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I recently inherited the Minolta X-700 and Nikon F4 film cameras from my grandfather who is now quite old and nearing the end of his life. Neither had been used
by pwpw 3y ago
I recently inherited the Minolta X-700 and Nikon F4 film cameras from my grandfather who is now quite old and nearing the end of his life. Neither had been used in a long time. I gave them a good cleaning and purchased some film. Besides using disposable cameras when I was younger, I had never shot on film with a proper camera. I have grown up admiring beautiful photos of animals and nature printed on the walls of my grandparents’ home that were taken by my grandfather on his trips all over the world. I have always admired them and wanted to recreate them.
After cleaning the Minolta, I purchased some Kodak Portra 400 film and then took it on a vacation to Albania and Greece. I had an incredible time lining up shots patiently and deliberately since every shot cost $1.50, and I could not review the results in the moment. The feeling of using a camera that my grandfather had used to capture moments from his trips four decades previously is hard to put into words.
When I returned home from my trip, I had the film developed and digitally scanned. I thought the pictures turned out pretty well for being as inexperienced as I am. I built my own gallery on my website to host them because they hold a much more special meaning to me than all of the photos I have previously taken on my iPhone. After curating the photos, I went to visit my grandfather. When I showed him the photos, he really enjoyed them. My grandparents shared a few stories about traveling with that camera and how they had the prints of the animals on their wall made.
Nobody else in my family wanted the film cameras. I am very glad I acquired them, and I plan to maintain them and eventually pass them on. To me, these are absolutely an heirloom. They are high quality, still functional, were revolutionary when they were released, and came with valuable stories and experiences from my grandfather. I couldn’t have asked for a better object to receive from him. I plan to take these cameras on all of my future trips and hopefully visit places he went to and recapture them half a century later.
- codpiece 3y agoWhat a beautiful story. I have a similar one, but never thought of recapturing the photos. Nice idea. You certainly honor and deserve the heirloom, and I wish you well.
- Aloha 3y agoWhen you can, or feel up to it, try some Kodak Ektar. You'll like it, its much less grainy than the Portra with better color registration.
- buildbot 3y agoEktar is awesome film. E100 Slide film is fun too!
- ginko 3y agoI'd recommend shooting slide film with the F4 though, since that one has a matrix meter and slide film is quite finicky if you don't get the exposure right.
- Aloha 3y agoOther than what I noted in a parallel comment, any E6 Slide film is frighteningly expensive to process compared to C41 negative film.
- buildbot 3y agoVery true, and something to be aware of.
- pwpw 3y agoThanks for the recommendation! When I opened the Nikon F4, I discovered that my grandfather had left a Provia 100 roll in it. Probably was in there for about 20 years. I just took it to get developed. It looks like a 5-pack of Provia 100F is really expensive from BH, and my local film studio charges a bit more to process E6 compared to developing C41. Ektar seems to have a much more reasonable price. I'm not good enough yet to justify spending too much. For photographing nature, would you generally recommend using 100 ISO film? I'm not planning on using a tripod since I don't want to carry one around while traveling. I'm looking for vivid colors akin to the National Geographic of old. My lenses for the Nikon F4 are: - Nikon 28mm f/2.8 Series-E - Nikon 50mm f/1.4 NIKKOR-S Auto - Sigma AF 50mm f/2.8 Macro - Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF NIKKOR ED - Tamron AF 200-400mm f/5.6 LD IF 75DN
- buildbot 3y agoBeautiful story :) Both cameras are well respected, especially the Nikon F4. Your grandfather was a man of taste!