Minolta α 303si Super
Film SLRs from the 1990s are big chunks of plastics—a far cry from their full-metal mechanical predecessors. Being the pinnacles of film photography with amazing auto-focus abilities, they are surprisingly cheap. Dirt cheap.
In the middle of 2022 I learned about the plastic automatic film SLRs that are superior to their fully mechanical brothers. If I know it, then everyone knows it, and I had to grab a couple copies before the price become unreasonably hyperinflated by celebrities like the Contax T2.
To be honest, I'd be thrilled if a celebrity happens to use the same model of camera that I already own, but not so much otherwise as that'd put some more fine cameras out of my reach, financially…
Except, well, no celebrity is going to use these SLRs. We are good for now.
Back to the point that they are superior and dirt cheap —these are really cheap, like for free cheap. At one point I wanted to get a copy of Minolta AF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens that can serve as a all-purpose travel photography lens. This lens has 2 variants, the xi one with power zoom and non-xi with normal twist zoom action.
I decided I don't like the xi version although I have already ordered one, so I went and look for a non-xi one. They definitely exist in the second hand market albeit a bit harder to find. And I saw this listing of Minolta α 303si Super coming with the lens.
Usually, the 90s film SLRs come with a kit lens, or sometimes like this one, a Minolta AF 28-105mm. Because these SLRs are so cheap and abundant (they are younger than 30 years old so many are still functional), sellers just slap a lens on and sell them as a bundle to get rid of the cameras.
And I am lucky to get the lens and the camera for the price of just the lens.
At that time I didn't know that this camera was released to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Minolta Alpha series on 1995. The first Alpha camera was the Minolta α 7000. Yeah somehow they counted backward, rather confusing.
OK, free camera! Might as well! For a 10-year anniversary camera, this camera is rather lacking in both style and function. The α Sweet has additional eye-start AF feature where looking into the viewfinder activates autofocus.
To be fair, α 303si Super is lightweight and in very easy to use. Plus the fact that I got it almost for free made me feel easier using the camera, not worrying about breakage or having too much expectations.
One day I went shooting sunset and decided to put α 303si Super to test. Like α Sweet this camera does everything I wanted it to do. Even at the longest focal length of the Minolta AF 100-300mm xi f/4.5-5.6, the power zoom and AF worked like a charm.
Except…at 300mm it's not possible to just shoot handheld. Below are some photos that I like, especially the sunset as it was taken at 300mm handheld.
To be honest, the handling of the features of this camera has little to be desired. But that's when compared to many SLRs of the same era. Compared to the crappy rangefinders and mechanical SLRs from an earlier time, this camera holds up itself very well at a unbeatable price point.
Put an all-purpose 28-105mm on for no more than $200 HKD and one can happily take it out for somee travel or street photography with easily happy results.
