Full Circle

Walking out of the camera store, I didn't expect to be as sad as I was. But more on that subject, later.

If you've been a long-time follower of this blog—even if you've only started reading it as of last Friday—you know that my first exposure (no pun intended) to SLR photography was with a Minolta camera.

My father had an SR-T 101 and and let me cut my teeth on it, especially working as a photographer for my high-school yearbook. When I was ready to own a camera of my own, I bought a Minolta X-700 with a 28–75mm f/3.5–4.5 zoom lens.

My father's SR-T 101 now belongs to me.

The best part of buying another Minolta was that I could still use my father's amazing 58mm f/1.2 lens, and I used it more than any other on my X-700. That is, until he told me it was time to get a prime lens of my own, and I settled for the 50mm f/1.7.

When Kid 1 came along, I thought it was time to update to the digital age with a pocket camera. At the time, Minolta point-and-shoot cameras didn't have favourable reviews, whereas the Canon cameras seemed to dominate. I wasn't surprised, as my first point-and-shoot 35mm camera was the Nikon One Touch, which was better than anything Minolta had at the time, and Canon also made great pocket cameras.

DW and I bought a Canon PowerShot, though she used it more than I did. I still preferred capturing images on my X-700, even though I couldn't see the results right away. And over time, I wanted to see the pictures of Kid 1 as soon as possible so I could send them to family and friends.

By the time I was ready to move to D-SLRs, Minolta was gone. In 2005, it had divested itself of its camera line and Sony bought up the technology. In 2008, when I started shopping, it seemed that Canon and Nikon were the dominant brands, and I eventually went with Nikon, after being a Minolta fan for 25 years.

I have no regrets about owning any of my Nikon D-SLRs: my D80, which lasted me for seven years, was the camera I was using when I joined the Ottawa Photography Meetup club; the D7200, which I bought in March 2015, is still a great camera, but with which I have recently departed, along with several lenses; and the D750, which I will probably keep forever. As some of you may know—again, if you've been following this blog—I only gave up the D7200 because I found one of my lenses too heavy to wield, and so I sold it and a bunch of my gear to upgrade to lighter equipment.

I don't move fast when I'm searching for camera gear. I weigh the pros and cons of all makes and models before I make my decision. That One Touch I bought in the late 80s? It took me months of comparing everything out there, and I worked in a camera store at the time.

I've only been looking since the beginning of February. Two-and-a-half months is pretty quick for me to make a decision (being semi-retired helps).

When DW bought her Canon R7 in December, I remember holding it with her 100–400mm lens and thinking how incredibly light it is. It weighed less than my D7200 with the 70–300mm lens, and hers had a longer reach than mine, in terms of zooming.

I considered getting a Canon, as we could then exchange lenses. But of course, we have both started getting into nature photography—in particular, bird photography—and we'd both need telephoto lenses. I considered a 150–600mm lens, but I'd be getting into the same situation with my 200–500mm lens, where it would be too heavy.

At Vistek, I checked out a Fujifilm XT-5 and compared it to the OM System OM-1 Mark II. I liked the fast focusing on both. In the store, as DW walked around and I tried to lock focus on her eye, I found the XT-5 seemed faster and more accurate, whereas the OM-1 seemed to sometimes lose focus. This surprised me because I had watched a review of the OM-1 Mark II and the focus, as the reviewer was capturing flying puffins, seemed to have no problem.

Perhaps the store lighting was a factor?

I loved the feel of the OM-1 in my hands and I loved the two-times reach of its micro four-thirds lenses. The 100–400mm lens essentially became a 200–800mm lens.

Of course, the OM System camera was much more expensive, and so I regretfully scratched it off my list.

Doing some more digging, I started looking at the OM-D body, which then led me to the OM-5 Mark II, which seemed a more reasonably priced camera. Watching some YouTube reviews, this camera seemed like a very good option, and so I put it on my list of top contenders.

There was one brand of camera that I hadn't taken into consideration throughout my search: the Sony Alpha system. I don't know why I ignored them: was it because they took the Minolta technology?

Quite frankly, there should have been no reason to ignore them. After all, Minolta was the first camera company to come out with the in-body autofocus system. I remember selling the Maxxum series of cameras—I was actually tempted to upgrade my X-700 for one, whilst I could take advantage of my employee discount, except the lens mounting system on the Maxxum series had changed and I didn't want to replace all of my older Minolta lenses.

Minolta was also an innovator of many features. Their autofocus improved with multiple sensors, plus multi-sensor light metering. And they were the first to have image stabilization technology.

The truth is that Minolta—now Sony—had been a leader in camera technology for so long that it was a hard system to beat when it came to focusing and metering.

When I was researching the OM-5, on which I became pretty much set after watching several reviews, I started looking at Sony. In particular, the α6700.

