I bought a camera, I broke a camera...

This past Golden Week, when I went to Ninja Town, there was an antiques village next door. So, Phil, his dad, and I headed over for some post abandoned theme park celebration. There I found a Minolta "Uniomat" Rangefinder camera. It was in good condition and came with its own leather case and strap. I picked it up for about $15 and thought I'd give film a shot again. Basically, since May of 2005, I haven't shot a single roll of film, and I wanted to see if I had been missing something. So, I got a cheap roll of Fuji 100 ASA color film, cleaned the camera and popped it in. Over the next 24 hours I used up the film. It was at a waterfall in Maebaru that I got to the end of the roll, so I rewound it on the spot, took it out and put it in my pocket for safe keeping. Then I put the Minolta "safely" back in its leather case and slung it over my shoulder.

Then, right as I was walking by the stream that the waterfall fed into, the leather strap gave out and snapped in two places, severing the camera from my person. I watched as it hit the ground and I remember thinking "Oh, there goes my camera on the ground... I should pick it up." So I reached down slowly, but right at that moment it rolled down to a lower rock. I thought "Oh, it's on the rock now, I'll just get it..." So I reach down and just as I do, it rolls right into the water and sinks about two feet. Bubbles rose. I fished out the camera and it was, of course soaked through completely. Water gushed out of it. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed, but the thought of my brand new digital SLR being at the bottom of the river made me think "Hey, maybe it was fate why I got this camera and decided to leave the Nikon home today." Either way, I had salvaged the film mere moments before, and I wasn't going to get all that upset until I saw the pictures. You may ask if the camera was salvageable at all, since it was mostly a older mechanical camera. Well no, not really. The lens was a fixed 45mm, and water got inside the elements, effectively clouding up the lens like a non-waterproof watch face when it gets wet. Plus, the lightmeter is now completely shot.




I got the pictures developed yesterday, and I have to say that though the pictures have charm, I think I got about what I paid for. This was no Leica, that's for sure. Plus, it made me remember how expensive film can be. I got small prints of a 24 roll, with the optional $3 CD and it cost me about $15. Add in the $4 for the roll of film, and you have more than the price of the camera. I did some minor levels adjustments in photoshop and that's it. Keep in mind that the CD scans you get at the 1 hour development places aren't the best. But, the actual prints didn't look much better. So for what its worth, here are the best of the shots I took in the 24 hour span of owning a working rangefinder. Enjoy!

P.S. I'm sooooo happy I went digital.