Do you remember your first real film camera? Do you still have it? I do — and I still have mine. That camera? The Minolta XG 1, introduced in 1979, and later (in 1982) very subtly renamed (with a hyphen) as the XG-1, at which time it also received Minolta’s updated, so-called “rising sun” logo. I’ve been writing content here for years, and somehow or another, despite it being my first decent camera, I’ve overlooked writing a formal review of it despite mentioning it in other articles and reviews dozens of times. After the camera received a CLA recently, its first servicing in the 43 years I’ve owned it, I was reminded how much I love the camera, and love using it — and it was about time I shared both its story, and my feelings about it.
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eBay Bargain: Pentax AF280T Flash
I’ve never been much for eBay. Even in its early years, I never trusted the site — or more accurately, I never trusted the people selling stuff there — to accurately represent anything. Rollei repair guy Mark Hensen has a page on his site where he says he’s bought over 500 cameras on eBay over the years, and not a single one has been as promised. My main issue is I never trusted that I was even going to receive what I bought, never mind if it matched the promise. But I was willing to put less than $20 on the line recently for a Pentax flash, and I have to say, it exceeded my expectations.
Continue reading…Rediscovering Film: Part Three
In Part One and Part Two of this unplanned series of posts, I dusted-off my old Polaroid OneStep and my even older Kodak Duaflex II cameras. Digging through boxes that have remain untouched since moving here over four years ago, I found another camera relic: My old Minolta XG 1, a 35mm SLR, which I bought for photography class when I was in high school after draining a small savings account someone had set-up for me as a kid.
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