I spent several years shooting mostly digital and finally realized that I've actually missed my beloved Zenit SLR. It was beginning of 2003 when I decided to try the film again. At the time we have been in the USA for several month and the budget was really tight. So I made my choice of (1) the cheapest and (2) reliable mechanical SLR system with good optics. Minolta was close enough to Zenit (much better though) and durt cheap. I picked Minolta SRT MCII on Ebay. It cost me virtually nothing. They are not just cheap but also extremely good. The lenses are also very good, most of them, even the oldies.
You can find a good description of old Minolta cameras on "Rokkor Files" site:
Rokkor Files
I started with Minolta SRT MCII, but the cameras were so cheap and so good...I am not a camera collector, but I have now:
- Minolta SRT Super
- Minolta SRT MCII
- Minolta SRT 200
- Minolta XE-7
- Minolta X570
- Minolta X500
I also have fixed focals in 28mm-200mm range (28,35,45,50,55,58,135,200mm) and 35-50mm zoom. All lenses are Minolta's Rokkors (there are many third party lenses for manual Minolta, but Rokkors are better in most cases).
Not all the cameras were working when I bought them. In case of problem which I could not fix myself I send them for the repair and CLA to Garry Airapetov. His service was always been prompt, inexpensive and the quality is very good. He is offering low flat rate and 90 days warranty, here is his site:
Garry's Camera
I mostly use X570 with motor winder installed. XE-7 has quiet shutter, I often use it for street photography. Older full-manual SRT series Minoltas are perfect for my experiments with homebread soft lenses (see the next box named "Experimental Ground"). They are also proven to be perfect backup cameras.
