365cameras.com

I found a very nice photography site, www.suaudeau.eu. The only stumbling point for me is that it’s in French. My knowledge of French is not so good. Wait a minute. Don’t leave yet. Google makes it easy to see a translated copy of a site.

The translated www.suaudeau.eu home page.

There is some really excellent content here, such as this guide to Minolta cameras

That page has individual pages for particular Minolta models. It has history of Minolta SLR and rangefinder cameras. It also has repair tips, lens disassembly instructions, and finder changing instructions for the SRT 101.

The histories are excellent. I like the Minolta Manual SLR history.

Check out these Camera, Shutter and Flash Service Manuals
There are service or user manuals for Leica 2M, Leica 3f, Minolta Himatic 7Sii, Minolta XD-11, Minolta X-700, Minolta X300, Minolta X500, Minolta XE, Minolta 360XP, Minolta SRT 101, Nikon F3, Compur, Pentax K1000, Pentax Spotmatic, Pentax Spotmatic II, Canon EF, Canon EOS 30, Canon EOS 500, Canon F1, Canon Canonet GIII QL 17, Obturateur Prontor 1, Obturateur Prontor 2, Olympus XA, Yashica D, Yashica Mat 124 G, Yashica Electro 35
The caveat is that not all of the manuals have English translations in them.

Along with the manuals, there is a very nice Repair page

This site is well worth checking out, especially for the service manuals and repair section. If you’re a Minolta person especially, there is some great stuff here. Highly recommended.

Please note that if google comes back and says a page is too big to translate, such as the manuals, then just view the page without the translator. Most of the links I provided are for the translations by google.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I want to make sure that I track good camera repair people so I list them here.

I have seen many posts referring to the repairs made by John Titterington on Minolta cameras. Though he apparently repairs several brands.

I don’t know him. I haven’t used him, but I haven’t seen anything negative about him. And most importantly, he restores Minolta cameras.

So, if you need a repair to a camera, you might check him out.

Also, here is a link to his auctions of restored cameras on ebay. He usually has some nice looking cameras there.

John Titterington’s Cameras on Ebay

Here’s a copy of his blurb on ebay:

John Titterington has been repairing and selling fine photographic equipment in the Kansas City area since 1976. He specializes in refurbishing older Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax single lens reflex cameras.

If you are interested in getting your camera repaired you can reach him at J T Camera@aol.com

For more posts like this one on camera repair and camera repair people, click here

I ran across this 3 part video talking about how to become a sports photographer and almost ignored it because I’m not really into sports photography. That would have been a mistake. This is a good video.

Before you get too excited, this does not go into great detail about becoming a sports photographer, but it has some good general information.

First, here’s a pro photographer, Harry How, who works for Getty Images. He talks about becoming a professional sports photographer. He gives a little of his background, talks a little about portfolios and the advantages of coming up in the digital photography age. Then he moves on to give lens recommendations for the professional sports photographer. He caps it off with a tour through his camera bag.

Along the way, he gives some tips for shooting basketball games and hockey goals. He shows how he uses the monopod and what to look for when buying a monopod. He also shows how he secures his photography equipment for flight and when it is unattended.

All in all, this was worth the time to watch it.

For those of you that would rather see the list than watch the video, he carries:
Think Tank bag
Velbon Monopod
Laptop Computer
UDMA Card Reader

Here is his Canon equipment list:
Canon EOS 1DS Mark III (x2)
Canon 400 f2.8
Canon 300 2.8
Canon 70-200 f2.8
Canon 24-70
Canon 16-35 f2.8
Canon 15 fisheye
Canon 580EX
Canon EF 1.4x Extender

Here are the Nikon equivalents:
Nikon D3X (x2)
Nikon 400 f2.8
Nikon 300 2.8
Nikon 70-200 f2.8
Nikon 24-70 f2.8
Nikon 17-35 f2.8
Nikon 16 fisheye
Nikon SB-900
Nikon TC-14E Teleconverter

But do yourself a favor and watch the video anyway.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3