I just got a Minox IIIs and shot a roll of Minocolor 100 through it last weekend. Most of the shots were exposed at 1/1000, with the focus set to the hyperfocal setting. Some of the resulting 3 X 5" prints are quite good, but there's more problems than I thought.

There's way more grain than I expected in 3 X 5" prints. How can I improve this? Is the new Minocolor Pro 100 significantly better for grain? Would more accurate exposure help?

Focus/Sharpness isn't great, either. It looks like, on the Minox, infinity is WAY closer than I thought. Closeups focused by "guestimate" at from 1-2 ft. looked pretty good. Near foreground, and moderatly near subjects look fine, but everything else looks like I should have set focus on infinity. Any ideas? Is the "B' lens significantly sharper than the IIIs?

-- Joe Buechler (jbuechler@toad.net), May 15, 1999

Answers

Joe

• Minopro 100 is better than Minocolor.

• You may not need 1/1000 speed, try Minocolor 25 and shoot at sunny condition at 1/250, you will get finer grain and sharper picture.
• Try Minopan 25, sharp film.

• If your main object of interest is far, such as landscape, building, scenics, etc, you should focus Minox at infinity instead of at hyperfocal point, you will get sharper picture. See Hyperfocus or Infinity.

• Learn to focus more acurrately, the more accurate you focus, the sharper the picture.

• Minox B lens is the same COMPLAN lens as IIIs.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), May 15, 1999.

Graininess tends to be reduced by overexposure. There are also other benefits, such as a mild washing away of skin defects and perhaps a better color balance. If you are shooting color film try to get one with the lowest Kodak PGI rating for grain. Currently Royal Gold 100 and PJN-100 or even the tungsten balanced PJT-100 have the best scores. In the black and white arena look for the lowest RMS value. Techpan 25 has the lowest with a 5, and the tmx, tmz have 8 and 10 respectively. The only real answer is to experiment to find out what you like!

-- George Maltezos (George@Maltezos.com), May 16, 1999.