HiMatic 9 first results

rolleistef

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Hello,
Just got my new Minolta HiMatic 9 first results back from the lab. The film is a Kodak Gold 200. Quickly post-processed with GIMP.
Shot in the RER, the fast link in Paris.
 

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Very nice results. The 45/1.7 lens on the HM-9 is great. I've had mine since 1969.

The HM-9 was produced in less numbers than the HM-7, but has the better lens on it.
 
Of course it's a rangefinder camera, but look what was a 1969 "easy-flash" system capable of! I had to remember I had actually used one! HiMatic 9 & Minolta Autoflash Psomething.

The third one show you how much I like trains, especially those I take daily. Those two MI62 have been the first RER to run in 1968. They're still in use, some of them under their original aspect (though blue till the late 1980s), but most of the rolling stock has been modernised.
Item of interest : with 300 millions passengers a year, and over 1 million on working days, the line A of the RER is the busiest train line in the world, Japan excepted (but Tokyo is a 35 million metropolis, so that's no fair game). It crosses the Paris region east-west, with three west branches and two east branches. The lines ran with those trains is also the oldest passenger line in France, opened in 1837. For the first 30 years, the last section of the line had too steep a slope for the steam engines they had, so they would operate for about 20 years a vacuum train going as fast as 35kph (20mph), before they started using a second engine and eventually use electricity.
 

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The middle picture in the last set is alarming. Until I saw it, I was convinced that you had a healthy respect for the horizontal.

I see that the HM9 is in good company.
 
Quite a lot sir... here is your wish fulfilled! Got mine for 35€ including postage from Australia (" 'morning Bruce") to France ("your father was a hamster and your mother smelled of eldeberry")...

First pic is taken in La Défense, the CBD outside Paris, play-and-testground for newer and older cameras. Second picture is me, taken by a friend of mine (first time ever somebody else manages to use my RF correctly), and third is from HighMatic F, nice present from a collector who had two of them, that was taken in London as you might recognize. I saw that fur hat and thought "wow! Where's my camera?"
 

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Thanks for the shots Stephane! Out of the last three shots I like the one of you best of all. There is a mystery about the lady with the hat though! Looks like your camera lens is quite capable. I'll start looking for one like it soon.
Best Regards,
Tom
 
The Hi-Matic 9 is the one to get. The meter remains operational with the camera on manual exposure. The Hi-Matic 11 has the same lens, shutter-priority and full program mode - but not full manual operation.
 
Basically the 9 is a 7s with a better lens (45/1.7 against 45/1.8) and an "easy flash" mode allowing you to make flash photography the easiest thing on earth : set the speed and turn the aperture dial the other direction to select the Guide Number. The meter readout goes to "flash" and away we shoot!

On the photo of me, you can distinctly see the pentagone shape of the 5 blade iris. There's no iris on the HiMatic F, though, this role is played by the shutter.

I used my Minolta flash with a 45° inclination, using the ceiling as a reflector, which you can spot on the second flash picture with the reflexion in the window (the guy with a flower necklace).

Thanks a lot for your kind comments!
Cheers,
 
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