I recently acquired a Prazisa optical rangefinder while thrifting in Kamloops, B.C. I had been wanting a rangefinder since acquiring a Leica rangefinder camera (IIIf) with a broken rangefinder. 

This camera could be used in zone focusing mode, but I didn’t have the confidence to do that unless shooting at f/8 to f/16 as my guesstimating of distances is really poor. Using f/8-f/16 would provide significant almost infinite depth of field it doesn’t allow you to isolate the subject and forces you into slower (sometimes blurry) shutter speeds.

I had looked on eBay for an optical rangefinder but didn’t have great confidence in finding one that actually worked, wasn’t foggy/fungus etc. I also wanted one that mounted horizontally on the camera cold shoe and not one that mounted vertically which I thought would attract too much attention when in use (like the Leica Fokos rangefinders).

I had wandered around the whole thrift store 2x. Given the thrift store was in support of our local hospitals  where I work, I was determined to find something to buy. I took a look in the cabinet under the cash register which was full of jewelry and trinkets, and noticed the rangefinder in a box. The two circular windows were staring up at me.

The styling of the Prazisa rangefinder matches the Leica perfectly and they look like they belong together.

The Minolta Maxxum 7000 family

I thrifted my first Minolta Maxxum 7000 with a 28mm 2.8 AF lens for $10. I spotted it at thrift store next to a Minolta SRT101 film camera (also $10). I'd had the SRT101 before and sold it. It was very heavy and I gravitated towards my Canon AE1 film camera instead, so it wasn't interesting to me. But the Minolta Maxxum (or Dynax) 7000 intrigued me. I had been looking for a more modern SLR, thinking I'd run into a Canon EOS or Nikon SLR at some point. 

My $10 thrifted Minolta Maxxum 7000 with 28mm 2.8 lens

I hadn't considered a Minolta and was not even aware of them as a camera brand bar a few digital SLRs I'd seen back in the early 2000s. The camera had several recognizable buttons, ISO, Drive, Mode, and a +/- exposure compensation button. I tested the auto focus - quite snappy although a bit loud - fired a few test shots and the camera focused and fired. For $10 how could I go wrong. The camera even had working batteries - 4 AAAs.

Maxxum 7000 comes with a top LCD screen showing aperture, shutter speed etc.

I later learned the Minolta Maxxum 7000 was the first film SLR to be equipped with auto focus. It was produced in 1985 and interestingly the overlapping XX in the logo was controversial with Exxon suing Minolta for trademark infringement. What a claim to fame! 

Front view. Plastic grip showing some white coating due to age

These types of camera are not terribly popular. Most people getting into film want full manual mode - cameras like the Pentax K-1000, Canon AE1/A1 or the Minolta SRT101/X700. But I have already been down that path. I kept my AE1 as it was the smallest of the SLRs I owned and I had 3 lenses already as well as the power winder. I wasn't quite willing to part with it yet.

Maxxum's Data Back 70. Disappointingly only goes up to 2019.

The Minolta Maxxum 7000 uses an A Mount lens. Wait. I've heard of that before. I am a Sony A6000 owner and I guess am aware of the other Sony line up of DSLRs also using A mount lenses (you have to be careful buying lenses to make sure you buy E Mount for the A6000 and not A mount). So it turns out that Sony bought the rights to the A Mount for their first series of DSLRs like the A99. And even more strange (to me) the lenses are compatible between the two brands.

I checked out the Flickr (yes it's still around) groups for the Minolta 7000 camera. The photos I saw were actually sharp, clear, and really quite good for such an old camera. The photos shot with the 28mm 2.8 lens looked really decent, but I also noticed photos shot with a 50mm 1.7 lens that looked even better. Hmmm, I really wanted to look into that lens. I hopped onto our local buy and sell and spotted the lens for $40. Well that would turn my $10 bargain into a $50 investment. I offered the seller $25 but he turned me down. Did I really need it? Or did I just want it? I hesitated.

A few days later I found myself out thrifting again. I purchased a nice $10 point and shoot Canon Sure Shot Owl AF with an original Canon case for the kids to use (disposables are all the rage but this is better and cheaper). I was pretty much done for the day but in my last thrift store noticed a camera on the bottom shelf of the locked area. On checking it, guess what, another Minolta Maxxum 7000 but this time with two lenses and a flash. $25. Ok lady behind the counter, can I take a closer look?

Minolta Maxxum 7000 #2 with the XX logo and 50mm 1.7 lens

The second Minolta had a 28-85mm 3.5-4.5 lens mounted. A big heavy lens but one with Macro on it. Interesting. But what was the other lens? Oh yes, the coveted 50mm 1.7 lens. You know that feeling you have when you just put it out in the world that you'd find something and then it happened. Yes that. So I found my 50mm 1.7 for $25 (the turned down offer) but with a bonus camera body, 28-85mm lens, half case and a Minolta flash.

