Disappointed Results from my Minox 35ML
Luke
Subject : Disappointed Results from my Minox 35ML
First, I consider myself not a good photographer, well, may
be not even a photographer. I use a Pentax Program A camera
to take snapshot a lot, but that's about it.
Recently, I got a 11-yr-old Minox 35ML from my father a few
weeks ago. I shot about 4 rolls of films. The films are Kadak
Royal Gold 400 and Fuji 400 Super G Plus.
I found that results of pictures are not as good as I expected.
In fact, quite disappointed. Here are problems:
(1) Sharpness: Pictures from Minox 35ML are not as sharp as
pictures from my 10-year-old Pentax SLR Program A camera.
Some pictures are focus in some area but not in other area.
(2) Lighting: Pictures look very dark. (I went to New York city
for four days. It was cloudy at that time. This might be the
reason.)
(3) Colorless: Pictures lack richness or intensity of color. Same
results from Kodak Royal Gold 400 and Fuji Super G Plus 400.
(4) Flash: I attached a Minox MT35 flash on top of Minox 35ML.
I found the range of MT35 flash is very limited. I did not get
good results in most flashed pictures.
I am not sure that the reason of these bad pictures is my bad
technique, bad lab processing, bad Minox lens, bad weather,
or combination of all of above.
I have a few questions:
(1) I thought if I use 400 films, I should be able to take good
pictures during cloudy days. Is it true?
(2) Many people in the net suggest "always use 400 film for a
point-and-shoot camera". Should I use 400 film for Minox 35ML?
(3) The way that Minox 35ML works is almost the same as
my old SLR Pentax Program A. I thought that I should have no
problem to use Minox 35ML. Now I know my assumption was wrong.
This camera must have some limitations which I don't know about
it. I consider that Minox 35ML is not an easy camera to use.
Any suggestions on using this camera will be greatly appreciated.
Luke
Garry Lee
These have meters which are very sensitive to sky, particularly cloudy
sky. Turn camera unside down to protect against this effect or change film
speed by halving or quartering it. These cameras have very good lenses but
you must be good at guess focussing. Use length of your arm as a guage
when close up. Measure it.
joe b.
In article <507jpg$v...@nuacht.iol.ie>, Garry Lee <gl...@iol.ie> writes
>These have meters which are very sensitive to sky, particularly cloudy
>sky. Turn camera unside down to protect against this effect or change film
>speed by halving or quartering it.
With the 35ML you can lock the exposure for a scene in by pressing the
shutter release halfway. So if you want to shoot an outdoor scene with a
fair amount of sky, you can point the camera down at the ground to
exclude the sky and thus prevent it from misleading the camera's meter,
lock the exposure by pressing the shutter release halfway and keeping it
pressed until you press all the way to take the picture, but re-compose
the picture to include the amount of sky you wanted to before actually
taking it.
And you can lock the exposure in this way in any situation where a lot
of very light or very dark stuff might otherwise mislead the camera's
meter. It's the reason why I prefer the 35ML to the others in the range.
--
joe b.
Jeff Segawa
>I have a few questions:
>(1) I thought if I use 400 films, I should be able to take good
>pictures during cloudy days. Is it true?
>(2) Many people in the net suggest "always use 400 film for a
>point-and-shoot camera". Should I use 400 film for Minox 35ML?
>(3) The way that Minox 35ML works is almost the same as
>my old SLR Pentax Program A. I thought that I should have no
>problem to use Minox 35ML. Now I know my assumption was wrong.
>This camera must have some limitations which I don't know about
>it. I consider that Minox 35ML is not an easy camera to use.
>Any suggestions on using this camera will be greatly appreciated.
I have a Minox 35EL which is similar, but (I think) older than your ML.
Here are some impressions:
400 film does not work well in daylight conditions: Much of the time, the
camera's at max shutter speed and minimum aperture. I use 100. 400 film is
great for those cameras which have slow optics to begin with; the Minox's
2.8 lens is exceptionally fast for a camera of this sort.
Camera meter is so-so and easily fooled by large expanses of sky. Camera
can be manually controlled by manipulating the film speed lever (shutter
speed readout as indicated in finder seems to be accurate enough to allow
use of even slide film) For typical outdoor use in the daytime, an aperture
setting of f/5.6 or f/8 should produce good results and will not require
you to be too accurate with regards to focus.
Yes, the camera could be better-I wish the shutter speed could go faster
and the lens could close down more and that it had smarter metering. But it
does work quite well once you're aware of it's limitations. Haven't used
the flash, but expect that it's exactly as you say: Very limited range.
