[mohansrides]

Hello forum members,

Today, I happened to stumble across this old thing. A Minolta X-300s with two sets of lenses; a 35-70 mm and a 70-210 mm. This is my camera from college. I used it extensively during those times. Now, I don't know what to do with the camera.

The camera body is generally in good shape; but the grip rubber seems to have disintegrated with time. The lenses are in excellent shape though. The bag too has weathered the years well. The kit also has some odds and ends that I accumulated over the years. Like that manual Sepia filter, the polarizer, the lens cover, and that very cute lens cleaner solution. And how about that remote shutter release cable for the really slow exposures !! I remember using this cable at SF Golden Gate on a very cold night. Those pictures came out like this -

[Please excuse the artifacts in the pictures. The photographs are old and the digital images were created almost 20 years ago by manually scanning hard copies.]









I also had a tripod that I had bought at a KMart a very long time ago. But, my ex-rommie made off with it many decades ago. Hope he is using it well

Moving on, I see that the Fuji roll inside actually has a few exposures left. But, I need a new battery for this Minolta to become operational again. Though I don't know where I would find film for the camera and where I could go to develop the film.

Conversely, if I sell it, what price can I expect?

Sorry for the crappy quality of these pictures. But, I took these on my phone. Ironic, I know.

Incidentally, these days, I use a Canon 760D for family and travel photography. I would appreciate pointers from this community about where I can learn to better my craft.

Anyways, let us look at some pictures of my old Minolta.

[mohansrides]

The camera cover was flaking and disintegrating every time I lifted the camera. So, I invested 20 minutes and completely scrubbed off all of thin, black plastic coating. Now, the cover just looks so sad. The "MINOLTA" badging on the cover fell off and could not be found.

The cover itself comes in two parts. There is the part that is permanently attached to the body of the camera via two loops with push-button clips that go over the camera's tassle. Then, there is a second part that hinges on the attached portion through a button at the back.

The camera bag is in fantastic shape. Even the zippers work perfectly.

The big question now is, what on earth do I do with this camera and the bag and everything else that goes with it?

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Shifting Gears Section. Thanks for sharing!

In this era of EVIL, mirrorless & DSLR cameras, your thread sure comes as a breath of fresh air .

[moralfibre]

Nice thread Mohan!

I'll try and answer your questions with my limited knowledge about this. The camera is a keeper. My conversation with my elder son revolves around an age when telephone lines were limited, internet connection had a 9.6 kbit/s speed and we had at most 6 or 7 toys.

These conversations often led me to believe that I should have preserved those bits better. A dial-up modem or that odd rotary dial telephone with it's super loud ringer. It would have brought an added perspective of touch and feel to those memories. The newer generation is often baffled to hear that we were so "primitive"!

Getting your camera back in shape should be fairly simple. There are two options I can see:

1) Once things ease out on COVID-19, make a trip to Fort area of Bombay. There are legends in that area with respect to camera repair and restoration. While I don't know of direct contacts there, I'm sure many responses on this thread will follow.


2) If you have a good access to Ebay, pickup an older body of the X-300s for $10-50 and have all internals retrofitted into this one. Would be a worthy spend IMO.

3) Your camera lenses seem to have accrued a lot of fungus. With Mumbai weather or even otherwise, this is quite common. A good DIY would be to make a storage box for your lenses that continuously pass light through it to avoid this development.

Very recently we had visited an interesting vintage camera shop in San Rafael, CA. A friend picked up a whopping $2000 Leica film camera!! Do email them to see if they can source parts for your camera as well - https://www.seawood.shop/

Nice pics of the Golden Gate bridge.

[Kosfactor]

Spend some time and money to clean it up, inside out. Buy a a few rolls of b&w film and use a DIY method to develop and scan the negatives.

I recently found some old color negatives which I could scan, convert to color using snapseed.

It appears that noone ever bothered to print that roll of film all those years, nice pictures and something to kick the boredom.

I have a few film cameras, including a Gevabox, a crude camera which I have not yet tried to use, it looks nice and its shutter works so I've just kept it in the shelf.

There is however a big market for used film cameras, I have visited one such shop in Kochi, the collection was mind boggling. From new reproductions to proper vintage cameras were available.

[SmartCat]

My Dad's vintage Canon Canonet QL17 G-III camera, bought in 1975 for an equivalent of Rs. 3,500 in Germany:





Made in Taiwan:



Self-timer:



Shooting modes (Sunny, Cloudy etc):



With original cover (well, it is 45 years old now):



With flash:



This camera is famous enough to have its own Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonet_G-III_QL17

The Canonet G-III QL17 is a coupled-rangefinder, leaf-shuttered, fixed-focal-length 35 mm camera first manufactured by Canon in 1972. It features fully shutter-priority automatic exposure and fully manual shooting modes.

The G-III features a 40 mm f/1.7 with six elements in four groups. The integrated lightmeter provides shutter priority and manual modes. The sensor is located on the forward part of the lens, which allows use of filters without manual compensation of exposure. The Canonet can use standard flashes, or the Canolite D which was custom-designed for the Canonet.

It also finds a place in "Canon Museum" (check full specs in the link below):
https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/film84.html

Youtube review of G-III QL17:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQBJDGmRoAI

[mohansrides]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Presenting, my Dad's vintage Canon Canonet QL17 G-III camera. Bought in 1975 for an equivalent of Rs. 3,500 in Germany.....

Wow!! That’s amazing!! Check out that camera cover. Gnarly!!

Comparing this to my Minolta, I am going to say that except for the timer which became electronic, it appears that most of the other controls had stayed remarkably similar in look, feel, and operation until the advent of DSLRs. I really love that flash. I never bought one because I always felt that flash photography tends to look washed out. But there are others with better skills who make flash-lit pictures look really good.

