ISSUE 1: Sydney on film with the Minolta TC-1
Summer only turned up for one day on a recent trip to Sydney. Thankfully the quality of the TC-1 came shining through.
“Hot town, summer in the city. Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.”
A few years ago Sydney ran a catchy tourism campaign set to The Lovin’ Spoonful’s classic song ‘Summer in the City’. With the recent La Nina weather patterns we’ve been experiencing down under - months and months of rainy weather - I understand why they stopped running it.
Summer should be sunny, hot and steamy, right? Wrong. It was cold and wet. We still found plenty to see and do, but taking photos in the rain is not exactly my thing.
Thankfully on our last day in the Harbour City, normal summer service resumed. My son wasn’t feeling well but we headed out to Watson’s Bay on an iconic green and yellow Sydney ferry.
Sydney Harbour is one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever seen. Paris, London, New York and Edinburgh have their fair share of stunning landmarks, but with Sydney you have 2 in close proximity - the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. 2 and a half if you count Luna Park.
When we got to Watson’s Bay it was obvious that my son wasn’t well enough for the 20 minute walk out to the lighthouse, so my wife valiantly stayed behind with him on a park bench in the shade.
My daughter begrudgingly trudged along with me, blaming me for being hot. It turns out that wearing long pants on a hot summer’s day is not a particularly wise choice. Who knew? Apparently it was my fault for not giving her a weather forecast that morning (I did, just to set the record straight).
I must admit it was pretty warm in the sun and yes, we did get a little sunburnt. The path to the lighthouse winds its way past cute suburban cottages, the pretty little beach at Camp Cove, then on to a harbourside trail. In the end she found enough interesting things to keep her SnapChat streaks running, so we were all good.
At one point on the trail I saw a “clothes optional” beach. I’ve never fancied the idea of skinny dipping but I would like to return there one day to give it a go. Early in the morning perhaps, when no one else is about. Look out Sydney, Matt Loves Cameras is coming back soon and he’s baring all!
Eventually we got to the red and white Hornby Lighthouse at the entrance to Sydney Harbour. The bright colours of the lighthouse were perfect against the backdrop of the deep blue sky.
All of the TC-1 shots in this issue are from my Adox Color Mission roll. Wow, what a great film, I’d forgotten how good it was. Not a perfect film, but I do love it.
One word of warning - don’t get too close to the edge of the cliff out at Hornby Lighthouse… it’s a long way down and you probably won’t stick the landing.
As we headed back to the city to collect our bags and head to the airport, my daughter was insistent on one last visit to the shops to buy a new Fjällräven Kanken backpack.
As we walked up George Street, the afternoon sunlight was streaming through a gap in the buildings, illuminating the trees. The family forged ahead determined to get to the shops while I languished behind fumbling with cameras - and looking at the shot above, I’m glad I did.
What’s so good about the TC-1?
The TC-1 is a stunning little camera. Here’s what I love about it:
you can set the film speed as well as exposure compensation
it has both autofocus and manual focus
it remembers your flash settings
as one of the smallest 35mm cameras ever made, it’s a marvel of engineering
unlike some other P&S, it has a responsive shutter button (interesting side note -Bill Thoo told me he thinks it’s too responsive).
Here’s what’s not to love:
the viewfinder is pretty small (but it’s usable)
there’s only 4 apertures to choose from (it has perfectly round aperture blades)
my battery door keeps opening (a small amount of clear sticky tape has done the trick for now)
many TC-1’s develop a light leak (mine has not, touch wood).
Is the TC-1 as good as the Contax T3?
Yes and no. It has better features for sure, but despite that, that Contax Zeiss lens has the edge with a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’. Dollar for dollar though - assuming it doesn’t have a light leak - you’d be a fool not to choose the TC-1.
How many cameras for a trip to Sydney?
Ask any photographer and they will tell you that deciding on which cameras to take on holiday is either the best part or the worst part of the trip.
My trip to Sydney was no different. I was chopping and changing my kit until the moment when I couldn’t put off loading everything in the car and heading to the airport. As well as the TC-1, here’s what I ended up taking:
Contax TVSii - This was a make or break trip to see if I am going to keep the TVSii. I’m not.
Fujifilm Natura Black - one of my favourite point and shoots.
Lomography Oktomat - this bright toy camera has given me over 650k views on TikTok and Instagram. I figured it deserved an outing.
Fujifilm X100V - almost forgot I owned this beauty until its recent popularity surge made me find it and put it back in rotation.
Fujifilm X-T5 with 50-140mm lens - new X series body for travel photography.
Fujifilm FinePix 6800Z - vintage digicam - this model was the first digital camera I ever owned. Sadly it never took a shot on the trip as I was out with it and didn’t realise the battery was dead.
Film was a mix of Kodak Color Plus 200, Fujifilm Superia 400, Kodak Ektar, CineStill 400D, Adox Color Mission, and a roll of Fujifilm Acros (the OG version).
We made a lot of memories in Sydney - from high tea in the Queen Victoria Building to swimming in the heated rooftop hotel pool as the rain came down. By chance, we were also in town for a spectacular light show - 600 drones flew above the harbour forming the shapes of different Australian animals.
Sydney on film video coming soon
Coming up soon on my Matt Loves Cameras YouTube channel is a video featuring all of the highlights of Sydney on film.
2023 goals
The Sydney trip also aligned with 2 of my photography goals for 2023:
balance film and digital
do more travel photography.
You can find out more about my 2023 goals in this interview with my good friend Lucy Lumen:
Newsletter poll
Meeting the Pixels and Grain crew
On one of the rainy days in Sydney I had the pleasure of meeting some photographer friends. Some of these guys I’ve been speaking to for 4 or 5 years, so it was such a buzz to meet them.
The weather was not on our side, but we spent a pleasant 2 hours in a cafe at Circular Quay geeking out about photography. I can’t remember all the cameras that were on display but I do remember Colin’s Xpan and Theo’s Mamiya 7 with 35mm pano adapter.
From left to right in the photo below we have Colin, Alan, Theo, Adam and JM. Special thanks to Alan for his kind gift of 2 rolls of film. Sadly, the man, the legend, Bill Thoo had been knocked down by a bout of Covid 19. Hopefully next time we’ll meet Bill!
Next week: Canberra with the Fujifilm X100V
That’s it for Issue 1, I hope you enjoyed it. In Issue 2 I’ll be bringing you some thoughts on shooting JPGs with the Fujifilm X100V in Australia’s capital city, Canberra.
Great read! Looking forward to the next one!
yay!! excited to see you on Substack!