It’s a rather odd story, but I’m now in possession of a Minolta Maxxum 3xi camera. It’s an autofocus film SLR, launched in 1991, and from what I’ve managed to find online, it was the lowest range camera of it’s series[1].
Not that the quality of this camera matters too much. I’ve been shooting with a Dubblefilm SHOW 35mm film camera recently, which is essentially a toy camera. So, I’m not exactly one for having the best gear, or even taking it too seriously.
As for how I’m now in possession of the camera, that story actually begins around the year 2000 in Disneyland[2] in Florida. When, according to my girlfriend, she was on holiday and found a stray camera with no owners. And after having no luck finding who owned it, decided to take it home with them. I think then it was passed from her nan to her parents, who were just about to take it to a charity shop, before my girlfriend intervened and said that I would be interested in using it.
I was definitely interested. As I’ve wanted to get a new film camera for a while, although I was thinking of a manual SLR. Mainly because I didn’t know this type of autofocus SLR existed. And to be honest, this is probably the ideal film camera for me at the moment. I’m pretty sure that if I was using a manual film camera, then 99% of the shots would be absolutely horrendous. At least the camera is doing a bit of the work for me.
Anyway, I ordered a new battery for the camera[3], which has arrived today, and the shot counter is already at 14. Those could have been taken any time in the past 20-25 years, so it will certainly be interesting to see what was captured. I’m also going to use the rest of the film myself, which may also produce weird results, as I assume the film is at least 22 years old.
I already have one roll of 35mm film waiting to be developed, so once I’ve finished the current roll in my SHOW camera, and the one in this 3xi, I’ll send them all off to be developed[4]. If they’re any good, or spectacularly bad, I’ll be posting them here on my blog. So stay tuned!
I know it’s probably not actually called Disneyland, probably Disney World or Disney Resort or whatever, but they’re all Disneyland to me. ↩︎
It was a very strange battery as well, a 2CR5, which looks very much like 2 AA batteries joined together. ↩︎
I’ll use Analogue Wonderland who I also purchased my film from. If you use that link and make a purchase, you'll also get a free roll of Kentmere 400 35mm film apparently. ↩︎