Kodak Ektar 100 - Konica-Minolta Dynax 40

The Konica-Minolta Dynax 40 is a landmark camera in my collection.  It was my first eBay purchase.

I bought it before the 're-surgence' of film photography started to push up the price of vintage cameras for a massive AU$30 plus postage!  It was in perfect condition and seriously; what a bargain!

A 35mm SLR, it was introduced in 2004 as a consumer level camera.  In some other countries it was sold as the Dynax 30, Maxxum 50 or a-50.  It boasts pre-programmed settings for portrait, landscape, night portrait, macro and sports modes.  It also comes with aperture and shutter priority, and full manual mode.  It has a pop-up flash but also a hotshoe for external flash units.  Flash is synched at 1/90 sec and shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/2000 sec.

It came with the standard auto focus kit lens 28-100mm f3.5-5.6.  It offers 4 focus points, spot, left hand side, right hand side and the combination of all those three to give a good focus spread.

Apart from a Pentax point and shoot, it is the lightest camera in my collection and is a great size that can fit into my man bag easily.

I have been shooting with a lot of expired film recently and wanted to get back into something that was not past its use by date!  I had 2 rolls of Kodak Ektar tucked away in the fridge door!

I am usually never without a camera!  When I go for a walk during a work break; my camera is in my hand.  If there is something happening like the town show, a street festival, car show, I always have a camera handy.

I don't really need to talk about the lovely Kodak Ektar 100; so much has been written about that film that, if you haven't heard of it then you can't be a really serious film lover!

Some of these are taken at my favourite lunch time hangout, Newcastle Beach.  Others are taken further north at Nobbys Beach.  Kim & I visited the quaint village of Broke in the Hunter Valley for the Broke Village Fair in late September where there was lots of yummy food stalls, live music, some Cosplay artists and, some very nice vintage motorcycles and cars.  There was also a ton of dry dirt just hanging in the air thanks to a current drought the country is experiencing; really fine dirt that puffed up into the air with every footstep.  The night photos are from a work break safari around Newcastle at a very late nightshift hour.

My preference for shooting is Aperture Priority.  I know how to shoot in manual mode but I like that when using Aperture Priority I can control Depth of Field and trust that the camera will work out the rest.  I also don't have to spend time mucking around with the light meter; I can get a quicker shot in. I also prefer to shoot at box speed, unless I am shooting an expired film.  It takes some of the worry out of how a film might turn out.  Film Photography is expensive enough at times to be caught experimenting and nothing to show for it!

If you see something you like, it might be for sale!  Contact me!

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Nobbys Beach, Newcastle, Australia.

Ocean Baths, Newcastle, Australia.

Ocean Baths Pumphouse, Newcastle, Australia.
A much loved and very much photographed Newcastle icon!

Newcastle Beach looking over toward the Canoe Pool and the facade of the Ocean Baths
 on the left.   Newcastle, Australia

Late night Promenade, Newcastle Beach, Australia.

East End Hub - Newcastle, Australia

Canon AE-1 Program and Fomapan Classic 100

I apologise for my lack of publishing of late.  I have a very good reason though!  Our new front garden is testament to the hard work that Kim & I put into removing very large Yucca and Dracaena plants, not to mention the huge Cycads, that were there when we moved in 10 years ago.  We now have a softer much more colourful garden that will look wonderful once the new plants have established themselves.

Anyway, here I am again!

I was contacted back in May by Cathy, an ex-RAAF colleague with who I have been able to stay in contact with thanks to the wonders of modern day social media!  Sadly, her husband Graeme had passed away and she was now going through his things.  He'd been an avid photographer and she asked me if I would be able to use a couple of his old cameras she had found in the cupboard.  A Canon AE-1 Program 35mm SLR with a Cosina MC 35-70mm f3.5-4.8 Macro lens and a Canon T50 with a Mitakon MC 80-200mm f4.5 lens.  

If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I am always more than happy to welcome a vintage camera (or two) into my collection.  Each camera I have is different in it's own way and I take it in turns to load them with film to keep them active!  Of course, I said that I would love to add them to my collection!

They arrived and I had them out of the box before you could say 'Ansel Adams'!

The lenses were clean and without any mould.  The cameras looked to be in perfect condition but, unfortunately, the batteries had not been taken out of the Canon T50 and they had corroded badly.  I eventually got them out and cleaned out the battery space and terminals but there was obviously more damage done to electrical components as a result and I couldn't get a heart beat.  On the upside though, both of these cameras are an FD lens mount so, I may have missed out on using the T50 but the lens with that camera will work with the AE-1 Program camera!

The Canon AE-1 Program on the other hand, was in perfect condition!  All it needed was a dust out and an air blast and it was ready to go.  It has the sweetest sounding shutter I have ever heard.

The AE-1 Program has Shutter and Aperture priority controls but can also be used in fully manual mode.  There are LEDs inside the viewfinder to provide information to the photographer.  Shutter speeds up to 1/1000 and a flash synch speed of 1/60 (which is still a little slow but it's the same as I have on a fav Pentax and I haven't had any problems there).

I wanted to use a black and white film for the testing of the camera and lenses and so I chose a Fomapan Classic 100 for the occasion.  This film has a wide exposure latitude, which makes it good for varied lighting conditions, a fine grain with good resolution and sharpness.  You can judge the outcome for yourself!

All Photos Copyright ©Life with Jordy Photography

All Rights Reserved

In Memory of Graeme Close.