I'm new around here

NeoDevin · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 3

Hey, I'm just learning about photography here. My parents fled the country and left me their camera. 'Tis a Minolta XG-1 camera, with a 45mm lens that came with the camera, as well as a Soligor 90-230mm zoom lens. Could someone who knows a little more about cameras let me know if this stuff is any good, and possibly give some starting pointers on taking pictures with it. Amazingly, my parents managed to keep the original receipt for the lens, which was purchased in 1981, for 299.95CAD, +tax. Don't have any receipt for the camera, Dad says it was around the same price at the time.

Jonathan · Joined: 25 Apr 2004 Posts: 20

Heya Devin, welcome to the Photo Forums! :D

"Good" is a relative term... if the equipment works (i.e. the lenses aren't scratched, etc.), then that's often good enough. Sure, better equipment makes it easier to achieve various things but it is important to remember that it is the photographer who takes the picture, not the camera!

I'd suggest grabbing a few rolls of cheap film and then going out and spending an afternoon/day shooting whatever you want to. Try one roll with each lense, or maybe one roll with the 45mm, one roll with the zoom <150mm, and one roll with the zoom >150mm, all to get a feel for what the different perspectives can capture. One good reference point to keep in mind is that, on a 35mm camera, 50mm aproximates the human field of vision. The shorter your lense the wider your image field (both in absolute terms and relative to normal eyesight) and the longer your lense the narrower your image field.

HTH and, again, welcom to the PF!