Useful and informative three part series on “Inspecting vintage film cameras before you buy” on Down the Road.

Part 1: The fundamentals. Covers what to look for when inspecting the body, checking out the inside, and verifying the shutter and lens. Provides simple checks to ensure that everything is functioning as desired.

Part 2: Advanced features. Covers checking the battery cover and compartment, checking the focus, testing the meter, and (if applicable) the winder.

Part 3: Research. Deals with doing research to identify common problems with cameras in order to check and ensure that your camera isn’t suffering from them. I found this particularly helpful.

The beat up old Minolta SrT-201 above was given to me by a neighbor (for more information see A gift from a neighbor). The body is about shot (shutter frozen; missing rewind), but the lens (Minolta MD Rokkor-x, 50mm f1.7 works perfectly and produces lovely results. See Around Canopus Lake and On Pelton Pond).

The picture above was taken with a Sony NEX 5N. The lens information was not captured so it must have been one of my legacy lenses – but I can’t remember which one and didn’t record the information. From other pictures taken around the same time I suspect it was a Nikon E series lens, most likely the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Series E.