Dental Eye III & II

It's still hard for me to believe that there are these niche markets that make a specialized camera worth the trouble, but I first ran across one when I was doing some computer work in an EYE clinic.

Yashica may have focused on dentists, but Minolta had their eye on ophthalmologists.

The XD-11 MEDICAL is a modified XD-11 (model d) that was designed only for use with an electronic flash. As a result, many features were removed since they were not needed. First, it only had a single shutter speed -- X. It has the shutter speed dial, but it is locked in place and has only the one marked speed. Similarly, since the exposure is set by the flash, the camera lacks the film ISO setting, the exposure modes settings, a meter, metering viewfinder information, and the exposure compensation adjuster. Very popular with ophthalmologists.

They used the camera to take pictures of the cells at the back of the retina. The doctor would evaluate the prints for deterioration -- macular degeneration, etc. I ended up getting involved because the prints that they got -- from a local photo lab -- were so low contrast that they were pretty much useless. All I did was print them on high contrast paper -- and everyone thought I was some sort of magician!