I recently came into possession of the Minolta Himatic AF2 point and shoot auto focus camera. I thought it might be interesting to try. However, for me it wasn’t at all interesting. Hence, I didn’t even feel it worthy of a photo. I didn’t mind that it was made of plastic and weighed virtually nothing, this could be viewed as a virtue. I really enjoyed my time with the Olympus trip which would be comparable in size and weight. To be able to choose when to use the pop up flash was a nice touch. To get a confirmation light to tell you when your subject was in focus was reassuring.
The most disappointing thing was when you pressed the shutter release to take the photo. The sound of running your fingers over a metal comb, a kind of pzzt. Not at all inspiring.
However there were two redeeming factors to this quite frankly uninspiring camera. Firstly, it had a roll of film with a handful of exposures left. Secondly, the film speed can be manually input into the camera via a dial on the base of the lens. The film inside the camera was a roll of Fujifilm Superia 200. Not knowing how old the film was I decided to set the camera to ISO 50, two stops more light than rated.
Not totally unexpected, the film had a strong green colour cast as seen below.
To remove some of the green, I used the colour correction tool in my photo editor, moving the sliders around until I was happy with the results. Then a little bit of brightness and contrast to finish off.
I will not be using the camera again, it will be moved on to someone who appreciates it more than I.
Looking at the experience positively, for a camera that hasn’t been picked up and used for years it still worked and focused well. If I had put a fresh roll of film in the camera, I am confident it would have exposed the film correctly. I did get the opportunity to try out a different technique for removing colour casts from a film that has an uncertain history.
So overall a useful experience in my photographic journey.
arhphotographic 