Saturday, January 28, 2012

#45 Minolta Vectis S-1


In 1996 Minolta presented this single lens reflex APS camera.
The looks may deceive you due to the lack of the characteristic hump, produced by the pentaprism, that characterizes most of the SLR cameras.
This camera has this shape thanks to a quite ingenious play of mirrors.



I bought this one at a flea market, at the time, I didn't even know this model, I found it nice and got a sweet deal on it, so I bought it.

Later browsing *Bay found a complete kit with the two lens, 28-56 and 56-170 mm, and the dedicated flash SF-1.
Once again the deal was nice and I ended up with two units.


It's a model with everything you might expect on a SLR of the 90's. Several shooting modes, portrait, landscape,..., full auto, aperture or shutter speed priority and manual.
Also several flash modes, including TTL an fill-in.



I haven't used these cameras much, frankly the second unit is untested with film.

From my short experience I can tell you that it's a very lightweight camera, with good glass and quite ergonomic. The controls are, like in much of the electronic apparatus of the same vintage, very confuse with lots of buttons that, if you want to take full advantage of them, makes you consult the manual quite often.


The results are impressive for such a small negative:









Stay tuned (o:

Thursday, January 12, 2012

#44 Kodak Ektralite 400

Kodak Ektralite 400 (1)
Kodak Ektralite 400
Reomar lens 24 mm 1:6.8
Fixed focus 1,20 m - infinity
Three speed shutter: 1/60, 1/125 and 1/250
Built-in electronic flash
110 cassette film
Made in Germany

The Ektralite series were introduced concurrently with the Ektra series. They are in fact the same cameras with a built in flash.

Kodak Ektralite 400 (2)

The slider with the sun and the lightning, turns the flash on/off.
Flash on f6.8 @ 1/60"
Flash off f9.5 @ 1/250, using Kodacolor 400 film, or f9.5 @ 1/125", using Kodacolor II

Kodak Ektralite 400 (3)

Stay tuned (o;