Looking directly at it from the front, the body reminded me of a point-and-shoot camera, with there being no prism housing on top. But it has a nice hand grip and the buttons were in spots that were mostly convenient. One custom button on the right side seems awkwardly placed.

The continuous-focus feature is amazing, both with stills and video. With a 70–350mm zoom lens, it has the effective range of 105–525mm, which is a greater range than the 200–500mm that is offered on the Nikon telephoto zoom.

And the winning factor was that with the α6700 and the 70–350mm lens, it weighs only 1.1 kg. That's even 200 grams lighter than DW's Canon R7 setup.

I hadn't even had one in my hands when I made my decision, but I was sold. And last Friday, as I was preparing to pick up the camera, I saw that it was on sale at Henry's.

On the previous weekend, I made the decision to trade in my Nikon D7200 and various lenses rather than sell them privately. I had no real nibbles on Kijiji: only scammers reached out to take the whole gear, without trying to work out a deal (big red flag).

The only serious inquiries were for the beast lens, and whilst some folks talked me down to $900, no one went for it (they always tried to get it for less, and $900 was as low as I wanted to go). Talking with my Henry's Camera rep, the previous weekend, I learned that the store was offering an additional 15 percent for trade-in items, plus you'd get the tax on the trade-in value. He looked up my lens and said I could get a little over $850 during this event.

Yes, it was less than I wanted but it eliminated any hassle. It was then that I decided that not only would I bring in this lens, I'd bring in the D7200 and the other four lenses. The next day, I sent the sales rep an e-mail that listed all of the equipment that I had for trade in, and a few days later, he sent me an estimate.

I was hoping to get at least two grand for my gear: Henry's would take it for just under $1,900.

And now, here's the sad part (I bet you had forgotten about it, am I right?).

As I cleaned and packed up my Nikon gear, I looked at all of the camera equipment that I have accumulated over the decades, wondering if any other pieces were worth anything. And my eyes fell to my Minolta gear.

I haven't shot any film on my X-700 in more than 10 years. And I've already said that should I choose to work with 35mm film again, I'd probably pick up the SR-T 101.

I picked up the old camera and held the added motor-drive grip that felt so familiar. Even though it was empty of batteries and film, just holding it brought back memories of adventures we shared. All of the images I captured in journalism school and the Wakefield newspaper. All of the experimental shots. All of the trips—the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Mexico, the two Koreas, China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and all over Canada and the U.S.

I had run hundreds of rolls of film through my X-700 and it never let me down. Not once.

I set the camera gently on the kitchen counter, picked up my smartphone, and snapped a photo of my trusty Minolta. And then, with a heavy sigh, added it to the camera bag that held all of my trade-in gear. I grabbed the extra lenses—a 28–75mm and 70–200mm—and placed them in the bag, too. I had various colour and special-effects filters that fit over the nifty 50. They joined the kit.

At Henry's, the sales rep had held my new camera aside. He inspected my old gear to confirm that it was in great condition, and he saw my X-700, a little beat up but still in good nick.

"I don't know if it's worth anything," I said, holding it out for him to assess. Looking it up on his computer, he said his system had no value for the zoom lenses, as they were Magnicon pieces of glass—the name brand for Black's Cameras. He could only accept the body and the Minolta 50mm lens.

His system also didn't show anything for the Minolta motor drive, but he said he'd bump up the camera and lens to 'great condition' to make up for the valueless drive. Even then, he could only offer $100 for the camera.

"I'll never use it again," I said, "and I can't be bothered to sell it privately."

He must have seen the sadness in my eyes, as I held the camera one last time, because he offered another $50 off the sale price of the new gear I was about to buy. And he added that the new kit came with a free spare battery and charger.

Initially, I thought the Sony α6700 would just be my wildlife camera, but because the camera is perfect for vlogging, I bought the body with a 16–50mm lens (rather than just the body and telephoto zoom). This lightweight system will also come with me when DW and I travel, shaving off a lot of extra weight and space from my luggage.

I was only able to pick up the α6700 and kit lens on Friday. The 70–350mm lens had to be ordered but will hopefully be in the store tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday.

I can't wait. DW and I visited the Bruce Pit nature trails on the weekend, and we saw and heard so much wildlife. I was envious as DW captured my Merlin Bird of the Day—a great egret—with her setup while I could only go from wide to portrait angles.

Photo: DW

I'll have my own photos to share, tomorrow, but nothing like the wildlife that DW captured.

Will I forsake my Nikon D750? No. As I said, I'll keep it forever. I'll still use it for portraits in the studio, and if I continue to do real-estate photography, it's a great camera for that (I also kept my Sigma 10–20mm f/4–5.6 lens).

I seem to have come full circle on my cameras. I started with Minolta: it looks like I'm back to equipment that was built on Minolta technology.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to put this camera through its paces and see what imagery I can create. Right now, I'm just reading the manual, watching instructional videos, and getting familiar with my new purchase.

But you just know that I'll be sharing those photos here. Stay tuned.