---------------------------------------------------
Jeff Segawa (seg...@netone.com)
Boulder, Colorado, USA
Specialist in interesting, quality junk.
Seeking Kiev 60 and Horizont-202 related items.
---------------------------------------------------
H. Koroschetz
In <507bop$2...@Masala.CC.UH.EDU>, civ...@jetson.uh.edu (Luke) writes:
>
>Subject : Disappointed Results from my Minox 35ML
>
>First, I consider myself not a good photographer, well, may
>be not even a photographer. I use a Pentax Program A camera
>to take snapshot a lot, but that's about it.
>
>Recently, I got a 11-yr-old Minox 35ML from my father a few
>weeks ago. I shot about 4 rolls of films. The films are Kadak
>Royal Gold 400 and Fuji 400 Super G Plus.
>
>I found that results of pictures are not as good as I expected.
>In fact, quite disappointed. Here are problems:
>
>(1) Sharpness: Pictures from Minox 35ML are not as sharp as
>pictures from my 10-year-old Pentax SLR Program A camera.
>Some pictures are focus in some area but not in other area.
Sharpness can only be a problem taking close-up pictures,
because estimating of the object distance is not always exactly.
>(2) Lighting: Pictures look very dark. (I went to New York city
>for four days. It was cloudy at that time. This might be the
>reason.)
I have the same problem with my MINOX 35 GL.
I shoot several rolls of slide film and recogniced that it
underexposures about 1.5 f-stops.
So I use different ASA-settings at bottom of the camera
(125 ASA for 400 ASA film, ...).
Also I like the Fujicolor 400 ASA very much, it is a very good film,
if you don't need large enhancements.
H. Koroschetz
Alex
In article <50dvj9$g...@fstgal00.tu-graz.ac.at>,
H. Koroschetz <ko...@finwpc12.tu-graz.ac.at> wrote:
>In <507bop$2...@Masala.CC.UH.EDU>, civ...@jetson.uh.edu (Luke) writes:
>>
>>Subject : Disappointed Results from my Minox 35ML
>>
>>
>>I found that results of pictures are not as good as I expected.
>>In fact, quite disappointed. Here are problems:
>>
>>(2) Lighting: Pictures look very dark. (I went to New York city
>>for four days. It was cloudy at that time. This might be the
>>reason.)
>
>I have the same problem with my MINOX 35 GL.
>I shoot several rolls of slide film and recogniced that it
>underexposures about 1.5 f-stops.
>So I use different ASA-settings at bottom of the camera
>(125 ASA for 400 ASA film, ...).
>
I think the meter reads "too much sky" outdoors. You can get a
better meter reading by shading the photocell so that it only
gets light from, say, the lower half of a landscape. I use my
hand for a shade, or sometimes just hold the camera upside down
and use the flip down door to shade the lens and photocell area
from stray sunlight/daylight.
I recall that the meter would work reasonably well indoors, only
outdoor scenes (with lots of sky) were a problem. A lot of the
time I would select some lens apature ( like f8 for daylight ) then
use my finger to rotate the ASA settings so that the viewfinder
exposure meter would register the shutter speed I wanted (like 1/250
for ASA64 Kodachrome.)
One note regarding the viewfinder on the Minox 35EL, 35GL and 35GT
models (perhaps the 35ML is the same): it is tiny, and even without
glasses I had to position my eye very close to the viewfinder
in order to see the frame edges.
Alex Milller
a...@netcom.com
joe b.
In article <ammDx3...@netcom.com>, Alex <a...@netcom.com> writes
>I think the meter reads "too much sky" outdoors. You can get a
>better meter reading by shading the photocell so that it only
>gets light from, say, the lower half of a landscape. I use my
>hand for a shade, or sometimes just hold the camera upside down
Please, folks, lets remember we're talking about the 35ML here- it has
*exposure lock*- there's no need to fiddle with ASA or turn the camera
upside down or shade the meter cell- you just point it at the ground and
lock the exposure, recompose and shoot! It's easy, it's simple. It's in
the instruction manual.
--
joe b.
Sam Beavin
Duh--ya mean I is suposed 2 reed dat book.
Actually I would imagine about 75% of the problems that we have are fully
explained in "the book". No flame replies are necessary as I readily admit
that I'm guilty too. Heard some one say just a couple of days ago that
'real men don't need instruction books'. At least women can admit to
reading instruction books and stopping the car to get directions;>)
--
Sam
sbe...@serv.net