There are a lot of cameras that do a lot of the same things but every so often there has been a camera that sets itself apart. The Minolta Freedom Vista is one of the latter. Its 24mm f4.5 five element lens is pretty unique in a point and shoot but its fixed panoramic format is the key thing that makes it different. With the permanent nature of the panoramic mode it made it possible for Minolta to also make the viewfinder permanently panoramic. This makes the camera great for this one specific use, composing wide aspect images. I also like that it easily slips into a pocket giving you no reason not to have one on you.
One thing about one camera: While the Freedom Vista can read DX codes it has a severe limitation. Any film below 400 ISO is set to 100 and any film 400 and above is set to 400.
When I was in Lethbridge briefly during the winter of 2018 I managed to shoot quite a few rolls of different film despite it being bitterly cold. Like the sort of cold where I know people were looking at my from their warm vehicles thinking or saying what is that idiot doing out there in -35degrees. I kept my cameras in pockets or close to my body and it was fine thanks for your concern. One thing I didn’t do though is mark what camera I used with each roll leaving it as a bit of a guessing game. For this one I know it was a point and shoot and it looks like it had a limited zoom range so that makes the most likely candidate my Canon Z90w. I do however know that the film was Agfa Vista 200 and once again it proves to be a great film with accurate colours. The camera and the film together performed well in the challenging conditions of bright snow.
Regrettably Agfa Vista 200 is no longer available from any of the major film sellers (I’ve checked) so sadly that’s one less colour negative film in the world.
If you shoot with older simple film cameras your bound to come across ones that require zone focusing. A simple explanation of zone focusing is that you preset the focus of a lens prior to taking a picture using a distance scale. The scale can be as complex as distance values cross referenced to aperturesor as simple as a few icons on the lens barrel.One of the key things about zone focus cameras though is that they don’t provide a focus aid like a rangefinder or SLR. You can however choose to zone focus with those types of cameras if it suits your needs (We can cover that in a bit).
Zone focus cameras are simpler than other cameras and tend to be cheaper because of it but there are certain instances where they can be the right tool. If you know that some action you want to capture is going to take place at a certain distance in front of you, presetting the focus is a great way to ensure your not fiddling around focusing and end up missing it. Many street photographers have used this method no matter which camera they use. The drawback of zone focusing is the lack of precision of what is in sharp focus. That’s where the ‘zone’ in zone focusing comes in. When you focus with a camera there is a certain amount of distance in front and behind that plane that can be considered to be in focus. We refer to that as the depth of field. The depth of field increases as you stop down the aperture of the lens making that zone of acceptable focus larger.
Focus at 6ft aperture at f16
In the above example the lens is focused at 6ft and the aperture is set to f16 giving a range of acceptable focus of around 3.5ft to 22ft
Focus at 6ft aperture at f5.6
Now if we set the aperture to f5.6 leaving the focus at 6 feet we only have a range of acceptable focus of around 5 to 8 feet which is a lot less and harder to ensure good results with.
This is the principle behind zone focusing. You set the focus to a distance and count on the depth of field to provide a sufficient range for the subject.
So what you are unlikely to be able to achieve, without effort and luck, using zone focusing is shallow depth of field where the subject stands out from a smooth out of focus background. What you gain is its not necessary to focus at the moment of exposure as you have already done that.
Another issue with zone focusing is that as the subject is closer and closer to the camera depth of field decreases making accuracy harder. I’ve created this little animation to show the change in depth of field of a 50mm lens as the aperture is decreased. I’ve done this for two focus distances 2m and 3m.
Effect of aperture and focus distance on depth of field
You can see that the depth of field goes from about 10cm to 3m when the focus is at 2m and from 30cm to 15m when its set to 3m. The implication of this is that its best to use zone focusing for subjects that are a little further from the camera. Focal length plays a role as well that’s why I’ve used a 50mm lens in this example for simplicity.
