Minolta 7sII / frst RF experience

Ah! That's a good idea (turning Auto off to save battery). I have been relying on the lens cap to save the battery, but this is even better, since I hate lens caps.

I intentionally overexpose negative film, as I like a nice dense negative. You really can't judge your negatives by the workprints. Try giving those shots a nice negative scan and see if you still think you're overexposing... I stay away from the Wein cells because they're more expensive than drug store batteries!
 
That first shot is f/8? It looks really good! Great sharpness (from what I can tell in the thumbnail) and DOF.

Now I want a 7s, too!

koniczech
 
Naumoski:
I just picked the same camera, waiting for postman, if dont mind: how much did you pay for it??
Regards.
Bob.
 
My favorite fixed lens camera from that era and is currently my carry around camera. I get a lot of "Is that a digital" questions, but it works well with Tri-x. Need to replace the seals though.

Eric
 
HI. For my Hi-Matic (Tri-X forever) I just bought new hearing aid zinc/air 675 batteries (1.4v but apparently they burn down to 1.35? can anyone testify further on that?): so now I have five or six of these babies and they will expire before I use them. Anyone who wants some contact me with mailing address. They have little blue strips that perhaps (or just faking it) keeps them fresh. I believe my e-mail address is on my profile or whatever it is.
V
 
I found another 'problem' on my Minolta 7sII:

The framing is quite unprecise and off. I don't believe this has something with the rangefinder?

I slowly and precisely photographed this tho photos:

Here I was aligning the arrows with the cross.
krst1.jpg



Here I was centering the cross in the circle.
krst2.jpg


From the photos it's like the photos have been taken with my right eye (or as I would hold the camera a little to right). I could't be this unprecise when i took the photos, I might be just a little but not as this.

I olso have notised on other photos that from the left side they are cut off and there is more space on the right side.

Any conclusions about this?
 
Naumoski,

Are you getting this in just pictures with a close foreground subject or on distant subjects as well. It looks like you are dealing with a parallax error. Especially if the foreground in your images are shifted to the left of center. The 7sII does not have a parallax correcting viewfinder so using the parallax guide in the viewfinder should help. Lining up the close subject to the guide essentially means that you are shifting the camera to the left to bring the taking lens into proper alignment. Here is a page from the manual.

himatic7sii1011.jpg
 
Parallax correction or not you will get this 'shift' (near-far miss-alignment) with all rangefinders. Frankly, for this particular type of error, it is easier to manually account for with a non-parallax-correcting viewfinder. With the 7sii, frame how you like, then (while maintaining your camera's back plane) slide your camera lens to where the viewfinder was and take the picture.
 
I downloaded a manual for 7sII to read the text.

Should I frame the subjects more to the upper left corner (or to leave more space to the right) for distances more than 1.3 meters - as it says in the text?

As I realised, if I wanted to align the cross on the piture, I've should have framed it as it's on the picture now, to get the right frame after?

camera.bear said:
Naumoski,

Are you getting this in just pictures with a close foreground subject or on distant subjects as well. It looks like you are dealing with a parallax error. Especially if the foreground in your images are shifted to the left of center. The 7sII does not have a parallax correcting viewfinder so using the parallax guide in the viewfinder should help. Lining up the close subject to the guide essentially means that you are shifting the camera to the left to bring the taking lens into proper alignment. Here is a page from the manual.

View attachment 81085
Click to expand...
 
bensyverson said:
Love this camera.
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Pretty nice portrait Ben.

I often compose to have a tree in the background to achieve that dizzy sharp pentagonal bokeh which lens produce :)

I will get mine to a several days trip in Belgrade, I think it will be nice choice for traveling and some street shots, leaving the slr at home.

Also I found that the lens are much better for color (several T-max 400 films appear very mushy and grainy when compared to my slr rokkor's), I got some very nice results with a cheap Fujicolor, also good with Portra 160vc expired 2005, not much good with Kodak gold 100.
Do you have any opinions on this..?
 
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The Minolta 7SII rather pricey instrument especially in black. It is a very good instrument with good color rendition and good in black and white. It is small and light. It is rare and its price will only rise. For a camera to carry with you for those surprise moments it is excellent. Personally, I have several different cameras like that which I carry when I am involved in other activities that presuppose photography, i.e. diving, snorkling, etc.
 
Naumoski said:
Also I found that the lens are much better for color (several T-max 400 films appear very mushy and grainy when compared to my slr rokkor's), I got some very nice results with a cheap Fujicolor, also good with Portra 160vc expired 2005, not much good with Kodak gold 100.
Do you have any opinions on this..?
Click to expand...
Thanks Naumoski! I've found the 7sii pretty nice for B&W -- check the shot of the alley I posted earlier in the thread (far expired TMAX 100). It's all about nailing a good exposure. If you're much over or under, you'll wind up bringing out the grain.

I've never had any luck with the Kodak Gold series. Fuji's consumer film is far better... But Kodak's pro films are quite nice. You can usually get great results from expired film as long as it wasn't stored poorly, and you figure a speed loss of about 1 stop per 5-10 years.
 
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