5 Frames TombRaiding with the Minolta 500mm F8 AF REFLEX

I’m a frequent visitor to the Angkor Wat temples and am always looking for something different to shoot the experience on.  That combined with an interest in perhaps safari shooting in the next year or so made me grab the amazing Minolta AF 500mm f8 REFLEX when i saw it on ebay to use on either my Alpha7 or Dynax 9 body. All very spurn of the moment I grabbed it when heading to Siem Reap Cambodia next after only doing a few test shots from my apartment building roof in downtown Bangkok. 

In my pack was the Alpha7 with the 50mm 1.4 and the 500mm. Being reflex ie basically a reflecting telescope the 500mm lens is incredibly light for it’s size and focal length.  Something that my aging bones great appreciate especially when travelling to shoot. 

I love my Minolta Alpha AF system for it’s light, quality AF lenses something my ageing eyes also appreciate! Loaded with several rolls of Kodak Vision 3 500T which are affordable in asia being hand rolled from bulk cinema film rolls. This film is economical and has a strong look especially when shooting the tungsten-balanced version in daylight. It requires special processing though at labs which means it’s not generally an overnight or 1-hour turnaround like regular colour negative in Asia.  The remjet layer needs to be removed and the films tend to be batched up for this once or twice a week in Bangkok labs before either being cross-processed or processed in it’s native process ECN-2. 

I arrived during wet season so with an eye to the weather and cloud cover we took off for the temples just after lunch my and the Hotel Drive in the lovely aircon SUV, gone are my days or dripping like a wet rag in the back of a tuk-tuk. I really wanted to try the long lenses to get a lovely compressed shot of the Tonle Om Gate (Southern Gate) then head to Bayon Temple for the late afternoon sun and possibly sunset when it’s possible if you avoid the guards to be there when everyone else has left. 

I successfully shot a BW roll at the south gate although I was dropped off too close by my driver. I underestimated the 500mm and had to walk back along the approach road quite away before I could completely frame it in a shot. Anyway, that’s another 5 frames post!  This set of 5 frames is from the second roll of film the Kodak Vision 3 500T.  I grabbed a lovely shot of bikes buzzing towards Bayon temple in it’s jungle clearing and was then lucky enough to snap a young monk walking by, a monkey and some lesser-known but also spectacularly ruined temples to the northeast of Bayon. I had just finished the roll when the clouds started to come over and the air got heavy with impending rain so we headed back to the hotel for sunset veranda G&Ts instead!

And no I didn’t take a tripod! The 500mm handled amazingly well even handheld giving me crisp shots, only a few blurred ones on the roll. It allowed me to shoot from the hip and grab opportunistic shots such as the monk with ease. The bokeh is amazing even at fixed f8 exhibiting the typical reflex lens doughnut-shaped highlights. It does have reduced contrast when shooting into the light but i love lens with lots of character even the lens flare on the monk is an added bonus for me!

Thanks to the Treeline Urban resort and it’s lovely driver!

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