5 Frames with a Minolta XGM at Go Your Own Way

I have a multitude of cameras and lenses, collected over many years, including some left over from my professional photography days,  Sadly I sold my Hasselblad 500CM, but kept my Nikon F3 and a Canon FTB.  Hasselblad cameras are to just too expensive for me to replace these days.

As a mature pensioner, as I like to describe myself, I cannot resist another camera to add to my collection.  My third bedroom is full of them in boxes, shelves and camera bags, much to the disgust of my partner, but a man has to have a hobby.

Like a lot of us folk, I have that dreaded disease called GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), fuelled on by charity shops and the like.  So away for a few days at a caravan in Shropshire, and browsing through a second hand camera shop, that I always pop in, I came across a Minolta XGM in mint condition.

The shop owner explained it was working, but the aperture priority didn’t function so only worked in manual mode, but at the price of £15.00, it was hard to resist the purchase. So, on returning home, I popped in two LR44s and hey presto, it sprang into life, and the aperture priority was working too, so I thought I must try the camera out.

I had recently purchased two rolls of Portra 800, at the horrendous price of £20.00 a roll to try our some colour film, which I rarely shoot, as primarily I work in black and white and have a darkroom in my shed. As such, with bulk loading, my photography hobby price wise, is usually very manageable.

Recently, my partner had treated a friend and I to a Fleetwood Mac tribute act called “Go your Own Way”. I thought this maybe a good way to try out the XGM, unfortunately I only had the 50mm standard lens, but at f/1.7 considered it may give some scope for good photography.

We enjoyed a really lovely meal out before getting to the theatre, and duly arrived, to take out seats. I wish I had checked the seating arrangement in relation to the stage distance beforehand, but in for a penny, in for a pound as they say.

The tribute act was extremely outstanding, covering most of the Rumours Album for those who are familiar with Fleetwood Mac, and I can really recommend seeing them, if they come your way, and, if you know who they are of course: Anyway back to camera and concert.

The Minolta XGM is an excellent camera to hold, and to use, fully manual, with shutter speeds showing through a bright screen, which made it very easy to focus in low light, even when quite far away, as I was.

I must admit I was also presently surprised to see the meter working under the stage lighting, so thought I would trust it, and carried on shooting.  From memory I working around f/3.5to f/5.6 at 1/15^th second or thereabouts hand held, but I could be wrong.

In my professional days, for theatre photography I would have worked in black and white with a Canon FI, using Tri X, pushed to 800 or even 1600 ASA, and metered with a Pentax V Spotmeter. I still have the meter, but very rarely does it come out of its case these days. I think now though, I may start using it again, with my Canon FTB.

I was pleasantly pleased with the processing on the finished prints, even though they were taken too far away really, but next time I will use a cheaper processing facility, rather than Max Spielman.

They did a good job though, apart from putting all the negatives into a single bag. Also having them onto a CD, made it easier for putting them onto my computer, and to edit, all I did was to adjust the curves slightly in Photoshop.

Looking back it was a pleasing experience, a camera and film I hadn’t used before, and a fabulous concert too. Wait a minute though, what’s that in that shop window over there, an Olympus 101 with lenses too… another project too maybe?

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