35

Like almost everyone, I started shooting 35mm film, and while I don’t shoot as much of it as I used to, the speed and ease of the process (shooting, developing and printing) makes it a lot of fun. I mostly shoot wildflowers, wildlife, my pets, and vacation happy snaps with the 35mm cameras.

I have two 35mm cameras now — a Minolta 9 Alpha (with lenses) and a Pentax 17, a half-frame camera and one of the only brand new film cameras made by a manufacturer this decade…

The Minolta is touted by some to be “the finest 35mm camera ever made.” I’m not sure I would agree. It’s a fine camera, and I am happy to have it, but I’ve had some other really good 35mms over the years. I think my absolute favourite 35mm was my Nikon F3HP, which I shot thousands of rolls with while working in newspapers.

The F3 had limitations, too, especially the lack of of a hotshoe for a flash and a slow flash sync but the camera, overall, did every possible thing I ever asked it to do, in some really crazy conditions. It was dropped many times, flooded, overheated and frozen, and it took it all...

I made the mistake of trading it in to get a Nikon F4, which was nowhere near the same camera as the F3. It was fine to use, but couldn’t take the abuse… The F4 convinced me to move to Canon gear, as I could not afford the continual repairs … Not long after, digital started to enter the scene, and my trusty cheap little Canon A2s were replaced as well with digital stuff.

The Minolta A9 will be the 35mm I stick with, at least for a while… I have a 50mm f2.8 macro, a 24-85mm f3.5-4.5, a 70-210mm f4, and a 300mmf2.8 manual focus lens, which is a beast to carry and hold but a beauty of a lens to use!