Norway and the Christmas Camera

A trip to Europe has been a bucket list item for my wife and myself for many years, but thanks to the encouragement and insistence of my younger daughter, Amber, we finally made it across the Atlantic Ocean in late December, 2017. Our destination was Bryggen, Norway. I would not be honest if I said I wasn't nervous about going to such a northernly location around Christmas, as I am not a cold weather person at all. However, our clothing preparation helped make the experience quite tolerable, as did the fact that, for the duration of our stay, Bryggen was quite a bit warmer than my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

As we prepared for our trip, I also gave a lot of thought as to what cameras I should bring. I already had made the decision to shoot film - a risk, given the fact that I might never make it back to Norway, and that this could well be my one photographic shot (pun intended). There were some issues to consider, such as weight (we were not checking luggage, so the entirety of our belongings had to fit in backpacks, including camera gear), airport security (like keeping the film safe from X-rays), versatility (lenses, film, etc.), and reliability (my film cameras are between thirty and forty years old).

Eventually, I chose my two Nikon bodies, an FE and an FM2n. For lenses I chose two Nikkors, a 50mm 1.7 and a 105mm 2.8, and also a Vivitar 28mm 2.8. The FM2n would be loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 b&w film, while the FE would get Kodak Gold 200 color film.

And then, just days before our departure,  came the family Christmas celebration. And as I unwrapped the present from my brother, Kelley, I saw it: a beautiful, clean, handsome Minolta 7s rangefinder.

I have always been partial to Minoltas, and I have owned and used several of their SLR's. But lately I had been desiring a rangefinder, and obviously, my brother had been listening to me talk about this one wishfully. I immediately wanted to use it, but we were leaving for New York City the next day to begin our journey to Norway. What to do?

I made the quick decision to leave the FE behind and take the 7s in it's place. After all, I already was risking it shooting film on such a monumental trip. Why not throw all caution to the wind and take an untested camera along. My one comforting thought was that the FM2n is a fully mechanical camera, and should the electronics fail, I could still shoot it.

That line of thinking later proved to be quite ironic.

We stayed with our daughter in Brooklyn for a couple of days waiting for our flight to Norway. I took the FM2n out and did some street shooting on Christmas Day. Everything seemed fine, and later when I developed and scanned that roll of Tri-X, I was quite pleased with the results.

However, the first time I took the FM2n out in Bryggen, it let me down. The film advance would not stop after a frame, and then it wouldn't advance at all. As I had no way to fix it until I got it home, back into the backpack it went, and out came the 7s, loaded with color film. The camera has a working meter on it, but the light in Norway is so strange (the sun never gets very high in late December) that I ended up bracketing everything. Nevertheless, after developing and scanning, I had some shots of which I was quite proud. The old Minolta 7s came through.

Being in Norway was an incredible experience, partially because it was my first time being somewhere other than the USA, but mainly because the natural beauty is stunning and the city of Bryggen is clean, efficient, historical, and charming. There was no shortage of things at which to point your camera lens. Although I want to visit many other places in Europe, I really hope I can return to Norway someday. It was truly magical.

Once I returned home I was able to repair the FM2n myself (don't ask me how), and now it's back to being its old reliable self again. But my Minolta 7s will always be the Christmas gifts that allowed me to bring back a little of Norway with me.