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Minolta

The classic Japanese manufacturer.

Lens 11/08 2014

Minolta 100mm f/2

This was one of the best lenses I ever owned and one of the ones I loved most. I bought it cheaply used and immediately fell in love. Like several other of the beer can style lenses from Minolta in that era it was optically and mechanically on par with the best. It was bright, had fast AF and a sharpness and bokeh to die for. My only grudge was the flimsy focus ring that was one of the unfortunate hallmarks of these lenses. The 100mm f/2 was sadly stolen out of my luggage on return trip from Belize.
Gear 11/09 2013

Minolta HS5600 Flash

My first really intelligent flash. It had full integration with the late AF-bodies, very clever wireless control built-in and lots of power.
Gear 11/09 2013

Minolta Lightmeter II

A fantastic light meter that I purchased back when few cameras had light meters and even fewer had anything called Auto. Still works like a charm, mechanics and everything.
Lens 11/09 2013

Minolta 24mm f/2.8

The first wideangle I owned, and a real gem: wide, sharp, good colors and built to last. The mechanics were world class and the optical quality followed close troop. It started my still lasting love for wideangle lenses.
Lens 10/09 2013

Minolta 35mm f/2.8 MD

I had this manual lens as one of the first ones for my Minolta bodies and remember its very good mechanical construction and oh so smooth focusing.
Lens 08/09 2013

Minolta 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6

A kit lens of the heyday. An excellent lens when it comes to AF speed and image quality, but not that bright. The mechanical construction is absolutely OK considering the typical low price level of these lenses.
Lens 06/09 2013

Minolta 70-210mm f/4

The so called beer can lens from Minolta, a really excellent midrange zoom with a stunning optical quality and a very good mechanical ditto
Camera 05/09 2013

Minolta 7

A totally fantastic camera! Definitely the best camera experience of my life. Not necessarily the best camera - even though it was darn good - but the feeling, the layout, the features, the performance. On par with the best. Minolta never really broke through on the pro market even though this camera and its successor/big brother, the Dynax 9, were both worthy of any pro photographer.
Camera 05/09 2013

Minolta 7D

My first digital SLR and easily on par with the fantastic Minolta 7 when it came to build and user interface, and an amazing camera at the time, but not quite able to keep up with the rapid development of digital cameras. With 6 megapixels from one of the first generation cropped format sensors, the resolution and in particular the high ISO performance wasn't impressing, and the camera soon lost ground to newer models offered by both Canon, Nikon and Sony who took over the Konica/Minolta camera production.
Camera 05/09 2013

Minolta XG9

I buy this body as a replacement for my second XM, which brakes down with a shutter error. It has automatic exposure and small digital numbers in the viewfinder and lots of neat, modern facilities, but not the charm and ruggedness of the XM, and it's dependent on a battery with only one shutter speed working when there's no power.

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