Minolta Mistakes

(As I mentioned a few days ago) I went to North Street to shoot a certain building in really good light. I had a roll of Tri-X in my Minolta X-700 that had a few previous shots on it. Unfortunately my meter started to go haywire - is was telling me everything was too bright to shoot - then it would plunge down to normal levels for a second. I usually shoot in aperture priority mode(and use the exposure compensation dial for adjustments) with the X-700 but I switched to full manual and took meter reading with my Canon 7D. This happened to me a few months ago when I was in NYC but I switched the battery and it worked fine until now. Well, when I pulled the film off the development reel to let it dry I knew there were some issues beyond just poor metering. The last part of the roll didn't take to the reel quite right and 5 shots were ruined, the early part of the roll had some spots that looked like light leaks, and the middle part of the roll was mostly over-exposed. I was amazed by how many ways I had messed this up.

I'm thinking that I might retire my well used X-700 because I have another one on the shelf. I'm going to test it out later today with some batteries and if all looks good replace the light seals when I get the chance. This will be my fifth Minolta to become my primary analogue shooter - my first 35mm camera was a Minolta XG1 that died with a roll in it. Then I used an SR-T101 whose meter died and an X-570 whose shutter failed. With the exception of the XG1(which my parents bought new) the other camera only cost me a few bucks each - so I was sadder for the wasted shots than for the actual cameras.... now my dead Nikon F3...thats another story. This was one of the shots that was a few stops over-exposed - I brought it down a bit in Photoshop. 'Shapes and Ice' - this is all about the shapes ....and ice. Fill in the blanks. The Mustill Store from across the Canal. Something about black and white film particularly in the Winter seems to add an extra level of a vintage vibe to a image. My first shot on the roll - and one of the few that wasn't over-exposed. I used to pass this barn when I was a kid visiting friends who lived in the Sanctuary neighborhood in Bath, I always thought it was cool and I remember it being perfectly maintained back then. Anyways, I was on my way home from Montrose one night and the light was good - I stopped and snapped this from my car. 'Wire Mesh Study #2' - channeling early Paul Strand?
I wonder what these wood domes were. This is one of the other well exposed shots on the roll - I think it shows that it didn't need a bunch of digital adjustments. The idea that brought me to this area was a head on shot of this building - all of those were ruined in my failure to spool the negatives on the development reel right. I think that I might head back and take it with the big Fuji on some TMax 100 - when the light returns...