Minolta Maxxum 400si

[Niner]

Got this the other day when I bid $5 on ebay and won for $4 as the opening offer was a buck less than I bid. Nobody but me wanted it and the seller was on his second listing of the same camera. I figured it would be one for the Maxxum collection slot above the 300si that I already had. Tried it out today. Works like new. Easy to operate as the controls are ergonomic and the program Icons are easy to wheel through. Has a built in pop up flash and you can add a flash if you like. Auto focus or manual, ASMP choices. It was made toward the end of the line for Minolta in 1994. It came with a zoom but I have other lenses with a little wider bottom and little narrower top focus. I used the one that came with it today and another with slightly more range.

This is a perfectly fine camera for just taking photos for fun. It gives you whatever you need in the way of control and I had fun playing with it.

[DuncaninFrance]

Good results as you say Robert.
I never took to Minoltas, was always a Canon man until I got my Fuji X-E3.

[Niner]

I like Minolta because as they grew they were heavy into technological research to make photo taking creative while at the same time not needing much technical knowledge on the part of the photographer. The controls were something they seemed to think about to make them as obvious as possible. Whatever they created was simple enough for anyone to pick up a new model and have it understood and working in minutes.

Canon made easy to use cameras too but I think Minolta was more technically pioneering.

Pentax was my first "real" camera and I like some of the models, and others not so much.

I like Nikon least of all of the big names...and most of the small names for that matter. The Nikon cameras are probably the most lorded of the big four but the most difficult to use without having to read the manual to do what in other cameras would be simple but with Nikon is a tribe secret. For instance... a report on the 8008S:

The oddest feature is the rewind. Unlike the other big name camera producers that made cameras which automatically rewound the film at the end of the roll this one has a button for rewind. Only you don't just push the rewind but also, at the same time, you push a ME button on the selector wheel.

[DuncaninFrance]

I think that Nikon overly complicated their cameras and still do. Most members of my club who have Nikons are always trying to find out how various settings are selected.
Good lenses but overly complicated cameras

[Niner]

In digital I like the Sony cameras that I have best.