my camerography : ode to film

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I have been a lover of film cameras my entire life. having began at the tender age of five on a blue Kodak/Fisher price camera (image 1) that took 110 film, eventually moving into high-school and the 35mm world and finding a love for Minoltas'. My first SLR, a beautiful Minolta X-700 (image 2), was gifted to me by my cousin who purchased it in Germany and thought I would get better use of it than him, what a sweety! Minolta X-700 samples here.


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After totally pimping out the Minolta X-700 with numerous extensions, I realized the bulky SLR with attachments wasn't always conducive to the situation. The hunt for a good point & shoot began. I found a 70's Minolta Hi-Matic (image 3) point & shoot for $15 at a garage sale in wisconsin with the label "takes ex. photos".

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And true to the description, this little camera has been my reliable party camera ever since. dropped a few times, a few beers split on it and it still performs like a champ, see some Minolta Hi-Matic samples here.

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Over the past few years I have been given a few different lomography cameras. These cameras are extremely temperamental, you need a lot of light to get a good result and because of it's cheap production, it will get mistaken for a disposal camera - but they are so much fun to experiment with. I received the SuperSampler (image 4) for a graduation present, and though super unreliable it has the capability of taking really interesting photos .

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After borrowing it to a friend, the camera was ruined and never replaced. Last year for my birthday my amazing boyfriend upgraded me to an Oktomat (image 5), boasting a whopping eight lenses versus the Super Sampler's measly four - this camera takes the cake. See some oktomat samples here.

Alas, in a digital world my analog ways have been failing me lately. Quality film developing is getting more and more uncommon and expensive, so I have taken the plunge into the digital world. I purchased the Canon PowerShot G10 (image 6). It's short of in between point & shoot and DSLR. It boasts manual and automatic settings, the ability to change out lenses (2 options) but it's a smaller size and easy to handle than a traditional DSLR.

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The coolest setting I have found yet is the Flash Curtain settings. Basically you can make the flash pop as normal in first curtain - right before shutter opens. Or with second curtain - the flash pops before and after, giving the photo an awesome effect. I will update my blog with some pictures from my weekend trip. I can't wait to really bond with my new pretty camera:)