35mm F2.8 MD moderate Wide angle

There I was thinking I'd pretty much wrapped up this business of MC and MD coupled lenses for my X500 and XD7 as I came by another I couldn't just pass up.

This is the later post 1981 version of the MD 35mm F2.8 moderate wideangle with the plastic aperture control and the Minimum Aperture lock for the X700's program mode and potentially at least the Shutter Priority mode of the XD7.
Serial # 8005455
Perhaps unlike a good number of amateur photographers, I find this focal length is my wide angle go to one, packing in more of a scene, adding that distant perspective without  as many issues with converging verticals all in a light pin sharp form.
It lends itself to vacationing as the on the body general purpose one not that I don't have a use for the Tamron 28mm F2.5 for pure landscapes where it's greater distant perspective adds something.
The 50mm always lives in my bag or coat pocket for anything requiring a more neutral perspective or coupling to the Teleplus 2x Macro converter for upto 1:1 reproduction ration close ups.
Like a few pros I feel that 28mm isn't a good choice for group shots as it leads to people at the edges looking distorted proportionately.
The other change of this era was new designs of lenses lost the Rokkor branding and at least two zooms were made for Minolta under license by Cosina to fight off independent zoom options that were packaged by photo retailers instead of their own which didn't quite match the performance of their earlier versions

Equine adventures

This week I did go out to do a bit of film photography as normally for blogging I tend to rely on my trusty Canon digital compact camera and took these two horses on the Minolta X500 using the Minolta Tele Rokkor 300mm F5.6 MC lens with Fuji Superia 200 film.
I love horses and these two were nearby.

Summer Meadowland

Meadowland. Taken June 17 2015. Minolta X500, Tamron 28-70 lens on Fuji Superia 200.

Tamron 35-70 - small, fast and convenient

In view of the fact I don't have a 35mm lens for my XD7 and X500 cameras, I acquired a relatively fast zoom lens that covered the focal length

Coming out in the early 80's, the Tamron 17A 35 through 70mm has a constant aperture settings throughout its zoom range making metering manually very easy and having a F3.5 maximum aperture gives a clear bright image that aids focusing.
That was much appreciated looking  though the viewfinder of the X500 this morning.
It takes a serviceable 58mm sized filter which happens to be the same as the 103A 80-210 telezoom.
While no substitute for a genuine macro lens, its close focusing is a very useful 1:2:8 just about a third lifesize which is good for flowers or say pebbles on a beach.
It is relatively light weight too that helps for hand-held photography and is currently mounted to Minolta MD.
No 425236

Self portrait

Out enjoying a summer picnic, carefree.

X500 Silver

There are two Minolta's X500's.

This is the Silver one which is more common and in some respects looks more obviously early 80's than it's all black cousin.
No: 60330174

The above is the original 1983 brochure introducing it with the black version shown coupled to the motordrive, a fast winder popular with professional and advanced amateurs into wildlife or sports photography.

In  coy way  the brochure  spells out just what makes it the better bet for advanced amateurs and professionals than the X700, the top end model of the X series without drawing out the comparison relying on magazine reviews and users to it spell it out.

Having used both, I much prefer the X500 in the field while when it comes to accessories the two cameras use the same as you can use it without having to remove your eye from the viewfinder.

The loss of the Program mode is no great loss as it is a general all purpose program mode rather than having program shifts or preset modes dedicated more to sports and so on that were to become more common place in the late 80's and beyond and there's no need to have a exposure compensation dial to apply compensation, given you have metered manual to set one, a exposure lock to take and fix a substitute reading and in the final event, there's also just resetting the film speed to cause the exposure given to differ.

X500 (570) - less is more

Minolta like a number of Japanese manufacturers had a flagship model in a series and then produced cut down versions offering certain core common features while removing others that amateur photographers with a limited budget didn't need or if made for certain specialty dealers to differentiate their model from the regular one. 

The X500 introduced in April 1983 is a good example of this in that it lost the X700's Program exposure mode and the exposure compensation dial but retained all the other features of that model.

The program mode of the X700 was biased toward high shutter speed and wide apertures designed in the era of only Slr bodies giving you the ability to use zoom lens with compact camera like  ease as in wind on, focus and click.

Where the X500 scores is it is better designed around the needs of the advanced amateur, indicating the shutter speed selected as well as the recommended one in metered manual exposure mode you'd use for landscape photography in the viewfinder rather than having take one eye from the viewfinder to check the shutter speed speed set as on the X700.

In practice this is much quicker making using it in manual really easy. 

In its Aperture Priority auto exposure mode unlike the X300/370/X9 models the camera indicates first the likely shutter speed and at the point of taking the picture, sets the final used shutter speed  for greater accuracy using an additional Spd cell.

Although it loses its exposure compensation settings on a dedicated dial, you can easily achieve the same result by temporarily resetting the film speed setting in third steps (which on a number of  Olympus bodies of that era  is the same thing merely marked up!).

Like the X700 it also keeps its TTL Of the film flash metering with suitable flash units.
Functionally I see it this body as more like a bit of plastic under the hood equivalent to Olympus's OM2 sharing the same modes and similar metering.

It was a unfortunate in all the fuss around the X700, the real strengths of this cut down version tuned more to the needs of advanced amateurs got lost. 

Body no. 6080842