Minoltina P by Minolta

I started this forum for any collecting hobby and it turned into my camera collecting and using forum. I use it mostly to keep a record of my photo adventures. Nobody but me seems to have photo adventures that visit here....but however. I have so many cameras now that I forget which is which and which ones work and which ones don't. If you have cameras and adventures you would be welcome to post here.

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Niner
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Minoltina P by Minolta

Post by Niner » Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:29 pm

I've had this one a while from the ebay grab bag but had never used it. Today was the day for an adventure into the unknown with this 52 or 53 year old camera. It was new about the time the Beatles made the Ed Sullivan show.

It looks like a rangefinder. Only it doesn't help you find the range. No split hair range finder to focus with. The directions say don't worry about it since it is a wide angle lense. But.. it does have an infinity mark in the green and various distances down to 2.5 feet. It has a row of black numbers that aren't F stops but somehow correspond to such. In the red side of the barrel ring selector is the "flash" recommended numbers and they are in F stops. The Shutter speed in the red is all the same but in the green it should be automatically selected from something like 1/25 to 1/250 or so.

Well .. there is a selenium meter on top of the camera you turn the outside ring on the lense that relates to distance and the three choices in the window rotate from closeup to scenic in the meter window. The needle moves but isn't right ... as I've grown to expect with these old tech cameras. The black ring with an assortment of single digit numbers is turned so that the red arrow meets the green arrow on top to set the camera to correct exposure.

However... trying different settings...mostly in the infinity and with the wide open shutter settings.... well.. it took pictures but they were all very much ghostlike and none sharp. It didn't help that the D76 I was using was past it's prime and there were particles of black residue from past developments that showed up on the new developed negatives ...and I fumbled the loading the the developing reel so badly that the negatives were mishandled.

This one is for looking at not taking photos with in the future... Another curiosity.
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Re: Minoltina P by Minolta

Post by DuncaninFrance » Tue Mar 01, 2016 3:48 am

Yes, they look a bit tired Robert, no punch in the blacks but that could well be the film.
Duncan

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