Minolta α Sweet
Most of my gear pages I simply complain about my gears. There are enough of reviews out there praising these cameras so I figured I can focus on ranting about them.
I had never wanted an SLR. When most of people flock towards either Leica or the film-esque full metal SLRs, I was mostly trying out cheap rangefinders.
But then both film and camera price began to rise, these dirt cheap fully automatic film SLRs, while lacking in style, are far surpassing their mechanical counterparts in versatility, reliability and functionality.
I was just randomly browsing for some cheap 90s SLR after learning that the latest thing Internet is "influencing" people to do bring precisely that. This kit, coming with the SLR itself, two color matching kit third-party lenses and a carrying bag from yet another vendor caught my attention.
When I put the battery in and tried shooting with this camera for three first time, I was blown away as everything just work. I didn't have to worry about some part being half broken or hidden flaws intentionally omitted by the seller in the listing.
The plastic construction is very light but doesn't feel flimsy, I can entrust this light tight box to safely capture and deliver the images.
I brought the camera to several outings and didn't have to sweat about anything. If I took a shot then I'll get the shot, no out of focus or motion blurred mess that I get from other, older cameras.
It can even meter for infrared without the need for any exposure compensation! Lenses have marking for focusing infrared so I simply needed to focus for normal light then shift a bit for infrared.
Unfortunately, there was still slight movement on the camera when switching between different filters and rotating the focusing ring for infrared trichrome. A sturdier tripod and cable release may be useful. This camera relies on proprietary electronic cable release that needs to be bought separately.
Like Fujifilm XT-20 I have little to complain about this camera. It provides all the features I wanted and I entrust it to handle some important shoots, such as my sister's graduation photos or photo shoot for my dog during a hike.
As of December 2022 they are still cheap and abundant on the online market. With so little traffic on my website, I doubt any of my complements above will inflate the price of this camera.
Unless you want to get a copy of your own now…
