Maymia Sekor 1000DTL

[jrasche2003]

My first taste of an SLR was the MaymiaSekor 1000DTL with a Vivatar Lens 85-205mm zoom. I had bought UV filters, Polarizing filters, shutter cable all kinds of stuff. I paid $75 for the camera two lenses back in 1995.

I never picked up a book, I just put the meter battery in and went out and took photos. I didn't know what I was ddoing.. some of my pictures were great, some too dark, some too light.. ha.. but it was fun.

One thing that the camera did was open my eyes to the world of close up photography! I will never forget it. I was out visiting my mom at this old farm house. She found this 'bug' and had put it in a jar to 'show' me. It was a Cicada nearing the end of its lifespan. I took it outside put it on a tree set up my tripod and started snapping away. Then I found these tiny little bees on a flowering bush.. snap snap.. Then I saw a few big dragonflys near a bush, and I found them to be so patient as I fumble to find the right aperture. Before I left I snapped pictures of an old car in a barn too.

The sucky thing about 35mm, is you have to wait to see the results. So I finished my roll and sent it in, not knowing what to expect.

When I got the pictures back I almost cried. I had never seen insects like this.. all of a sudden insects that I would go ewww and run from, became 'beautiful'. And from that point on, I loved all insects, and enjoyed close up photography.

And my Mamiya took some unbelievably gorgeous pictures. When I composed them right. And it was all guess work. And here I am now, with my first dSLR, and scared to death about how to meter. I am reading all these books and I am just scared! I think I need to look back at how long it took me to compose a picture with the 35mm SLR, and just take a deep breath!

Because I did make my jump to a dSLR (Canon Rebel EOS 300D) I was thinking of selling the Mamiya.. but now I am thinking that maybe I should keep it, and bring her out time to time for old times sake.

Any of you still do that?

 

[Mike_E]

I'm not smart enough to worry.

Go shoot, a lot of time, money and forethought went into making your new camera act like your old one.

 

[Buckster]

Yes, many of us have transitioned to digital over the years, but still like to pull out our old film cameras from time to time and shoot with them.

 

[hydroshock]

1000dtl was my favorite 35mm ever. for what you would buy another one for these days, or sell it in your case, you might as well keep it. what you use the money for won't come near the enjoyment or sentimental value of the machine. i take a 35(typically my xg-1) with me for every shoot or outing i venture on. alongside my 6x6 and my digital.

 

[Rick58]

I would just hold on to it. It's not worth much these days. For what it's worth, I had the 1000 and the ZE. I was never really happy the lenses on either compared to other SLR's I've used. You may find differently.