1.6s, f/22, ISO 100
It had been years since I last visited the antique camera store in a faraway suburb. But even then it seemed that little had changed. At that time I would never have ventured into using these old cameras, choosing instead to stick to a small digital point-and-shoot. But over the last few years the appeal of such cameras has become more obvious.
For the most part, it made photography a thoughtful process once again. With a manual-everything camera and no means of checking the result immediately on an LCD screen, it forced me to think carefully before making a photo.
The MSX 500 is a mechanical SLR that was produced by Mamiya sometime back in 1974. The battery is used only to power the match-needle meter and the shutter is fully functional without a battery. As the name indicates, 1/500th of a second was the fastest selectable shutter speed. It is an M42-mount camera featuring TTL spot metering only, and a flash sync speed of 1/60s. This makes it a very basic camera with few of the features that we see on most modern cameras.
A table lamp was used as a constant light source towards the top of the scene. A flash was fired manually through a diffuser while exposure was in progress. This was done to give some form to the camera and create highlights in the lens.