Aug 14, 2012

Minolta XE-5 Camera

My dad has always had a casual interest in photography.  Not so much on an artistic level exactly, but more so in a playful "I'm just going to shoot and see what happens" kind of way.  Traditions like our annual family picture in Police Point Park or the random images that I've seen him take on holiday seem related to this endeavor.  All things considered, in the mid-1970s he felt motivated to buy this relatively expensive Minolta XE-5 camera to pursue this hobby. 

I recently adopted the camera as a decoration, but aside from needing new batteries it still works.  That was actually the reason my dad had for retiring it.  The camera had no auto-off and if you left it on the two small watch-type batteries would run out.  They were costly to replace, and frankly, they still are.  It's a good looking camera though, and there's a part of me that's tempted to buy the batteries and film and test it out. Maybe one of these days I'll actually do it, but I feel like I need a special project to make the effort worth it.  Digital is too convenient, and it's spoiled us all. 





















1 comment :

Unknown said...

I have fond memories of my XE5 that I was given as a gift in 75. I think I took all of 3 bad pictures with it, all my fault, like when you leave the setting for a strobe, but take pix that should be at a faster speed. My favorite was of Niagara Falls at night. They run colored spotlights over the falls. I set it on a concrete post, stopped down to f22 and used a cable release to trip it. Twenty three seconds later the shutter closed. I quit using it when it got stolen in 2002 and I replaced it with a Minolta Z10.