Tag: Minolta Riva AF35EX

It’s been a long while since Film Friday made an appearance, but it’s back to being a regular thing now.  My Rollei has been at the menders for some time now, and finally they gave up trying to find the part necessary to fix it, and by passed the problem.  What had happened was the focusing knob gave up working, and it’s apparent that the lugs on it’s gear wheel have sheered off. This I think was my own fault, but no use crying over spilt milk.  The mender has done a work around for me so I can still use the camera by moving the lens in and out itself, that’ll take a bit of getting used to. In the meantime I have been shooting 35mm film on 2 Minolta compacts.   I had been wanting to purchase a Minolta Riva mini for some time, by all accounts it’s a bit special and is a close cousin of the Leica mini, made to the same specs.  I found one on eBay for £20 and sent off for it. But when it arrived it actually was a Minolta Riva AF35 EX, and not so special at all.  I double checked the listing and sure enough, it was my error.  Never mind, I put a fuji colour film in it and took it out and about with me. Then I found the Riva mini by accident one day in an Etsy shop, so I sent off for that, a bit more expensive as they are quite rare. When it arrived a put an Illford B&W film in and took that out and about too.  I’ve just had the 2 rolls developed, and you can tell the difference in the quality of the lens of the river mini.  The AF35 pictures all have blurry edges whereas the Riva mini is sharp throughout. I like the blurry edges though so it’s a win win for me.

Here are a few from when we had snow, the colour shots are on Fujifilm Superia Extra 400, and the B&W are on Ilford HP5 plus 400.