My Minolta, Some P33 & The Beach

My wife and I took our dog Jazz on a mini-vacation earlier this month. We headed about an hour and half west to the small town of Dillon Beach, CA and spent a few nights at a little resort made up of tiny houses near the beach. Jazz loves the water and I will use any excuse to get back to the Pacific which I miss so much since moving inland five years ago.

I brought two cameras with me, my Fujifim X-T1 digital and my Minolta X-700 film SLR. Since I could shoot color in the digital camera, I brought some Ferrania P33 black and white film along for the Minolta. I reviewed the X-700 in depth back in 2018 here, so I won’t go into a detailed review again, but I really had forgotten how much fun the Minolta is to use and what good results it delivers.

This is only my second or third roll of P33, but I will say that I am slowly falling in love with this creamy, dreamy film that has such a unique cinematic look to it. P33 has an ISO of 160, but I set my camera to ISO 125.

Dillon Beach sits right at the mouth of Tomales Bay. The Pacific Ocean is to the right in the photo below. The tip of Point Reyes is to the left. Point Reyes is protected as a National Seashore.

Sleepy Jazz after a day in the surf and sand…and after a bath.

I have to admit that when I travel, I am often reluctant to bring along one of my more expensive film cameras, but I never worry about throwing the X-700 in my overnight bag. Even with its plastic exterior, the X-700 continues to look good and operate as-designed in spite of its mileage.

I like this Italian film so much, I just ordered some more and want to continue to explore its possibilities. As for the weekend in the tiny house, it was quite lovely. We walked the beach by day, watched the sun set sipping Sonoma County wine and Point Reyes Pierce Point cheese and drifted off to sleep to the sounds of the surf.

Jazz liked it too.