I’ve had this camera sitting in my basement for years. I’m not even sure anymore when someone handed it off to me. The thing is, when you mess around with film photography, everyone gives you their old camera stuff. I’ve inherited at least 5 film cameras. Some which were no good, one I love and shoot with often, and another that I still need to test out.

This camera came from my grandpa on my mom’s side. I have so many fond memories with my grandparents and they’re super special to me, though they’ve both now passed away. I always remember my grandpa taking pictures. I’d say 95 percent of the family trips we took growing up were with my grandparents. They took me to Israel, Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico, Washington D.C… I was able to see a lot more of the world as a child because of them.

After a trip, my grandpa would ask everyone to gather in the living room to watch his film slides, lol. Looking back, it was pretty boring at the time but I appreciate this now.

Fast forward to now and I’ve got this Konica Autoreflex A1000. As we were packing to move from Indianapolis to Tempe, I went through all my old stuff and found this guy. I decided to shoot a roll with it before we left to see if it still worked. The film advance lever sticks, the light meter doesn’t work and the batteries for it don’t work either. But I went ahead and shot with it manually on (I believe) a roll of Kodak Ultra Max 400.

I took the film to Roberts Camera to be developed and scanned. When I got the scans back, I was super impressed many of them turned out nicely. I was also really impressed I got my settings/exposures correct without any help from technology. Below are a few of my favorite shots from this camera. My kiddos in the backyard.

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