ben_ballard

This lens is legendary for having almost no distortion. I have the M42 version and I love it.

I know this is an old thread, but I use a cheap Neewer L bracket for my a7, but unfortunately the side piece interferes with the strap mount point, so I only use the bottom piece of the bracket. If I'm going to use a tripod and want easy vertical, in need to take the strap off. I'd get a better bracket if anyone knows of one.

Shoot with the 55mm f1.7! It's one of the best lenses Minolta ever made. On an XD-11 that is a great match, both are compact but still all metal. Shutter-priority mode is over-rated, especially if you are just getting started. Aperture priority is far more useful, but manual mode is the best way to learn

The rangefinder on the IIIc is coupled for the 50mm and 35mm, only the 80mm needs to be focused with the finder to find the distance, then refocused using the distance scale. It's ok for still subjects, but certainly not kids. The 80mm is not close focusing anyway, so it's best for landscapes and the like anyway. The build quality is fantastic. It's well worth trying, and should sell for what you paid if it's not for you. The IIIS is quite different. Not a folder for one thing, and it shares lenses with the Retina Reflex line of SLRs (and Voigtlander DKL), so the lenses are larger and further away from the film. Think Leica R vs. M, except these are limited to 1950s vintage. Still, the Schneider and Rodenstock glass is fantastic.

Retina IIIc or IIIC is still a lot of fun to shoot without a working meter.

JDM, this is a great topic, very interesting to see your process and results. Have you had any good success scanning traditional B&W negatives? I still occasionally use my Coolscan V. I gave up NikonScan for VueScan when I switched to a Mac years ago. I find it is easy to get satisfactory results scanning color E6 or C41, but it's very difficult to scan traditional Black & White. I've stopped trying, but the best results I got were scanning at a lower resolution and if course with ICE or infrared turned off.

Mark, you might like to try a used Minolta XE-7 or XD-11. They were developed in collaboration with Leica, and are probably the best two Minolta manual focus SLR bodies in terms of build and feel.

I have a Sony a7, not a7R, but I have t had a problem like this. From off to ready it takes usually a few seconds. I tend to leave it on. If you don't already, I highly recommend the "wasabi" brand spare batteries and charger. It's good to have a spare. Another thing you might check is your memory card. The camera needs to read it to see how many shots are left, etc, when it starts. Maybe your card is very full and fragmented, or old and slow, or failing -- SD cards don't last forever.