I would take it to a camera shop and see if the camera is still operational.

Cheers

[Jeroen]

Nice one!

My first SLR was a Practika LTL3. A couple years later I upgraded to a Minolta X-700, a somewhat more elaborate version of the X300 you are showing earlier.

The Minolta was my main camera for the better part of 10-15 years. I had it with me during all my merchant navy and offshore years! In those years I mostly shot slides. Remember those?

Also, most of the photographs of the early years of our marriage and first kids were mostly shot with this camera.

My whole slide collection was badly damaged some years ago and I chucked it all out. These sort of cameras are nice to have, but in terms of value, they are almost worthless I find. I tried trading it in against some more modern stuff some years ago, but the camera shop would not even take it.

I can’t quite remember what lenses I have, other than the stand lens (probably 50-55mm) that was fitted. I do know I had a couple of zoom lenses and a wide angle.

I did manage to sell it off on a flea market. I have none of my old cameras, neither analoge or dialoge. When I upgrade I get rid of all the old stuff usually.

There is only one camera I have kept, purely for sentimental reasons. It’s my Dad’s all Zeiss Ikon. Not quire sure how old it is, but probably a bit older than I am, which would put it well over 60 years! Still working as far as I can tell. My dad wasn’t much of a photographer, but not many people were in those days. But he used to click a few photographs whenever we went on holiday, special occasions and so on.



Jeroen

[Amrik Singh]

Having had a long list of Cameras
- Minolta 430 (110 Cassette)
- Yashica Electro 35
- Canon AE1 Program
- Canon A1
- Nikon EM
- Nikon F601

I have no regret disposing off any of these, currently owning Nikon D5000 which is due to be replaced very soon by Nikon D5600.

But, I feel sorry for the one I wanted to keep as a relic . It was damaged lying in poor condition during my long stay in Dubai. Believe me, it has seen better days and used by me for B/W photography while I had Canon AE 1 for Colour.

[R2D2]

Nice thread. Though I had a pro grade digital kit my favorite camera bodies continue to be my Nikon F100 purchased in the early 2000s and a mid 1990s F601. Digital cameras come and go but film bodies are eternal. My dream film bodies? The Nikon F4 from 1988/89 followed by the F5 (my brother had this model) from '96. I learned how to shoot film using my Dad's Canon AE-1 and Yashica Electro 35 GS. Not to forget my paternal Grandpa's Kodak Brownie. To me film bodies are like classic hand wound or self winding watches fine mechanically intricate instruments. Love 'em!!

[IMP]

Nice Thread!

In my family, we have the minolta X-300. I wonder what are the differences with the x-300s. It is not working as of now, its shutter mechanism has a problem. Cosmetically it is in a much better condition. Most of my childhood portraits are taken with this one.


Will check out fort area for repairs. Thanks moralfibre!

I've seen 35mm film on amazon. https://www.amazon.in/Kodak-Ektar-Professional-Exposures-Negative/dp/B001GO5TU0/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=35mm+film&qid=1595146 934&sr=8-3
It will be great nostalgia to use this camera again! I've heard that Hira photo on Tilak Road still develops Film.

My dad had the Agfa Click III before this Minolta, He used to develop the photos himself from film as a part of his college photography club in the 70's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V46Z_JC-P-E

I'm a Nikon user now, currently have the D5000 and the D700 for which I am slowly but steadily building up my set of Nikon lenses for these.

One interesting thing about mirrorless cameras is the fact that one can adopt almost any SLR camera lens to any mirrorless body. For e.g. the minolta lenses can be adopted to most other mirrorless mounts such as the Sony E mount or Fuji X mount or the Canon mirrorless mount. Mind you these lenses are mostly manual focus.

Here are some adapters which are available on amazon India https://www.amazon.in/s?k=minolta+adapter&i=electronics&crid=WJ1O45YJJEG U&sprefix=minolta+ad%2Celectronics%2C294&ref=nb_sb _ss_fb_1_10

Cheers,
IMP

[bikertillidie]

Nice thread.

Reminds me of my first SLR camera, the Kiev 19. Had upgraded to a Nikon FM10 during '95 and I still have it around the house somewhere..

These days, I stick to the Nikon D5200 (or use my cell phone, if I am too lazy).

[mmxylorider]

I have the exact model back in India with the same issue, disintegrating plastic. I had plans of getting that camera to the US with my next trip but those plans are in disarray. At least here, I can buy film, process it and get the negatives. I also have a quite old Olympus from 1980 that takes really good daylight pics. Using 400 film has yielded the best results. Not a great fan of Digital SLRs with cell phones coming quite close.

[theqca]

Its nice to see film cameras on the forum. Happy that you are actually thinking of using the camera.

I shoot quite a bit in digital and have a website for my photography but still hold on to some 7 or 8 film SLRs and Rangefinders which I use once in a way mostly shooting Kodak Tmax400. Stopped shooting slides some time ago so its mostly Tmax.

Your location says Mumbai - I live in the same city. Let me know if you need help in getting that camera and lenses cleaned / sourcing film / developing negatives or slides.

[desertfox]

I have exactly the same camera Minolta X 300 and a Tamron 55-210 mm lens. With Minolta flash leather cases polarizer filters UV filters. But I have no idea what to do with it.
Also a Minolta Autofocus Freedom 90 compact.

Complete with leather case and guide books in mint condition.

But photographic film is no longer sold. The Agfa ISO 200 film I used or its East German version Perutz can no longer be seen. Fuji / Kodak film have also disappeared from the shelves. What to do with this old world relic ? I use a Nikon DX 3200 now with a new set of Nikkor lenses. SD cards have replaced the friendly old film. I guess the last time I took pictures with any of my Minoltas was 2008. A good 12 years ago.