Minolta Maxxum #2 with the 28-85 lens

So now I own two Minolta Maxxum 7000s (did I mention that the 2nd one has the famous overlapping XX in the logo - so I know it was produced in the first 3 months of production before they had to change the logo), 3 lenses and a flash for the grand sum of $35. Canadian. Not even American dollars.  

Maxxum with flash and half body case

I'm running my first roll of film through Minolta #1 but the camera is looking good so far. These cameras seem to be quite readily available on Facebook marketplace and if you find one (or two!) at a thrift store, I encourage you to check them out.

Minolta 7000 Flickr Group

Minolta Lens Reviews (coming soon):
50mm 1.7 AF
28mm 2.8 AF
28-85mm AF

As a long time member of the Flickr community (since 2005) and Pro, I haven't participated in the Flickr community much in the last few years. I've seen the community become a ghost town with most people moving on to 500px or Instagram.

Flickr was neglected by Yahoo for many years and (even with Pro subscriptions to keep the lights on) there has been little change to the site or the app.

The acquisition of Flickr by Smugmug should have been a fresh start for Flickr with Smugmug bringing new innovations and ideas to the table on how to move things forward. Smugmug should be talking to existing customers (especially Pros) about why they stayed, what they enjoyed and what they missed from the heyday of the service. Smugmug should be communicating more about Flickr's financial position and asking customers about fund-raising "add-ons" they would want to purchase - prints, books, business/art cards, Pro + features like slideshows (Animoto style) and storefronts for prints/digital assets. There are plenty of photography related competitors making money.

Now I'm more worried for Flickr than ever. Instead of working with the Flickr community, they took the easy route (which I believe is also the wrong route) to increase the fees before offering anything new, effectively punishing long time supporters and driving them away. Flickr membership isn't really worth anything , not even the $25 I've been paying. Google or Apple will back up all your photos for free. And if you backup your computer you're covered anyway.

So what are we paying for? Comments on each others photos? A pat on the back? Discussions and info in community groups that could just as easily be found in the many camera fan forums? Smugmug needs to think about the value the site offers to the customer before increasing rates.

Let me know your thoughts below.

As a photographer, I've been using Adobe Lightroom for several years. For the past two years I have been using it as part of the Adobe Photographers' Creative Cloud Subscription along with Photoshop CC. I primarily use Lightroom as a Digital Asset Management tool and my main photo editor. I rarely use Photoshop CC for photo editing, choosing to use Nik filters instead. However, from time to time, I use Photoshop for digital scrapbooking.

The Canadian dollar has taken quite a beating in the past few months. Our dollar has gone from being on par with the US dollar to now only being worth 75 cents. This has impacted the price of several of my online services billed in USD, causing them to go up by approx. 30% yet my salary hasn't gone up by the same amount!

The Adobe CC subscription has gone from $11.20 CDN per month to almost $15 CDN per month. The only alternative to "renting" Lightroom is to buy it outright. Again Adobe and the exchange rate have steadily increased the cost from approx. $89 to $198 CDN in the past handful of years. This wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't buying it on top of the $300 I've spent on renting the software in the past two years.

Sony A6000 - Camera of the Year 2014

When I recently purchased the Sony A6000 I noticed it came with Capture One Express for Sony. Capture One Pro (by Phase One) is a Lightroom competitor targeting professional photographers. As well as being a digital asset management system (DAM) it also allows you to modify photos directly in Capture One in the same way Lightroom does. On doing some further investigation into the software, I discovered that many photographers considered this software superior in both results and power to Lightroom. So I decided to give it a try by loading up my Lightroom catalog and experimenting.

First, I had some trouble loading my 70k photo Lightroom catalog into Capture One Express. The catalog loaded by the system was dreadfully slow and kept crashing my Mac. I created a 2nd catalog and this time imported my photos directly into the catalog without trying to convert the LR catalog file. This went much better. As I didn't want to lose my keywords, I first set Lightroom to embed the keywords into Jpgs and create XMP sidecar files for the RAW images. I then imported the files into Capture One Express. Note, while Capture One Express says it is for Sony, I noticed it opens my Panasonic and Olympus RAW files - although I haven't tried working with them yet. [Edited: I now notice it will not preview my DNG files.]

It's early days but so far I'm really enjoying it. I like that it has the concept of layers and masks which is far more intuitive to me than how Lightroom handles adjustments. Many of the tools are easier to use also. You can still round trip files to Photoshop/Elements/Nik etc for further adjustment.

The Pro version is available as a $50 USD upgrade and buys you the ability to tether shoot and customize your workspace, although I am waiting to see if I *need* to do this upgrade. At this point, I'd say the biggest feature I'll miss from Lightroom is the ability to load photos directly to Flickr. However, this is not a dealbreaker for me.

