Ah nostalgia, it’s a strange thing and forms a part of every one’s life and the older one gets the more the past seems so rose tinted. My first Digital SLR was a Konica Minolta 7D, bought in 2005 and which I had almost forgotten, but a click here and there lead me to DPReview and the KM Talk Forum, then a thought formed in my mind; why not buy one and use it today?
In 1973, the year of the Minolta XM’s launch, Minolta had been serving the consumer market very successfully for several years with the SR-T . There, it was a hard-to-beat queen. In total, about 3.6 million cameras of the SR-T series were sold. The SR-T was a cash cow for Minolta. Despite different versions and further developments, it was basically always the same camera. virtues of extreme robustness, high reliability and simple operation, were important to millions of photographers. No matter what the condition, an SR-T can almost always be triggered, and reliably. It and the outstanding Rokkor lenses were the basis for the success of the Minolta brand, which lasted for a good three decades. Why did Minolta dare to take the risk of entering the pro camp with the XM in 1973?
This is a comparison review of two of Minolta’s last film SLRs, separated by only 3 years and aimed, for the most part at the same audience. These were fully featured SLRs with good photographer-oriented specifications, but built to a budget. They are the Dynax 5 & Dynax 60 (aka α-5 & α-70 / Maxxum 5 & Maxxum 70)
A recent re-associating with the Pentax Spotmatic F had me pondering about some of the other ‘Golden Oldies’ that have been sitting by the skirting board in my living room for a number of years. Often as not a new purchase would actually be an exercise in stripping down and putting back together. A number …
Minolta SRT 101 Review – My Funny Valentine – By Bob Janes Read More
I was given a Minolta X300 for my 21st birthday. It wasn’t my first camera but it was my first SLR, and I’m still using it 35 years later. For 23 years it was virtually all I used until I bought a DSLR but recently I’ve picked it up again and I am enjoying film photography once more.
