I have come to realize how old our house was; reflecting upon the various vintage stuff that we were able to unearth AND bring back to life again.

Old, but not in a bad way.  I was actually surprised how well preserved these finds are, as all that were needed were new batteries (assuming that the required battery model is still in production up until now) and some cleaning, and everything works like new again... so to speak.

1) Minolta SR-T 201

Matanda pa 'yan sa akin.

This film SLR was actually my lolo's camera, passed on to his youngest son, then to my cousin, then to my sister and me. The first shots of this camera from us were taken by my sister, and during that time we were all reacquainting ourselves with film again, thus our n00b blunders while trying to work this thing.

Then came my interest in pursuing film photography.  Since the Minolta was the only working film camera in our house that time, my practice shots were mostly done on this camera.  I've tried color negatives, cross-processing, and even red-scaling on this one.

Only until recently I was able to discover how to work the zoom on the lenses.  Unfortunately, my discovery put significant stress on this old camera... suffice to say, I accidentally broke the lens.  The barrel came out of the mount, and mechanical camera pieces came out of the barrel.  I was able to put things back together decently, but unfortunately wasn't able to make the zoom work again.  Luckily, things were put back into order during my recent trip to Hidalgo.  The damage was 800 PhP, but at least I now am able to use Minolta like new again.

2) Yashica MG-1

Yes, this one's STILL older than me.

This film rangefinder belongs to my dad naman.  I vaguely recall my mom bringing this out from the proverbial baul, when she noticed my sudden interest in film photography.  Back then I was only interested in SLRs, so I really didn't take any notice on this one.  Only when my sister showed this to me again did I realize that this may indeed be a worthy treasure.  300 PhP to the Hidalgo camera cleaners, and this one sparkled like new again.

We just loaded a roll of film (36 exp) last weekend, which still hasn't been used up.  The split-screen focus on the viewfinder is proving itself to be a challenge.  I will update you with the pictures... if any good ones get developed, hehe.

3) Pop Swatch Star Parade - PWB168

Children of the 80's unite!

This watch was my sister's, given to her by our relatives living in the States.  According to the website I found, this model was released in the 1992 Spring Summer Collection... finally, a vintage find that isn't older than me!  The plastic mold that holds the watch face isn't as flexible as it was before, but the watch still works.  All it needed was a battery replacement (150 PhP in Swatch Kiosk - Mall of Asia), and some cleaning on the contact points on the battery, and voila, you can tell time with vintage style.  You gotta love these Swiss watches.

... So, what's my next vintage project?

You can't get any more vintage than THIS.

I've been eyeing the vinyl records being kept in the cassette-tape player-recorder-slash-am-fm-radio-slash-phonograph, which is currently being used as a makeshift computer table (tsk, tsk, talk about disrespect to the classics).

Phonograph, pare.  Old school to the max.  The name in the component says National AM/FM Stereo Cassette System Royce SE-70, but I am unable to find such model in the internet (not even in Google images).

Just imagining being able to work this thing - placing the needles on the vinyl records, experiencing analog sound quality, complete with the faint rustle of the needle being in contact with the record... sigh, I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it.

I'm just wondering how much it would cost me to revive this thing.  Hope it wouldn't cost that much.