I Don't Belong Here - But I'm FREE!

I mentioned in this weeks Post that I received a bag of goodies from our departing neighbour that included the Minolta XG1 kit on which I reported. The bag also contained a fat little point and shoot, with the somewhat vain-glorious title of "MINOLTA FREEDOM ZOOM 140EX" together with Case and Manual.

 

 

 

This must have been Minolta's attempt to make a complete functional Automatic Camera in a Point & Shoot body.

It offers auto load, advance, rewind, focus and exposure together with a 140X zoom and Data Panel showing Frame Number and a range of options. It requires 2x3 volt Lithium batteries which I found to exorbitantly expensive at the local Drug Store. A light touch on the Shutter-Release Button sets exposure and focus. Further pressure fires the shutter. In application I found this difficult, with unsteady fingers firing away wasted shots often without knowing, until I looked at the Frame Counter. Despite it's application it appears far too obese for convenient pocket carrying. The Viewfinder seems very small and gives an even smaller image of what you are trying to shoot. Also, the auto rewind does not allow the leader to be left out of the cassette to allow initial daylight insertion onto the development reel. Macro applications require use of a second set of frame lines and I found this difficult to do and the instructions for their use to be confusing. Perhaps I'm just too old, but this is not for me. Perhaps there is a wiser member out there who would like to take this on. First to PM me can have it.

 

When I received the camera it contained a part exposed roll of Kodak Gold 200. I have no knowledge of how long it had been in the camera or under what conditioned it had been stored. So, I fired off the rest of the roll and sent for development. The results were as expected, dull, off-coloured and grainy, but I am showing a few, just prove that it does work.

 

PATIO.

FAUX FLEUR.

L'HOTEL BLANC.

Although it probably technically belongs to the "Modern Camera" forum, most of us here are no longer very picky about these sorts of things.

 

Good of you to share with us. Enjoyed your post. Thanks.

Thanks JDM. My mistake. Perhaps I was not clear enough. I posted it here as a free give-away, not because got it free. So I announce more clearly;

PM IF ANYONE WANTS ME TO SEND THEM THIS CAMERA.

Tony.

A generous offer, Tony. I recall selling a few of these when my family had a camera shop. I would recommend to the lucky recipient that ISO 800 film is the way to go if much picture taking is done near the 140mm end of the zoom range.

Reminds me of the Olympus Stylus I used to have.

The batteries are expensive, but once in a while I see them for a better price.

 

There are some mail order places that aren't so bad.

If you cannot find someone here Tony that is interested, maybe you could find someone local, perhaps a young person who wants to learn about film photography. A camera like this (which does all the work) could help that person become familiar with film. If the interest continues, that person could then pick up a used (or maybe even free) camera with manual settings and pass the Minolta onto the next interested person. A couple of years ago I gave away a Maxxum 4 with Quantary 28-90 zoom to a college freshman who was interested in film. Two years later, she is still using it.