 1980s the 35mm SLR camera market was in turmoil. The big boys were busy forcing the smaller companies out and there was a rush of developments as each manufacturer tried to…
Konica Pop Review: Dating from 1982 the Konica Pop is a classic budget point and shoot. This one comes from 1985 or later as its shows the ‘Hexanon’ lens marking. The lens is stated as being a 36mm f4 and is of course fix focused.The specification for the shutter was 125th but I timed this…
The Minolta XG-1 was the second in the XG series launched in 1977 as a budget camera to complement the top of the line XD series. Unlike its predecessor the SRT series, the XG series was all electronic. By the time the XG series came to market the SRT series was looking tired but would…
Noticeable by it’s Absence Of all the cameras being hyped by today’s uber-trendy wunderkinds on the web like the Canon AE-1, the Minolta X-700 and the Pentax K1000, the FTb is noticeable by its absence. But, it is the forgotten wonder from the days when stuff was built to last. Manufactured from metal hammered out…
Mostly plastic, mainly good was how the Chinon CE-5 camera was described by a review at the time. Here’s my take on it 40 years after it launched. More forgotten then even the Nikon F-301(which I happen to love) the Chinon CE-5 is definitely a last place hero though in fact in its day one…