What’s in the Box – January 2023

What’s in the Box – January 2023

Published by Dave Roberts on  February 13, 2023 under Film Photography Tips and Tutorials and tagged Konica, Minolta

What’s the most recent arrivals at Turning Analog HQ? Or what’s in the box, my kids ask innocently, while I immediately think of the closing scenes of SE7EN. There will be nothing quite so gruesome in these posts.

Konica FC-1 and a Hexanon 28mm f/3.5 lens. I bought this as I already had a Hexanon 28mm lens that was a random find in a job lot of M42 lenses. The Konica FC-1 came with the 28mm Tamron Adaptall 2 lens, so for around a tenner something had to work. Some cleaning and fiddling and the camera eventually works and lens looks good was a good buy. Of course, this then saw a slew of Adaptall 2 lenses arrive at my front door, which I won’t bore you about just yet! I do know they are raved about online and I look forward to seeing the results from the first few rolls…

Another Minolta Zoom mk2 has been acquired,  as I’d been so impressed with the shots from my first one, but it didn’t focus properly or wind on and there was fungus in the lens, yet still took good photos. The results looked better than my Pentax Auto 110, though I suspect that is underexposing.  The second copy is looking good! I’m planning a head to head with my Pentax 110 in the coming months.

The Fujica Rapid D1 was an impulsive buy. I thought it was a half frame 35mm camera when it turned out to take rapid film. On looking onto it, the most appealing thing about most rapid cameras is that they take square photos on 35mm sized film. So the Fujica seems to miss the point as it takes regular format in portrait, a bit like a half frame. So down the rapid film rabbit hole I went and I decided that the Minolta rapid 24 was one of the best options, and this came in an untested job lot with two other rangefinders. With the 32mm f/2.8 Rokkor lens, I can only expect great results, though the rapid film system is a pain as I need to load it up with only limited amount of film (you really need a bulk loader to load short canisters, which finally arrived with a small amount of plus-x this month!)

As a Bonus, there’s also the Konica SII rangefinder with a Hexanon 48mm f/2 lens, and this relatively scarce camera appears to work as well. The leather case this comes in is quite beautiful.  Both are currently loaded up with some plus-x and ready to shoot, even though the light seals probably need replacing. The little Porst 135 however, doesn’t seem to be fully functional as the aperture doesn’t seem to open into a circle.

And finally – a roll of expired bulk Ektachrome 64 which means I need to get my C41 / E6 developing kit set up! I totally plan on using this to take some panoramic shots in the Fuji GSW690ii – but it remains to be seen if the majority of this film will be developed in E6 or cross processed (or rolled up and sold on eBay, who knows).

I wonder what February will bring? 

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