So if like me, you are looking to get off the Creative Cloud, there are other alternatives out there. You don't have to be locked into Lightroom.

Other Lightroom to Capture One articles:
http://www.dearsusan.net/2014/07/02/242-showdown-1-lightroom-vs-capture-one/
http://ibakeheshoots.com/5-reasons-why-i-ditched-lightroom-for-capture-one-pro/

I was out walking at Gallaghers Canyon on Friday evening and noticed they were all set up for a wedding. It's a pretty nice set up for a wedding, with a great view. The only down side is that this is off to the side of one of the fairways and you literally have to cross the fairway to get there (not sure if they stop play?).

Wedding area, Gallaghers Canyon Golf Club, Kelowna, B.C.

Living Room, Henderson House, Father Pandosy Mission, Kelowna, B.C.

Kitchen, Henderson House, Father Pandosy Mission, Kelowna, B.C.

Close Up

It's important to realize sometimes an image can't be saved and you have to reshoot it. I am lucky the location is close by and I could re-create the image very easily. You don't always have this luxury. It pays to get it right, first time.

Photography enthusiasts may have heard of the Arcanum, a photographic learning experience where you are the Apprentice and you work under a Master.  The concept is there are 20 levels and it is self-paced and your Master guides you in your learning and provides critiques on your progress along the way. To sign up, you add a bio and add some sample work. There are no guarantees that you'll be selected by any Master, and it could be days or weeks before you are selected.

Level 4 Photo (Before)

The concept is rather unique and I so thought I'd try it. I thought it would take a few weeks to be selected, but it took less than a day (about 12 hours) before I was selected by Glenn Guy, an Australian travel photographer. Initially I wasn't sure it was a good match but after viewing Glenn's bio where he explains that travel photography is really a blend of portraiture and landscapes, I actually felt that it was a good match as those are the two areas I focus most of my work. I also learned that Glenn had formerly been a wedding photographer and was well qualified to give me critiques on my portraits.

Level 4 photo (After)

So I happily joined Glenn's cohort and have been working on my levels this past month. Currently I am Level 5 and have received my first critique. Critiques are recorded and are hosted on Youtube as private videos for reference by *any* Arcanum student.  This initial critique was extremely useful but in a completely unexpected way.

Yes, Glenn gave me compositional feedback and some Lightroom instruction, but what he did was help me figure out my motivation for photography and discover what I'm passionate about when making photos (by identifying a theme) and encourage me to follow that theme in all areas of photography. What is that theme you ask? Well it's hard to put into words - but here's my first attempt:

"Photography for me is about capturing those fleeting moments before they are lost forever. I specialize in child portraits capturing intimate childhood moments and landscapes capturing historic ephemera."

Today is Day 1 of Month 2. I am still a level 5. To progress to level 6 I need to submit 10 new or re-edited images. Currently I have 7 (one of those is the Level 4 photo After above). Most are landscapes or interiors, and I want to fill out the 10 with some portraits, but this will require a little bribery to get my children to act as my child models as they are too busy playing with their friends as it's Summer Vacation.

If you have any comments or questions about my experience so far, I'm happy to answer - just leave a comment!

Of course, J still won't let me take pictures of him, even at the pool. I'm not sure why he is this way as I've had a camera in my hand as long as I remember, perhaps he's looking for a bribe?

Tips for taking pictures of kids who don't want their pictures taken

1. Do it anyway (in the hope they'll give up resisting the camera).
2. Create a distraction or have someone create one for you.
3. Use a flip out screen, drop the camera away from your eye and frame the shoot, look at them not the camera and press the shutter. Don't worry if your horizon gets crooked like mine did. You can straighten in post if needed.
4. Use electronic shutter/silent mode. Yay for mirrorless cameras. Most have an electronic shutter option. It goes without saying to turn off the focus assist lamp and the focus beep too.
5. Take a picture without their face in the frame or where their face is blurry or deliberately obscured. Sounds weird but capturing their hands doing or holding something can still be a great memory.
6. Get them to decide the terms of the photo. Sometimes my kids want me to document a particular action, trick or skill. Anything is better than nothing, and sometimes what they do is amusing.
7. Chimp with them. Show them the great shots and offer to delete any that are less flattering, this builds trust when they see what you're doing and that you aren't going to embarrass them in some way.
8. Bribery.

Conclusion

Don't give up trying to take pictures of your kids, it's why many of us bought a camera in the first place. Try to figure out the limits of what you child will allow and always think about how else you might be able to get a shot, even if it means being a little sneaky.

Digging around in my photos today, I realize I haven't posted the photos from the Kelby photo walk last fall. The day started off a bit wet, but soon dried up although the clouds remained for the whole day. Entrance to the beach area from the Dolphins.


The obligatory waterfall picture....

Macros are always an option when the weather is bad.

Time for some tilt shift. I love the way the boats look so small.