Hello from Cupertino, California!

Minolta93 · Aug 19, 2020

Hello everybody, I hope you're having a nice day. I decided I'd like to join a forum and Photrio seemed to have the most active film discussions, so I decided to sign up here. I'm a college student living in the Bay Area in California and at the moment I've got a ~1993 Minolta Maxxum 400si. Unfortunately it seems some of the electronics are damaged and I can only shoot in Auto mode, so that's what I've been doing.

I'm out of a job at the moment but when I have some more money I'd like to get perhaps an older model on which I can learn more about the technical aspects of photography, and I'd also like to start developing my own film when I can.

And here are a couple images I liked from my last roll, I believe this was on Fujicolor Superia 400ISO. I had to shrink them to post them here.

logan2z · Aug 19, 2020

Welcome to Photrio from another Bay Area film shooter.

MattKing · Aug 19, 2020

Welcome from Canada.

Zathras · Aug 19, 2020

Welcome aboard. Minoltas are great cameras. Are you considering an older all manual Minolta, like the SR-T 101?

Sirius Glass · Aug 19, 2020

Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photrio!!

cjbecker · Aug 19, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photrio!!

Minolta93 · Aug 19, 2020

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Zathras said:
Welcome aboard. Minoltas are great cameras. Are you considering an older all manual Minolta, like the SR-T 101?

Yes, perhaps, but mostly I'd like something that, even if it's not manual, at least works properly. The dial and electronics on mine seem to be malfunctioning, so it's impossible to select exposure time, aperture, stuff like that. As such I really don't know much at all about what f-stops are, even if I've read about it, I won't really get it until I can do it myself.

So mainly I'm considering a slightly older '80s model, probably another Minolta since I do like mine, and I like '80s gadgets. But I'm not ruling out something older or fully manual, just whatever I can get on my budget in the future.

voceumana · Aug 19, 2020

Welcome!

I used to live and work in the Bay area (Newark and Fremont, to be precise)--now I like in Utah, so I have mountains instead of the bay & coast. Those are a couple of nice shots--the 2nd one looks like the National Wildlife Refuge at the sound end of the bay--lots of interesting stuff around there.

Unfortunately many of the Bay area camera stores have closed--they had some good ones. Fortunately, Freestyle is in your state so shipping should be quick from them.

Again, welcome!

dourbalistar · Aug 20, 2020

Welcome to the forum! Cupertino High School alum here, but I won't date myself. I still live in the South Bay area, but I drove down Stevens Creek Boulevard last week and could barely recognize my old neighborhood... Anyway, looking at that shot of the Shark Fin Cove in Davenport, seems like you're off to a good start with film photography. There are a lot of highly experienced and talented photographers here on Photrio, so hope you find some good resources here.

Zathras · Aug 20, 2020

Was the second shot taken at Pescadero Creek?

Minolta93 · Aug 20, 2020

voceumana said:
Welcome!

I used to live and work in the Bay area (Newark and Fremont, to be precise)--now I like in Utah, so I have mountains instead of the bay & coast. Those are a couple of nice shots--the 2nd one looks like the National Wildlife Refuge at the sound end of the bay--lots of interesting stuff around there.

Unfortunately many of the Bay area camera stores have closed--they had some good ones. Fortunately, Freestyle is in your state so shipping should be quick from them.

Again, welcome!

I've never really been to the Fremont area much myself. Here in the South Bay I can't say I remember seeing any camera stores. I do go to this place in downtown San Jose to get my photos developed, but it's not really a camera store. I've actually not heard of Freestyle, so I will check it out.

dourbalistar said:
Welcome to the forum! Cupertino High School alum here, but I won't date myself. I still live in the South Bay area, but I drove down Stevens Creek Boulevard last week and could barely recognize my old neighborhood... Anyway, looking at that shot of the Shark Fin Cove in Davenport, seems like you're off to a good start with film photography. There are a lot of highly experienced and talented photographers here on Photrio, so hope you find some good resources here.

Cupertino HS is actually quite close to where I live, but I actually didn't go there. I went to one farther north. And it's definitely changed in the last few years, it's almost unrecognizable in some places now. They tore down Vallco mall this year, too. I think they're just going to put up more expensive apartments there...

Thanks for the compliment--I definitely feel that I've gotten better at it in some ways. My first roll, looking back at it, was quite horrendous.

Zathras said:
Was the second shot taken at Pescadero Creek?

I believe that one was actually taken at the beach on the same day as the first shot, where a small stream met the ocean.

Zathras · Aug 20, 2020

Minolta93 said:
Thanks for the warm welcome.

Yes, perhaps, but mostly I'd like something that, even if it's not manual, at least works properly. The dial and electronics on mine seem to be malfunctioning, so it's impossible to select exposure time, aperture, stuff like that. As such I really don't know much at all about what f-stops are, even if I've read about it, I won't really get it until I can do it myself.

So mainly I'm considering a slightly older '80s model, probably another Minolta since I do like mine, and I like '80s gadgets. But I'm not ruling out something older or fully manual, just whatever I can get on my budget in the future.

The SR-T 101 is a slightly older camera. More like late '60s to '70s, but, it's all mechanical, except for the built in meter. They are incredibly well built cameras and can take a lot of abuse. The only down side I can think of, is that you would not be able to use any of your Maxxum lenses on it, since Minolta changed the lens mount to accommodate all the automated features when the Maxxum was introduced.

By the way, if you're on Facebook, there is a group called "The Darkroom", that you might find interesting. A lot of people who are members here are also in that group.

Hello from Cupertino, California!

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